Prison Place

TELEPHONE DIRECTORY

	Maintain re-accreditation through the American Correctional Association and the Commission on Accreditation which will further LSP's goals to:  (1) Improve LSP's overall operation, programs, and effectiveness, and (2) Maintain and improve credibility with the general public and local community.
	Utilize all available resources to maximize the effectiveness of the LSP mission and programs.
	Improve the ability to recruit, hire and retain high quality, professional managers and staff.
	Research, develop and implement plans to establish, expand, enhance and/or maintain appropriate programs and services.

	Perform a total and systematic review of all programs, policies and procedures--updating and revising as needed.
	Continue to enhance medical and mental health programming.
	Continue to enhance educational programming with special emphasis on literacy.
	Further develop security components of the program.
	Further refine the Performance Planning and Review System for the evaluation of employee job performance to promote productive dialogue between employees and supervisors which will assist employees in providing optimum service to the inmate population.
	Provide a wide array of faith-based services and programs to promote moral rehabilitation.
	Effectively and responsibly utilize technology resources in order to provide selected decision-oriented information needed by LSP Administration to plan, control, and evaluate activities and programs.
	Research and develop new training opportunities for supervisory personnel to better equip them with the essentials of maintaining a high level of professionalism.

VISITING INFORMATION

The Administration of Louisiana State Penitentiary views visiting as a vital aspect of the inmate's rehabilitation process.  This connection to family and friends allows the inmate to make a smooth transition to prison life and help him adapt to society and family life if ever released back into society.

WHO CAN VISIT

Upon his arrival at Angola, an inmate must submit a list of individuals with whom he would like to visit.  Once this list is approved, only the visitors who appear on the inmate's current approved visiting list can visit.  Children under the age of 15 can visit but must be accompanied at all times by an adult listed on the inmate's approved visiting list.

VISITING DAYS/HOURS

Visiting days are Wednesday through Sunday from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.  Visitors should plan their arrival prior to 1:30 p.m. at which time the visiting bus makes its final departure to the visiting  area(s).  Please note that on the rare occasion when there are five Sundays in the month, there is no visiting on that Saturday or Sunday.

LENGTH OF VISIT

Inmates assigned to non-restricted areas are granted a four-hour visiting period on weekdays (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) provided that there is sufficient space and staff availability.  Inmates assigned to restricted areas are granted a two-hour visiting period.  All inmates are granted a two-hour visiting period on Saturday and Sunday.

NUMBER OF VISITORS

An inmate is allowed ten (10) approved visitors plus one (1) religious advisor on his list.  Each visitor on the approved visiting list will be permitted to visit twice a month.

IDENTIFICATION

All approved visitors must have in their possession a picture ID (valid state issued driver's license or state issued ID card obtained through the Department of Motor Vehicles).

OTHER ACCEPTED FORMS OF PICTURED ID

Passport, Military, Law Enforcement, College/University.

Inmate Organizations

Angola Amateur Boxing Association

Provides support for the prison's boxing program and sponsors "fight night," held every few months with boxing teams from other state prisons competing for corrections department championship belts.  The organization has held more belts in all weight classes through its 25-year history than any other prison boxing club in the state.  The organization is a member of the Louisiana Institutional Boxing Association.

Angola Drama Club

A theatrical organization open to the talented and least talented inmates who are willing to work hard and collectively to develop their talents.  The Drama Club performs regularly at Angola's various functions, and some members have traveled outside to perform at events such as the Festival Internationale de Louisiana, the Violence Prevention Conference, universities, churches, youth detention centers, and community centers.    

Angola Jaycees

Creates and supports programs that build today's youth into tomorrow's leaders.  A requirement for membership is the completion of the Leadership Development courses.  This year-long course involves 13 subjects, such as Communications Dynamics, Spiritual Awareness, Leadership Dynamics, Parliamentary Procedures, and Speak-Up (a public speaking class).

