Slavery In Louisiana Lives On
On June 5, 2023, Louisiana’s Senate killed House Bill 211 that would have allowed voters to decide whether to ban slavery in the state Constitution. Four other states have recently proposed legislation similar to this one, and each of them passed; however, in Louisiana, this idea had not only been disregarded once, but it has been rejected for the second time.
This bill was originally introduced in 2022 by State Representative Edmond Jordan of Baton Rouge, with the intention of creating an amendment that would reconstruct the verbiage of the Constitution to state “slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited.” However, this was immediately rejected, as many members of the state legislature wanted to add a clause acknowledging that there would be an exception to the prohibition in the case of punishment for criminal offenses. Following this suggestion for reconstruction, the bill proposed that the wording be “slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited,” but “the prohibition of involuntary servitude shall not prohibit an inmate from being required to work when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.” This change proves to be parallel to the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution when it ensures slavery and involuntary servitude are not permitted “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” After this change had been implemented, it seemed that the bill would provide clarification for anyone that could disagree with the anti-slavery amendment. However, it still failed by a vote of 21-16. Here’s why:
Louisiana’s incarceration rates have been consistently higher than not only the nation’s average, but anywhere else in the world for more than the last decade.
This does not come as a surprise, considering that Louisiana’s jails were established to take the place of previously-existing slave plantations across the state. As discussed above, when slavery had been abolished, the Thirteenth Amendment was carefully composed with an exception clause. As recently expressed by Justice Sotomayor in Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard College (2023), the ratification of this clause “facilitated the creation of a new system of forced labor in the South.” In fact, it planted the seeds of modern prison labor because it truly only abolished chattel slavery and disproportionately encouraged the criminalization and effective re-enslavement of Black people during the Jim Crow era. Particularly, the Jim Crow laws – which instituted curfews, codes, and other restrictions for the newly emancipated slaves – came with a strict punishment if they were to be disobeyed. This punishment, referred to as “convict leasing,”
consisted of the mass incarceration of Black Americans and the exploitation of their labor as a replacement for slave labor. In 1898, when this finally became impermissible, the grounds of the ex-plantation in which this had occurred became the state’s notorious maximum-security prison.
Louisiana State Penitentiary – colloquially known as Angola –was named after the home country of its former slaves and hosts a highly disproportionate percentage of Black Americans. Specifically, Louisiana’s population is around 30 percent Black; however, its prison population is over 60 percent Black. In the particular case of Angola, that majority rises to an appalling 80 percent. With these statistics in mind and the consideration that the overwhelmingly white administration has been historically referred to as the “Freemen,” this prison – which happens to be the largest in the U.S. – serves as a monument to the country’s legacy of slavery. 
It is no secret that Louisiana’s reputation for overcrowding in its prisons may be due to corruption and the money/cheap labor employees receive from its occupants. In fact, the majority of Louisiana’s inmates are now housed in for-profit institutions, which are run in many instances by parish sheriffs located in rural areas of the state. For each inmate that resides in the space, the sheriffs receive approximately $25 a day. Moreover, The Department of Justice has illuminated that these facilities “have no financial incentive” to address the problem because the Department of Corrections “pays the jail for each day of overdetention.” 
Additionally, no one inquires about the practices that occur on the grounds or how the inmates are treated. For example, after looking past the fact that many of the slaves prisoners work by picking cotton – another shocking ode to slavery, Angola hosts a variety of extracurricular activities for its inmates to pass the time. One of these is the Angola Rodeo: a depiction of the carelessness towards Louisiana’s incarcerated. During October, this rodeo occurs every weekend. For each presentation of this event, the prison makes around half a million dollars. However, that fact –and its blatant evidence of exploitation – have been continuously overlooked by many prisoners because during the most dangerous part of the event there happens to be a $500 prize involved. In this section of the rodeo, vulnerable prisoners are positioned at a table in the bullring when the largest, and angriest, bull is released.
While the inmates begin to fight for their lives, spectators can enjoy a delicious cheeseburger or bucket of popcorn!
*If the sarcasm is not jumping off the page at this point, it is unclear what will.*
Extracurriculars aside, Angola states that its mission is to further reintegrate people released from prison into society, but when one really considers the circumstances, this can’t be the case. Upon release, these people are no longer eligible for government benefit programs, which can be understandable, but when they have just served a 20-year or greater sentence, there’s not much to their name, but the pitiful $20-$50 worth of “gate money.” Further, some of the prisoners get paid as little as 2 cents per hour for their work. This is over 1000% less than the national average for incarcerated persons. This rate provides them with the bare minimum to survive – in prison that is. With no savings, how can people be expected to afford the immediate costs of food, housing, healthcare, transportation, and other fees once they have been released? This, of course, is truly only a real issue when the intention is that the prisoner will be released. Aside from Louisiana’s notoriously harsh sentencing habits, Angola has been characterized as a final destination for the majority of its occupants. The prison is known to be a place where hope goes to die. With these attributes dictating the perception of Louisiana’s prison system, the question to pose is: what about prison reform? What are people doing to combat this? 
While the amendment to the state Constitution may not have been supported, this does not mean an alternative mission change has not been underway. The conversation of punishment versus rehabilitation in not only Louisiana’s prisons, but all of America’s prisons has been extensive. James Gilligan, professor of law at New York University, presents the idea of the public needing to “recogniz[e] the difference between punishment and restraint” before deciding on an opinion. Punishment, taken in its literal form, serves as a lesson to offenders through obedience to authority with minimal amenities, while rehabilitation has multiple principles, involving diversification and classification, in order to be successful. The concept of correctional facilities in America revolves around the idea of having an equal mixture of both. The problem with such a notion arises when society begins to realize this concept of a “mixture” is merely a lie to keep American citizens quiet. The harsh reality of our penal decisions lies in the idea of attempting to “produce a program of rehabilitation within a prison social structure dominated by punishment“. Additionally, when moving specifically into the lens of race, although the country and Louisiana cannot undo its history that has disproportionately affected a specific group of people, it can – at the very least – begin to rehabilitate those people and provide them with the chance they could not even dream of seeing today.
In complete consideration of the defective scheme one calls the American Penal system, while the predictable rejection of House Bill 211 may seem inconsequential – as it was only a symbolic attempt at amending Louisiana’s dark history –symbolism is just that: an image into the decades and indefinite layers of meaning, reasoning, and purpose for the present. If attention is not being dedicated to the status of its current state, it likely never will be.
Suggestions For Further Reading:
Shreveport Times on the Bill’s Rejection
Brief History of Angola and 13th Amendment
Louisiana Benefits from Over-Incarceration
Angola Administrative Perspective
Videos Worth Watching:
The Farm: Angola, USA Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odx9NEHc17M
Angola For Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ABpWhY5Xzk
Fun Fact: Caddo and Bossier Parish – the Red River metropolitan area in which the author grew up – hosts the largest percentage, in the entire world, of its residents in jails and prisons and continues to observe growing numbers.