Louisiana State Penitentiary | Prison Documentary | Nat Geo The Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP, also known as Angola, and nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South" and "The Farm" is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named Angola after the country from which many of the enslaved Africans came who worked on this former plantation. It is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States with 6,300 prisoners and 1,800 staff, including corrections officers, janitors, maintenance, and wardens. It is located on an 18,000-acre (7,300 ha) property that was previously the Angola Plantations owned by Isaac Franklin in unincorporated West Feliciana Parish in the east of the state, directly adjacent to the Mississippi state line. The prison is located at the end of Louisiana Highway 66, around 22 miles (35 km) northwest of St. Francisville. Angola is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River. Burl Cain served as the warden from 1995 to March 7, 2016 Death row for men and the state execution chamber for both sexes are located at the Angola facility. Louisiana State Penitentiary is in unincorporated West Feliciana Parish, in east central Louisiana. It is located at the base of the Tunica Hills, in a region described by Jenny Lee Rice of Paste as "breathtakingly beautiful." The prison is about 22 miles (35 km) northwest of St. Francisville,[about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Baton Rouge,[ and 135 miles (217 km) northwest of New Orleans. LSP is about an hour's drive from Baton Rouge,and it is about a two-hour driving distance from New Orleans. The Mississippi River borders the facility on three sides.The prison is in close proximity to the Louisiana-Mississippi border. LSP is located about 34 miles (55 km) from the Dixon Correctional Institute. Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that in the 1990s the prison remained "far away from public awareness." The prison officials sometimes provide meals for official guests because of what the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections refers to as the "extreme remote location" of LSP; the nearest non-prison dining facility is, as of 1999, 30 miles (48 km) away. The prison property is adjacent to the Angola Tract of the Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area. Due to security reasons regarding LSP, the Tunica Hills WMA's Angola Tract is closed to the general public from March 1 through August 31 every year. The main entrance is at the terminus of Louisiana Highway 66, a road described by Wolfe and Lornell as "a winding, often muddy state road." From St. Francisville one would travel about 2 miles (3.2 km) north along U.S. Highway 61, turn left at Louisiana 66, and travel on that road for 20 miles (32 km) until it dead ends at LSP's front gate.The Angola Ferry provides a ferry service between Angola and a point in unincorporated Pointe Coupee Parish. The ferry is open only to employees except during special events, when members of the general public may use it. The Main Prison Complex consists of the East Yard and the West Yard. The East Yard has 16 minimum and medium custody prisoner dormitories and one maximum custody extended lockdown cellblock; the cellblock houses long-term extended-lockdown prisoners, in-transit administrative segregation prisoners, inmates who need mental health attention, and protective-custody inmates. The West Yard has 16 minimum and medium custody prisoner dormitories, two administrative segregation cellblocks, and the prison treatment center. The treatment center houses geriatric, hospice, and ill in-transit prisoners.[53] As of 1999 the main prison complex houses half of LSP's prisoners. Dormitories within the main prison include the Ash, Cypress, Hickory, Magnolia, Oak, Pine, Spruce, and Walnut dormitories. The cell blocks are A, B, C, and D. The main prison also houses the local Main Prison administration building, a gymnasium, a kitchen/dining facility, the LSP Vocational School, and the Judge Henry A. Politz Educational building Prison View Golf Course, a 6,000-yard (5,500 m), 9 hole, 72 par golf course, is located on the grounds of Angola. Prison View, the only golf course on the property of an American prison,[83] is between the Tunica Hills and Camp J, at the intersection of B-Line Road and Camp J Road. All individuals wishing to play are required to provide personal information 48 hours before their arrival, so the prison authorities can conduct background checks. Convicted felons and individuals on LSP visitation lists are not permitted to play on the golf course] Current prisoners at LSP are not permitted to play on the golf course.[83] The golf course, constructed on the site of a former bull pasture, opened in June 2004. Prisoners performed most of the work needed to construct the course. Prisoners that the LSP

• published: 29 Apr 2017
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