ABSTRACT
As warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the author had responsibility for the management and well-being of inmates and staff at America’s largest maximum-security prison. An important feature of the author tenure at Angola was the dramatic growth in the national incarceration rate during that same period, 1995–2015. Ninety percent of prisoners serving time at Angola died on site—many buried in the prison cemetery after serving decades with no family present at the internment. But the longtime expectation that prison farms be self-sufficient has always challenged Angola for resources—and most of the time in American corrections prison administrators frankly struggle to staff their prisons. The resources of our seminary offered Angola new life and a new focus—and a whole lot of good work to do in rehabilitation. These new resources from our outside partners helped tremendously and took the edge off for inmates.