Angola Lifers Association

Works diligently politically to attain some type of release mechanism, specifically parole eligibility or executive clemency, for lifers and practical lifers.  The most significant accomplishment to date is their membership in the Louisiana Coalition of Organization for Justice and Penal Reform.  The coalition consists of many penal reform groups, including Louisiana CURE.

Angola Special Civic Project

Focuses on influencing sentencing reform in Louisiana.  Their goal is the enactment of parole eligibility for lifers.  They played a key role behind the enactment of the 20/45 law - a prisoner serving a "number" (a sentence of years, as opposed to life sentence) is eligible for parole after serving 20 years and having reached the age of 45; conducted consortiums on criminal justice, which have included judges, lawmakers, professors and criminal-justice students; and established a viable network with Tulane University's POPS (Project for Older Prisoners) to help elderly prisoners at parole and clemency hearings.   

Association of Literary Arts

Provides the opportunity to excel in the areas of education--specifically creative writing.  The Association's programs consist of a literary writing-skills class and writing workshop.

Camp-J Unity Club

Focuses on the idea "to better ourselves and our area through active participation" through education and self-help programs.  Programs sponsored by the Unity Club are educational classes, a law class, and recreational and religious concessions that help make money to do the things that will improve their area and enhance the programs they sponsor.

Church of God in Christ

Reaches inmates with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hopefully to lead them to salvation and an opportunity for them to reconstruct their lives into something meaningful.  The fellowship achieves its purpose through an active prison hospital ministry, a weekly Bible-study class and weekly worship service, in-house revivals, and as a co-sponsor of the Main Prison Gospel Band.

Concept Club (Camp C)

Supports the camp's inmate population by providing rehabilitative programs in order to prepare the members for return to society as productive, law-abiding citizens.  The secondary goal is to provide physical, spiritual, and moral support to the inmate population at Camp C.  These goals are met through various weekly self-help programs, which include public speaking, substance abuse, youth development, and law classes.  Concept also sponsors several sports teams at the camp.

CPR T.E.A.M.

Teaches others the life-saving skills of CPR so they can help anyone who is having a heart attack.  They have trained or re-certified over 6,000 people, including inmates, security personnel, doctors, nurses, paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, teachers, students, bus drivers, and community and day care center participants.

Dale Carnegie

Trains inmates in a variety of skills pertaining to public speaking, human relationships, personality development, and a little applied psychology.  Recent accomplishments and activities include creating and supporting the Toy Shop (an inmate operation that refurbishes old bicycles and makes an array of wood-carved toys for underprivileged children), donating to elderly prisoner events, and conducting a "Character Counts" program.  Club members also support an adopted orphan through monetary means.  The DC-Lions softball team has won more championships than any other team in the history of organized slow-pitch competition at Angola.

Forgotten Voices

A charter Toastmaster International Club that focuses on leadership and communication skills.  It has won several major speech competitions, received the "Distinguished Club" award four years in a row, had its club newsletter voted in the top ten Toastmaster list worldwide for three consecutive years (1995-1998), and was honored with the 1998-1999 Founders Award.  Whenever given the opportunity, the organization competes with other Toastmaster International Clubs in public-speaking competitions.

Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship Inc.

Serves the general prison population through a nondenominational Christian outreach ministry.  Besides monthly services (which attract close to 200 inmates), the group holds classes for Sunday School, Effective Witnessing, and Kingdom Living.

Horticulture Club

Provides this community with the science or art of cultivating fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants.

Human Relations Club

Provides assistance to the inmate population.  Initially created to pay the cost of clemency advertisements for indigent applicants and to provide assistance to needy inmates, today the club pours much of its resources into providing assistance to the elderly at LSP.

Jehovah Witnesses

Engages in theocratically arranged programs of Bible Study with a view toward attaining a knowledge of Jehovah God and His purpose for humankind.

