Louisiana’s infamous 18,000-acre maximum security prison, known as Angola, has a deep history of anti-Black violence. Its population is 74% Black.
But it also holds a history of resistance, from the Black Panther’s Angola Three to likely those enslaved on that same land generations before. Today, that resistance continues.
In September 2023, men incarcerated in Angola filed a class-action lawsuit. It says they were forced to work in the fields for zero to little payment.
Armed guards usually followed them as they tended to crops, even when temperatures ascended 100 degrees, and the threat of solitary confinement for refusing work loomed.
Notably, some were also not allowed the disability accommodations they are owed under the ADA. The suit seeks to end Louisiana’s mandatory agricultural prison labor and have it ruled unconstitutional.
“This labor serves no legitimate penological or institutional purpose,” the suit reads. “It’s purely punitive, designed to ‘break’ incarcerated men and ensure their submission.”
Meanwhile, the public prepares for October’s Angola rodeo, where “well-behaved” incarcerated people perform on horses for their entertainment. Voluntary or not, it only makes the prison’s historic tradition of anti-Black exploitation more prominent.
But just because Angola intends to dehumanize and exploit doesn’t mean those incarcerated there see themselves as commodities. Filing this lawsuit sends a clear message: that they value themselves and their agency. They know they deserve better.