After we watched the Parchman Documentary in class, I started wondering how Angola (a brutal Louisiana Penitentiary) compared. Here's what I found out:
ANGOLA
Common Nicknames: "Alcatraz of the South" OR "The Bloodiest Prison in America"
Facts:
- In the 1880s, a former Confederate solider bought a plantation called Angola and transformed it into a brutal prison, where prisoners lived in former slaves' quarters.
- The State of Louisiana took control of the prison after hearing of the brutal conditions in the prison. However, the brutality continued when the State took over.
- Angola, like Parchman, is a high-security prison farm.
- Like Parchman, 20th century inmates consisted of many young, African American males, many of whom were arrested for petty crimes.
- In the 1940s, a former prison wrote about how a warden used to whip prisoners with a leather strip.
- In 1953, "31 inmates sliced their Achilles tendons to bring attention to their poor treatment."
- Like the "trustee shooters" of Parchman, Angola had "khaki-backs," or gun-wielding prisoners.
Overall:
Like Parchman, Angola continued a form of "slavery" in Louisiana after the Civil War ended. With the loss of slave labor, the Southerners tried to find a loophole in the system by establishing these prisons on farms for mainly males of African descendance.
Sources:
- https://www.thedailybeast.com/locked-up-in-louisiana-inside-americas-bloodiest-prison?ref=scroll
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/from-a-slave-house-to-a-prison-cell-the-history-of-angola-plantation/2016/09/21/7712eeac-63ee-11e6-96c0-37533479f3f5_story.html?utm_term=.43704446ae67
- http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/caseconsortium/casestudies/54/casestudy/www/layout/case_id_54_id_547.html
6 comments:
It's so crazy to believe these conditions happened not too long ago in a place merely 3 hours away from where we are now. Also, I don't know if I am just making this up in my mind but didn't Mr. Rivet say he took a field trip with his class years ago to Angola?
I knew Angola used to be brutal back then, but it didn't know to that extent! What always made me uncomfortable was the Angola Rodeo, even as I went as a child. Thousands of people gathering to watch prisoners with 10+ year sentences getting seriously injured by bulls always gave me a weird feeling.
I cannot understand how the people in charge of Angola and Parchman allowed this brutality to happen. Of course they probably did not have the funding to keep things up and running in the best conditions but that does not mean it should be inhabitable. I’m assuming Angola also has similar prisoner manipulation tactics like Parchman like conjugal visits. And I agree Anna Beth I wonder why the Angola Rodeo occurs and it makes me uncomfortable.
Great job making a post on Angola because I would have otherwise forgotten about this article I read shortly after class when we discussed the Parchman and Angola prisons: https://allthatsinteresting.com/worst-prisons. The article expands beyond Louisiana and Mississippi and ranks the five most dangerous or worst prisons in the world and describes the prison’s brutal and disgusting conditions. The article was very surprising to me because it makes me wonder how many innocent people in each prison suffer in these prisons with a worldwide reputation for brutality whereas people that commit actual crimes in other countries like Norway relax in a more comfortable prison (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/photos-of-maximum-security-prisons-in-norway-and-the-us-reveal-the-extremes-of-prison-life). This stark contrast between the quality of prisons makes me wonder the results of these country’s criminal justice system. To be continued...
This is interesting how there is another prison just like Parchman that managed to continue the practice of slavery after the civil war. Looking at Angola, I decided to look more into the practice of slavery after the civil war within the American penitentiary system. Turns out, it isn't just Angola and Parchman that treat their inmates this way. Many prisons within the United States today using prisoners for labor which is very common especially because of the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program of 1979 which allows US companies to use inmates for labor. However, the worker conditions almost model that of slavery especially with there being a huge gap between African American inmates and other races. In fact, there was even a strike about a year ago concerning this where over 29,000 inmates over 29 prisons within the US rebelled for terrible working conditions. According to an article I found on such a topic, "We lock people of colour up at alarming rates. We put them to work. Corporations gain. This story is an age-old American tradition."
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/09/slavery-prison-system-170901082522072.html
After reading Jessie's account on the violent nature of Angola and as it compares to Parchman prison in the novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing, I thought back to my 7th grade year when I visited Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary. It was discomfiting to read on Jessie's post that Angola is known to be the "Bloodiest Prison in America," for as a 12 year old, I walked through the institution not knowing it held such a title.
When I visited Angola, I know it was meant to scare me, but really, it just opened my eyes even as just a young girl to the consequences that life can hand you. Going to Angola, I met a number of men that had promise and potential that threw it all away with a single choice. I specifically remember a man that was a trustee and openly shared his story.
He recalled a night when he was at a bar and got so intoxicated that he woke up on the ground outside not remembering what had happened with a dead body next to him. He doesn't even have the satisfaction of knowing whether he is a murderer or not.
It was so crazy to think of the ridiculously unfortunate human occurrences that built the buildings of Angola and all prisons, for that matter. This links to the novel, for Ward sets up Parchman and all of Mississippi, really, as a place with an unfortunate state of stagnation where people feel stuck. After all, Michael isn't necessarily the only character that is imprisoned. He is literally, but others are imprisoned by their minds in a region of America that is unchanging for them.
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