Latin American Cultural Brotherhood

Provides a home and education base for the Hispanic prison population.  The club-sponsored programs are:  Family development (which provides better interaction between Hispanic and English inmates), Spanish classes for English-speaking inmates, public speaking and leadership-role classes.  The club buys educational materials and donates to other prison activities, including the Senior Citizens Olympics and the Chapel fund.

Louisiana Juvenile & Young Adult Program

Focuses on helping troubled youth.  They have provided personal and financial assistance to organizations such as the Shreveport Juvenile Justice Program, Lafayette Teen Court, and community youth centers in the New Orleans area.  The club currently has two activities for its members:  A Head to Head and Power of Choice workshop, and Character Counts training course.

Men of Integrity

A Christ-centered ministry dedicated to changing the character of men so that they may become godly influences in Angola.

New Hope Group of Alcoholics Anonymous

As an Alcoholics Anonymous structured organization, it provides a 12-Step to Recovery class and personal counseling sessions for those with a serious need.  The organization also sponsors a law class.

Pentecostal Fellowship

Educates and organizes mankind concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Along with the Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship, within the past four years they have constructed and hosted five evangelistic crusades.

Reception Center - Academics & Recreation Club

Focuses on helping the residents of the Reception Center to better themselves educationally, spiritually, and physically.  The club sponsors self-help and religious classes, and a recreational program for trusties who live and work at the Reception Center.  Classes include public speaking, law, substance abuse, and bible studies.

Sober Group of Alcoholics Anonymous

Provides a means for members to maintain sobriety by holding weekly meetings and giving testimonies.  They participate and offer a 12-Step/12-Tradition course, and classes in public speaking, Spiritual-Awareness, and French.

Social Advancement Club

Serves as a means to keep morale up for its members and help them with their needs.  The club has created three sub-clubs that mirror the personality of Camp-F's population:  Elderly Assistance Program, which helps elderly inmates with everyday necessities; Camp-F Lifers, to help provide prisoners with information about new laws that affect them; and Truevine Fellowship, a Bible study and worship program.

Social Orientation Club

Provides the residents of Camp-D an opportunity to better themselves spiritually, mentally, physically and morally.  The group sponsors activities and committees such as Lifers, Vets, Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, Juvenile Awareness, Christian committee, business and law classes, public speaking, and a drama club.

St. John Institutional Baptist Brotherhood

Serves as a means to proclaim the Word of the Lord to win souls into the Kingdom of God, and build an army of young believers who will influence the world that Christ is the answer.  This is the oldest Christian inmate organization at Angola.  The organization sponsors regular church services, Bible classes, youth programs, evangelistic ministry, a floral fund for members to send flowers when a loved one dies, and sponsorship of the St. John Warriors basketball team.

Students of Islam

Focuses on the practices of Islamic teachings and principles.  As much as possible, they observe all Islamic rituals and holidays, hold weekly Jumah services, and Talim classes twice a week.

Students of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Provides a means to prepare members for Bible College and raise funds which provide financial support for the college (books and office supplies).  

Toy Shop

Members create toys for needy, underprivileged children:  Shiny wooden tops; refurbished bicycles; wood blocks carved into trains, planes and automobiles; rocking horses; and an array of durable, flashy toys.  The toy makers give away an average of 3,000 toys each Christmas season to children in need.  

United Methodist Men Fellowship

Provides members the knowledge of fundamental Christian doctrines of the Bible, and to help them mature in character--emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.  The group holds a weekly Bible-study series and a weekly worship service.  The group uses any generated funds to purchase club supplies, support the Vet's Walk-A-Thon, and Senior Citizen Olympics.

Vets Incarcerated/VVA Chapter 689

Provides a base for the hundreds of war veterans who have passed through or remain at Angola.  Their community service at the prison includes:  air-conditioning and heating services and military-style funerals for inmate veterans buried at the prison cemetery.  In 1997, when the Mississippi River threatened to flood Angola, prison officials called on the Vets experience to erect two large "tent cities" so that Angola's prison population would be safe from the rising water.

