Louisiana State Penitentiary, aka Angola, has long been considered to be one of the most dangerous prisons in the United States. It is the nation’s largest maximum-security prison with an inmate population of nearly 6,300 and 1,800 prison staff. For decades, Angola was said to be “America’s bloodiest prison.”
The high number of inmate deaths, riots and attempted escapes only added to an already notorious reputation. That was before 1995.
That was before former warden Burl Cain implemented a prototype program. Warden Cain invited an accredited four-year program at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to come teach at the penitentiary. Cain called his new approach to the prison population “moral rehabilitation”.
“It was the best decision, I feel, probably made for that society. I think the first class happened in 1995. Warden Cain came in ’95. The first class of the seminary was actually in ’96. So, at that time I was still going through to get my general education diploma. I actually went into the seminary. I think it was in ’98,” said Alex, a former inmate in Angola.
Alex is not his real name. He agreed to sit down with me for an interview if I would agree to not use his real identity or mention the business he runs in the New Orleans area. Alex was sent to Angola for his involvement in a 1990 murder. Alex was 15 when the murder was committed. The legal aspects surrounding why he was convicted and the co-defendant, who Alex says was the triggerman, was able to receive a lesser sentence, are complex.
But, by the age of 20, Alex was entering Angola.
“I was arrested at 15. I actually did four years in a parish jail awaiting trial. So, I got to Angola when was 19 or 20 years old. When I first entered, it was a new world. It was a shock to me. In terms of how I was raised, this world was totally foreign. It was very barbaric, something I had never experienced, nor was prepared for growing up,” Alex told me.
Alex says some very hard years followed. He was serving a life sentence after all. But then he found hope. He found it in one of the harshest prisons in American history. This particular story for the podcast is told over two episodes. In part one of my conversation with Alex, we learn about how he entered Angola a convicted killer, which ultimately put him on the path to become a minister.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
