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A glossary is below.
Commonly known as “Angola”, Louisiana State Penitentiary is an 18,000-acre plantation prison larger than the island of Manhattan. Before emancipation, the land served as home to several plantations worked by enslaved people. After emancipation, it became the central location of Louisiana’s “convict leasing” system. In 1882, around 20 percent of the people working in the convict leasing system died from the abhorrent conditions. Since 1901, Angola has been controlled by the State of Louisiana. Today, incarcerated people are forced to labor this same land, in the fields, often with the dangers of Louisiana’s extreme weather. Additionally, the land is home to a print shop, mattress factory, tag plant, and numerous other commercial ventures.
The canteen is where men and women in Louisiana’s prison system can purchase food, hygiene products and personal property items. Families and friends can also purchase items through the canteen package program for their loved ones incarcerated in state institutions. When families and friends are ordering items, they are limited to orders above $20 and under $200. Often, people with medical dietary restrictions need to heavily order from the canteen to ensure balanced meals. Individual work assignments often do not come with the protective equipment necessary and additional personal property may need to be purchased in order to complete the job assignment safely.
See Segregation.
See Segregation.
A duty status is a restriction on work caused by medical conditions.Under Louisiana law, people with a duty status are not eligible to earn more than $.04 an hour in incentive pay.
Emergency can be slang for an emergency medical request. Any request for medical treatment that is not made during the routine sick call (a time and procedure for requesting a medical appointment) or that is not a followup medical appointment is considered an emergency request. Incarcerated people are charged up to $6 for these requests. The term can also refer to the acute treatment unit at Angola.
This term refers to work that is to be performed in addition to a person's regular job shift, and without the ability to generate incentive pay. See Incentive Pay. It is a disciplinary sanction and is imposed through the disciplinary process.
The field generally refers to the farm work land on multiple Louisiana prisons where incarcerated people are forced to work. For most of the last 40 years, men are taken out to the land at Angola under armed guard, and forced to labor in the agriculture fields. Other prisons, such as Raymond Laborde Correctional Center and David Wade Correctional Center have field operations.
Good time is a way to be released from prison based on positive actions, or an absence of negative actions. See Parole.
Incentive pay (sometimes called incentive wages) is a payment provided to some people in the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections who are held in state facilities. It is not available for the first three years a person is working in forced labor, can be withheld based on discipline, and portions forfeited in exchange for “good time.” See Good Time; see also Parole. Incentive pay is paid by the Prison Enterprises division of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections in almost all instances. In 2021, Prison Enterprises paid $1,363,463.41 to incarcerated workers in Louisiana. Notably, it did $11,260,523 in sales of products like footwear, health and grooming products, and food to incarcerated people. Incentive wages range from $0.00 to $1 per hour, with the majority of incarcerated people making less than $0.20 per per hour. Many people working in the fields make $0.02 an hour, and anyone in the working cellblocks cannot make more than $0.02 an hour.
For centuries, incarcerated people have kept Louisiana safe from flooding by performing levee work. Many of the initial levees in Louisiana were built by incarcerated labor assigned to Louisiana’s state engineer. During convict leasing, levee construction was the most dangerous and most profitable work for the company that held Louisiana’s lease. Even today, prisons are protected by levees--particularly Angola--and those levees need work to stay strong during floods. Incarcerated people often do that work.
Life sentences in Louisiana changed dramatically over the years. In 1926, Louisiana’s legislature made a law that provided that people serving life sentences would be evaluated after 10 years and six months by the warden, and could be released where good behavior was shown. Today, Louisiana has the highest number of people in the nation in its prisons serving life sentences without any possibility of parole or diminution of sentence. Louisiana has many crimes that can lead to a life without the possibility of parole sentence, leaving only a request for clemency as the mechanism to return home. Even with clemency, a person usually has to remain on parole for the rest of their life. See Parole. In 2021, Louisiana took a large step for people serving life sentences as a result of multiple convictions--they became parole eligible after 15 years, creating an exception to Louisiana’s “life means life” policy. A U.S. Supreme Court, known as Montgomery or Miller/Montgomery also afforded parole opportunities to some people who were given life sentences for conduct that occurred when someone was under the age of 18.
In most of the country, people convicted of felonies serve their imprisonment sentences in state prisons and people who are pre-trial or have misdemeanor sentences are in jails. Louisiana is different. Here, about half of the people serving felony prison sentences serve that time in local jails. As of December 31, 2021, 26,777 people were serving felony sentences in Louisiana and 13,286 people were in local jails while only 13,091 were in state prisons.
See Segregation.
There are several ways a person in prison can get released from prison. For some, the only way is for that person to serve the full term of the sentence. Certain people qualify for release due to a “diminution of sentence.” This is called Good Time Parole Release. Others may qualify to have a parole hearing. If that parole hearing is successful, that person can be granted parole release from the Committee on Parole. Louisiana has the most number of people in its prisons serving sentences without any eligibility for parole or diminution of sentence.
Someone on parole is still considered in the custody of the state, even though that person physically may go home, hold a job, and be an active member of the community where that person lives. The Division of Probation and Parole supervises adults returning under community supervision. Being on parole might include a number of conditions. Generally, monthly reports are required. A person cannot move from a home without permission. Nor can a person leave the state without the written permission of a parole officer. A person has to agree not to associate with other people who are known to be involved in criminal activity. People on parole cannot use alcohol or illegal drugs. They must avoid bars and casinos. They cannot own a firearm or a dangerous weapon. The jobs a person who is on parole hold must be approved by a parole officer. A person on parole must submit to medical, mental health, or substance abuse exams or treatment, or both, if ordered by a parole officer. A person on parole must pay for any and all drug and alcohol screens requested at that person's own expense. Someone on parole agrees to let a parole officer visit any place of employment or home, and is required to submit to any searches of the person, property, residence, and or vehicle based merely on reasonable suspicion. Each month a person pays supervision fees set by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. Parole boards can add additional requirements, such as curfews or a requirement to go to three alcoholics anonymous meetings a week. About 28,000 people are on parole in Louisiana on any given day.