Wonders of Joy

Helps promote positive attitudes and behavioral traits within participants and their immediate environment, through established programs geared toward helping them redefine who they are in terms of becoming a better person.  These programs will include, but shall not be limited to:  Public speaking, creative writing and self-awareness workshops.

HISTORY OF ANGOLA

Prior to 1835, inmates were housed in a vermin infested jail in New Orleans.  In that year the first Louisiana State Penitentiary was built at the corner of 6th and Laurel Streets in Baton Rouge using a plan similar to a prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut.  In 1844, the penitentiary, including the inmates, was leased to the private firm of McHatton Pratt and Company.  Union Troops occupied the penitentiary during the Civil War, and in 1869 the lease was awarded to a Confederate Major by the name of Samuel James.  Major James would be in charge of the Louisiana Corrections system for the next 31 years.

In 1880, Major James purchased an 8,000-acre plantation in West Feliciana Parish called Angola (named after the area in Africa where the former slaves came from).  He began keeping some inmates there at what used to be the Old Slave Quarters, which later became Camp A.  (Camp A is no longer used to house inmates.)  Primarily, however, inmates worked on levee construction on the Mississippi River outside either Angola or the penitentiary in Baton Rouge.  In 1894, Major James died and his son took over the lease.  However, the 1890's were years of reform and the public was shocked by newspaper accounts of brutality inflicted upon inmates.  On January 1, 1901, the State of Louisiana resumed control of all inmates after 55 years of the lease system.

From 1901 until 1916, Corrections was operated by the Board of Control, a three member panel appointed by the Governor of Louisiana.  One of the first things the board did was to purchase the 8,000 acre Angola Plantation at $25.00 per acre, a total cost of $200,000.  New camps were built and many new security officers were hired.  Brutality toward inmates was stopped and the death rate among inmates was reduced by 72%.  However, the floods of 1903 and 1912 ruined the crops and put Angola in economic chaos.

In 1916, the legislature abolished the Board of Control and appointed Henry L. Fuqua as General Manager of the penitentiary.  Mr. Fuqua, as an economic measure, fired almost all of the security officers at Angola and in their place put selected inmate trusty guards.  In 1918, the old penitentiary in Baton Rouge was sold to the city and was soon torn down.  In addition, he did away with convict stripes (the old black and white uniforms).  In 1922, another flood at Angola ruined not only the crops at Angola, but also the crops of adjoining plantations.  This was the third time in 20 years and the owners were ready to sell.  In a series of eight purchases in a year and a half, Henry Fuqua purchased 10,000 acres of land at approximately $13.00 per acre.  This brought Angola to its present size of 18,000 acres.

The era of Huey P. Long and the Great Depression were hard times, not only for the state, but for Corrections as well.  The budget was drastically reduced, convict stripes were returned and Angola generally fell into disrepair.  Angola was all but forgotten while the state concerned itself with the depression and World War II.

In 1952 a Minden, Louisiana, Judge by the name of Robert Kennon based his campaign for governor on the need to clean up Angola.  This had been brought to light when 31 inmates cut their Achilles' tendon as protest to the hard work and brutality.  After the election, Governor Kennon made good on his campaign promises.  The Main Prison Complex was completed in 1955, convict stripes were eliminated for the last time, and renovations were completed on various camps.  Women inmates were first moved to a new camp on Angola, and then in 1961, they were moved away from Angola to St. Gabriel, Louisiana.  This was a period of massive reform.

In 1961, the Corrections' budget was drastically reduced and a period of decline began.  During the late 1960's, Angola became known as "The Bloodiest Prison in the South" due to the number of inmate assaults.

