Nancy A. Heitzeg:
I was at Angola with a University-level off-campus class I was teaching on Racism in the Criminal Justice System. Students and I were in New Orleans for a week where we met with Sister Helen Prejean and did some work for the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. I had been to Angola once before and both tours were comparable.
I should say that it is surprisingly simple to get a tour at Angola just call the Museum, fill out a form and just turn up. No background checks, no IDs and no trips through metal detectors--which, of course, I have experienced at other prisons even when I was an invited speaker. You can and we did even drive our own vehicle through the grounds on the tour with a tour guide who rides along. Of course matters would be much different if one was at Angola to visit an inmate.
A3N: What happened during the tour?
NAH: The tour is quite extensive--we were there for 6 hours--and consisted of the following stops/activities:
Guard/employee Village: A small "town"--built by inmates of course--house about 200 employees that live and work there with their families. Kids are bused in and out of the prison gates to outside schools. The town sits in the shadow of the Warden's new mansion atop a high hilltop--built again by inmate labor.
The Dog Kennels: Angola is very proud of their dog breeding and training operation, which includes Bloodhounds, German Shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers, and wolves. They are attempting to breed a more "vicious" attack dog by crossing Shepherds with the metaphoric "black wolf" they have. It is Mengelian really. Dogs are trained to track and attack unruly and escaping inmates. Some are trained to sniff drugs and contraband--some sold to law enforcement.
Point Look-Out: The inmate cemetery for those whose bodies are not claimed and removed by relatives after death. Angola now claims a "dignified burial" for inmates by actually giving them a coffin! A coffin made, of course, by other inmates--and a horse drawn hearse procession. The coffin-making work drew recent attention when Billy Graham's wife Ruth was buried in one. Point Look-Out has recently been renamed--ironically--for the slain guard Brent Miller, which does not seem to bode well for Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, of the Angola 3, who were convicted of Miller's 1972 death (note: Miller's widow, Leontine Verrett, now questions their guilt and has called for a new investigation into the case).
The Horse Barn: Angola loves its horses. They have quarter horses, Percherons, some thoroughbreds and mules. Again mad breeding experiments--crossing Percherons with mules and thoroughbreds--these, of course, are for sale at auction, often to law enforcement agencies.
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