The Plasma Program was a program that operated at Angola for years. That program allowed incarcerated people to give blood, off of which plasma was removed. The Plasma Program was a way that the prison could profit off of incarcerated bodies. The state would sign a contract with the private corporation, at least for part of the program that corporation was Sara, Inc., which would provide $1.25 to the state for each pint collected, in addition to fees for use of the prison infirmary and security. The company would also pay the incarcerated person between $3 and $7 for giving plasma. Those who were working in the field during the Plasma Program explained that giving blood when exhausted from the heat and work in the field, made them feel light headed but the money was important to survival in prison.
Prison Enterprises is the name of the division within the Department of Public Safety and Corrections that operates a number of agricultural, industry and service programs at eight of Louisiana’s prisons. In fiscal year 2020-2021, Prison Enterprises conducted $29,044,873 in sales, despite the global pandemic. The largest group of customers were incarcerated people, which made up $11,260,523 of the annual sales. Notably, Prison Enterprises pays all the incentive wages in Louisiana state prisons. Total incentive wages made up $1.3 million dollars during that fiscal year. Putting aside numerous regulations preventing incarcerated people from accessing incentive wages, families are overwhelmingly the ones paying Prison Enterprises. The next highest customer group are other prisons. In fiscal year 2020-2021, Prison Enterprise sold $9,199,180 in goods and services to prisons. These sales were often furniture, mattresses, brooms, mops, pillows, beds, lockers, jumpsuits and other prison issues clothing, soap, and chairs. Only 16% of sales went to state agencies and 14% to non-state agencies. In fiscal year 2020-2021, Prison Enterprises sold $933,802 in soybeans and $271,515 in corn.
A quota is a specific minimum of either farm work, such as corn picked, or production, such as pants sewn, required of incarcerated workers. If a quota is not met, a disciplinary write up for a “work offense” could potentially follow. See Work Offense; see also Rule Violation.
All people living in prisons are required to obey the rules and regulations of the prison. Those rules can sometimes appear ever changing and difficult to gauge. In many instances, this means simply doing whatever one is told, whether what a person is told to do puts the person or others in danger. A rule violation is an act that the prison decides is contrary to the rules. It can be items like disobedience or work offenses. Approximately 16% of disciplinary violations are in categories often associated with the duties of forced labor. See Work Offense. A rule violation, also known as a writeup, can stop someone from getting a parole hearing, prevent diminution of a sentence, prevent someone from seeing or speaking with loved ones, or could land a person in segregation.
The term sallyport often means the secured and controlled area for ingress and egress to or from a prison or an individual prison building.
This is the confinement of a person in prison to an individual cell separated from the general population. There are five types of segregation. Disciplinary segregation is a maximum custody housing area, where someone is held as punishment after a disciplinary hearing for a rule violation. See Rule Violation. Investigative segregation is a maximum security temporary holding area where someone waits for their hearing or result of their hearing for an alleged rule violation. Preventative segregation is a maximum security restrictive housing for when the facility thinks a person is a danger to the good order, and discipline in the prison and/or that person’s presence may be a danger to himself or others. Protective segregation is segregation for people who may require protection from others or have health and safety reasons for isolation in a maximum custody housing unit. Working segregation is a maximum security housing unit that is usually a form of disciplinary segregation but the person is still required to go to work or other programming.
Sick call is the procedure in a prison where medical care is requested.
The street, in singular form, is slang for the world outside of prison.
Tier walkers are incarcerated people who watch those often most at risk of engaging in self harm. They also provide assistance more generally to those in segregation.
A trustee is someone who has demonstrated the highest level of trustworthiness from a facility and therefore are given special privileges during their incarceration.
According to the September 2021 disciplinary handbook from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, a minor work offense relates to how fast or how well someone performs his or her work.
Offenders must perform their assigned tasks with reasonable speed and efficiency. Though offenders have specific job assignments, it may be required that they do work other than what their job assignments require. This work shall also be done cooperatively and with reasonable speed and efficiency. Being present, but failing to answer at the proper time during work roll call is a violation. A school assignment is considered to be a work assignment for the purposes of this rule.
The punishments include disciplinary segregation, failure to earn incentive wages, loss of yard or recreation activities, or the loss of other minor privileges.
According to the September 2021 disciplinary handbook from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, an aggravated work offense is described as follows:
An offender who refuses to work or to go out to work or who asks to go to Segregation rather than work is in violation of this rule, as is an offender who disobeys repeated instructions as to how to perform his work assignment. Hiding out from work or leaving the work area without permission is a violation. Falling far short of fulfilling reasonable work quotas is not permitted. Being absent or late to work roll call without a valid excuse such as a No Duty status or callout is a violation, as is not reporting for Extra Duty assignment. Being late to work or to school assignment is a violation. A school assignment is considered to be a work assignment for the purpose of this rule.
The punishments include confinement to a dormitory, room or cell, extra duty, disciplinary segregation, forfeiture of good time, failure to earn incentive wages, and loss of hobby craft. Hobby craft is the ability to make arts and goods for sale at the annual Rodeo and Crafts Fair.