After his election in 1972, Governor Edwin Edwards appointed Elayn Hunt as Director of Corrections.  She had long been known as an advocate for prison reform.  Under her direction, massive reform began.  Judge E. Gordon West issued a court order which demanded that Angola's conditions be improved.  Mrs. Hunt eliminated the hated "Trusty Guard System" and the number of security guards nearly quadrupled over the next eight years.  Mrs. Hunt died in February 1976, but her work continued through her assistant C. Paul Phelps, who was named Secretary of the Department of Corrections in 1976.  Four new camps were constructed and major renovations were completed on others.  For the first time, meaningful rehabilitative efforts were made and medical care was improved.

Under the administration of the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Richard L. Stalder, Angola's improvements continue today.  In January 1994, Angola achieved initial accreditation from the American Correctional Association (ACA) and has since maintained ACA accreditation.  Accreditation is a recognized credential in identifying an entity as stable, safe and constitutional.  ACA accreditation forms the foundation of operations at Angola and is a continuing catalyst for positive growth and change.  After initial ACA accreditation, Angola then began to build upon this operational foundation through independent  ACA accreditation of its training academy and health care program.  This required Angola to not only meet the national standards for adult correctional institutions, but also the additional standards developed specifically for correctional training academies and performance-based health care standards for adult institutions.  Both bids for independent accreditation were successful.  The David C. Knapps Correctional Officer Training Academy received initial accreditation in January 2002, becoming the eighth accredited correctional training facility in the United States.  The R. E. Barrow, Jr., Treatment Center received initial accreditation through performance-based health care standards in January 2003.

Secretary Stalder and Angola's current Warden, Burl Cain, continue the pursuit of physical plant improvements, as evidenced by the renovations of Cellblocks A and B at the Main Prison, Jaguar Cellblock at Camp C, and Raven Cellblock at Camp D.  New construction includes the multi-purpose arena, Camp D chapel, and the Judge Henry A. Politz Education Building at the Main Prison.  Numerous other service and program enhancements are ongoing under the leadership of Warden Cain.

Louisiana citizens also have the unique opportunity to actually "visit" Angola's past by stopping by the Angola Museum.  The museum, which was established in 1998 by Warden Cain, is dedicated to preserving Angola's history.  The museum has become an official tourist site in the parish and serves as a resource for information on the state's correctional system.

Angola Levee Project

    The 18,000-acre Louisiana State Penitentiary, surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi River, has repeatedly faced serious threat of flooding, a situation made worse by its substandard levees, the only ones along the river that were not engineered and monitored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Through much of the mid-1990s Angola's Warden used site tours, television appearances, and public speaking engagements to advocate for funds to upgrade the levees.  Then in 1997, record-high flood waters threatened again:  waters rolled over the outer ring levee, flooding 2000 acres and bringing the full force of the river to the main levee structure; sand boils (water forcing through a layer of sandy soil underneath the levee to "boil up" on the dry side) grew in size and number.

    As the department and the institution rallied to manage the pending crisis, Governor M. J. "Mike" Foster, Jr., announced that he would seek federal assistance to solve the recurring threat posed by Angola's substandard levees.  On July 30, 1999, as a direct result of Governor Foster's intervention, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched a four-phase project:  to raise and strengthen 12.1 miles of existing levees along the Mississippi River at Angola bringing them up to the standards of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, to improve an existing internal drainage system, to provide seepage berms and relief wells, and to carry out appropriate mitigation and all-weather surfacing of the levee crown.

    Cooperation between state and federal authorities also resulted in Angola's being named a site for the National Guard's annual summer training exercises 1997-1999, during which Guard units implemented details of engineering plans developed by the Corps of Engineers.

    Total cost of the project was $26 million, with the state responsible for 25 percent ($6.5 million) of the total.  A breeched inner levee at Angola would do an estimated $3 billion in damage and require the evacuation of 5100 maximum custody inmates.  The Corps-directed project significantly decreased the likelihood of these events occurring and enabled the state to redirect resources previously used for emergency repairs and preventive measures.