Louisiana State Penitentiary

==Inmate life==
===Musical culture===
{{Asof|2011}}, several Angola inmates practiced musical skills. The prison administration encourages prisoners to practice music and uses music as a reward for inmates who behave.<ref name="CannonHal">Cannon, Hal. "[https://www.npr.org/2011/08/05/138893837/the-music-of-louisianas-angola-state-penitentiary The Music of Louisiana's Angola State Penitentiary]." ''[[NPR]]''. August 5, 2011. Retrieved on August 15, 2011.</ref>

In the 1930s [[John Lomax]], a [[folklorist]], and [[Alan Lomax]], his son, traveled throughout the U.S. South to document [[African-American musical culture]]. Since prison farms, including Angola, were isolated from general society, the Lomaxes believed that prisons had the purest African-American song culture, as it was not influenced by popular trends. The Lomaxes recorded several songs, which were [[plantation-era songs]] that originated during the slavery era. The Lomaxes met [[Lead Belly]], a famous musician, in Angola.<ref name="CannonHal"/> [[Swamp blues]] musician [[Lightnin' Slim]] also served time in Angola for manslaughter in the 1930s and early 1940s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tomko|first=Gene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ZKzDwAAQBAJ|title=Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=2020|isbn=978-0807169322|location=Baton Rouge|pages=161}}</ref>

From 1968 to 1970, [[WAFB|WAFB-TV]] in Baton Rouge aired a weekly early-morning program, ''Good Morning, Angola Style'', featuring bands made up of Angola inmates. The show was hosted by [[Buckskin Bill Black]], who developed idea for the program after meeting one of the prison's country music bands, The Westernaires, after performing at the 1967 [[Angola Prison Rodeo]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Angola Cons Have Music, Will Travel to Perform|first=Nan|last=Nadler|work=Daily World|location=Opelousas, Louisiana|date=1968-07-25|page=12|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15191261/|access-date=2022-07-21|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=October 11, 2006 |title=Who is "Buckskin" Bill? |language=en |work=WAFB-TV |url=https://www.wafb.com/story/5525752/who-is-buckskin-bill |access-date=2022-07-21}}</ref>

===Sexual slavery===
A 2010 memoir by [[Wilbert Rideau]], an inmate at Angola from 1961 through 2005, states that "slavery was commonplace in Angola with perhaps a quarter of the population in bondage" throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/books/review/Oshinsky-t.html | work=The New York Times | first=David | last=Oshinsky | title=Book Review – In the Place of Justice – By Wilbert Rideau | date=June 11, 2010}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' states that weak inmates served as sex slaves who were raped, gang-raped, and traded and sold like cattle. Rideau stated that "The slave's only way out was to commit suicide, escape or kill his master."<ref name="nytimes.com"/> [[Angola 3|Herman Wallace]] and [[Albert Woodfox]], members of the [[Angola 3]], arrived at Angola in the late 1960s. They became active members of the prison's chapter of the [[Black Panther Party]], where they organized petitions and hunger strikes to protest conditions at the prison and helped new inmates protect themselves from rape and enslavement.<ref>[http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/herman-wallace-angola-3-solitary-confinement], ''Mother Jones'', December 2009</ref> C. Murray Henderson, one of the wardens brought in to clean up the prison, states in one of his memoirs that the systemic sexual slavery was sanctioned and facilitated by the officers.<ref>Butler, Anne, and C. Murray Henderson. ''Dying to Tell''. Center for Louisiana Studies, 1992.</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}

=== Inmate mental health ===
==== Mental health and faith at Angola ====
Louisiana State Penitentiary has been known for their non-traditional mental health interventions. One such initiative is a faith-based prototype program for mental healthcare and [[Mentally ill people in United States jails and prisons|inmate]] rehabilitation known as the Angola Prison Seminary.<ref name=":3" /> This model focuses on introducing inmates to faith and helping them to find value and purpose through it – be that internally or externally through serving as an Inmate Minister. Through this position, inmates are trained to offer counseling to other inmates, deliver sermons at religious services, officiate funerals for fellow prisoners, and deliver care packages to ill inmates. This model proved to be particularly effective in Louisiana State Penitentiary, especially with its "sidewalk counseling" component.<ref name=":3" /> In this type of guidance, the counseling inmate asks leading questions and helps to guide the other inmate to answering their own question, without revealing any type of positionality. This model positively impacted both the counselor and the advisee, as the counselor felt an increased sense of self-worth by helping someone else, and the advisee felt heard and seen, maybe for the first time in his life.<ref name="Routledge">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/956481272 |title=Angola prison seminary : effects of faith-based ministry on identity. |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-30061-8 |location=[Place of publication not identified] |oclc=956481272}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' reported that this program can help inmates feel "at peace with themselves and their lives".<ref name=":3">Eckholm, Erik. "Bible college helps some at Louisiana prison find peace." ''The New York Times'' (2013): 15.</ref> Reports noted that the Bible College behind bars made the prison feel significantly more relaxed than it truly was.<ref name=":3" />

Faith is referenced many times as being a catalyst for positive change in the lives of lots of Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates. Author Mark Baker describes this connection in his book entitled ''You Can Change: Stories from Angola Prison and the Psychology of Personal Transformation''.<ref name=":4" /> Here, Baker discusses how the high rates of reincarceration among Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates serves as an extremely demoralizing and discouraging reminder of the historical and systemic factors that landed them behind bars in the first place.<ref name=":4" /> Given the highly religious background of many of the inmates, who come largely from Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states, faith has proven to be a very strong motivator for many of the inmates in Angola.<ref name=":4" /> Baker discusses how inmates exposed to religious practices while incarcerated often went on to find a higher purpose in themselves and better avoid future reincarceration.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Mark W. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1133125908 |title=You can change : stories from Angola prison and the psychology of personal transformation. |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-5064-5565-5 |location=Minneapolis, MN |oclc=1133125908}}</ref>

This faith-based approach to mental healthcare is also seen in palliative care at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Due to the largely older population of inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary, the prison sees much higher rates of intakes than release as many men pass away while incarcerated.<ref name=":5" /> In partnership with the University Hospital Community Hospice program based out of New Orleans, the Louisiana State Penitentiary has introduced a hospice program for terminally ill inmates.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Evans |first1=Carol |last2=Herzog |first2=Ronda |last3=Tillman |first3=Tanya |date=August 2002 |title=The Louisiana State Penitentiary: Angola Prison Hospice |url=http://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/109662102760269797 |journal=Journal of Palliative Medicine |language=en |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=553–558 |doi=10.1089/109662102760269797 |pmid=12243680 |issn=1096-6218}}</ref> Inmate Ministers are able to assist in counseling with the ill inmates, as well as help them practice faith if they are interested in doing so. As seen with the other responsibilities they were assigned, this serious duty proved beneficial to not only the recipients, but the Inmate Ministers as well.<ref name="Routledge"/>

Though the blend of mental healthcare and faith interventions has been controversial and yielded mixed results in many spaces,<ref>Sullivan, Steve, Jeffrey M. Pyne, Ann M. Cheney, Justin Hunt, Tiffany F. Haynes, and Greer Sullivan. "The pew versus the couch: Relationship between mental health and faith communities and lessons learned from a VA/clergy partnership project." Journal of religion and health 53, no. 4 (2014): 1267-1282.</ref> research like Baker's suggests that it is working positively in Louisiana State Penitentiary. Though it is unclear why, the large role of religion, particularly Christianity, in the Southern United States, could be a major factor in this occurrence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bouchard |first1=Leah M |last2=Kye Price |first2=Sarah |last3=Swan |first3=Laura |date=2020-02-24 |title=The Role of the Contemporary Christian Church in the Rural American South |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.34043/swc.v47i2.100 |journal=Social Work & Christianity |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=47–64 |doi=10.34043/swc.v47i2.100 |s2cid=219677969 |issn=0737-5778}}</ref>

==== Violations of inmate rights ====
In 2021, a federal judge found that the Louisiana State Penitentiary violated the [[Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990|Americans with Disabilities Act]] through its treatment of inmates requiring rehabilitative services.<ref name=":1">Rold, William J. "Federal Judge Finds Unconstitutional Health Care and Violations of Americans with Disabilities Act at Louisiana State Penitentiary; Injunctive Relief to Follow."</ref> The judge, Chief U.S, District Judge [[Shelly Dick|Shelly D. Dick]], ultimately ruled that the Louisiana State Penitentiary had committed a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and concluded her opinion by describing fifteen areas in which the prison was in need of [[injunctive relief]].<ref name=":1" />

=== Inmate organizations ===
Inmate organizations include Angola Men of Integrity, the Lifers Organization, the Angola Drama Club, the Wonders of Joy, the Camp C Concept Club, and the Latin American Cultural Brotherhood.<ref name="Kitchensises"/> Angola is also the only penitentiary in the United States where inmates are allowed to independently run their own churches, a practice founded in the penitentiary's history with slavery, and one looked upon favorably by inmates.<ref name=":2">Hallett, Michael. "Faith at Angola Prison." ''Commonweal'' 144, no. 7 (2017): 10.</ref>

===Angola Rodeo===
{{main|Angola Prison Rodeo}}
On one weekend in April and on every Sunday in October, Angola holds the '''Angola Prison Rodeo'''. On each occasion, thousands of visitors enter the prison complex.<ref name="Timeinprison34"/> Initiated with planning in 1964,<ref name="Kitchensises"/> the rodeo held its first events in 1965.<ref name="RodeoDallas">"[http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/travel/thisweek/stories/DN-angolarodeo_0802tra.ART.State.Edition1.4bb5b19.html "Angola Prison Rodeo in Louisiana"], ''[[The Dallas Morning News]]''. Retrieved on October 22, 2010.</ref> Initially it was held for prisoner recreation, but attracted increasing crowds.

The prison charges admission. Due to the rodeo's popularity, Angola built a 10,000-person stadium to support visitors; it opened in 2000.<ref name="RodeoDallas"/> As part of the prison rodeo,<ref name=McGaughydespite>McGaughy, Lauren. "[http://www.nola.com/living/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2013/04/angola_prison_rodeo_2013.html Despite controversy, Angola Prison Rodeo lends inmates sense of freedom]." ''[[The Times-Picayune]]''. April 20, 2013. Updated April 21, 2013. Retrieved on October 8, 2013.</ref> the prison holds a semiannual Arts and Crafts Festival.<ref>Schrift, p. 257.</ref> In 2010 it started the Angola Prison Horse Sale, also at the time of the rodeo.

===Programs for fathers===
Angola has two programs for fathers who are incarcerated at Angola. Returning Hearts is an event where prisoners may spend up to eight hours with their children in a [[Carnival]]-like celebration. Returning began in 2005; by 2010 a total of 2,500 prisoners had participated in the program. Malachi Dads is a year-long program that uses the Christian Bible as the basis of teaching how to improve a prisoner's parenting skills. Malachi began in 2007; as of 2010 it had 119 men participating.<ref>Jervis, Rick. "[https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-17-prison-dads_N.htm Prison dads learn meaning of 'father']." ''[[USA Today]]''. June 18, 2010. Retrieved on February 3, 2011.</ref> It is based on [[Book of Malachi|Malachi]] 4:6,
"He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers ..."