i had so many thoughts leading up to this assignment as to what it was gonna be like. trying to imagine going down this road, knowing it s a one-way trap. there s this moment when you get this last glimpse of the world around you, but that glimpse is through steal match. louisiana s highway 66. it s a beautiful countryside. it s undoubtedly not lost on the countless men driven to the place where they ll most likely die. but road ends here. the louisiana state penitentiary. a former plantation the size of manhattan. 28 square miles. most people call it angola, named after the african country that was home to the slaves who once worked these very fields. now, angela is the largest maximum security prison in the country, where today, i ll be housed with about 5500 men. i m heading into ground zero of mass incarceration. there s certainly a heightened awareness as i walk through here. no guards. for the next couple days, i ll be staying here, explain key issues of the pri
Get a last glimpse of the world around you, but that glimpse is through steel mesh. Louisianas highway 66. Its beautiful countryside is not lost on the countless men driven to the place where they will most likely die. That road ends here. The Louisiana State penitentiary, former plantation the size of manhattan. 28 square miles. Most people call it angola, named after the african country owned by the slaves. Now it is confining about 5,500 men. Today im heading into ground zero of mass incarceration. Theres certainly a heightened awareness as i walkthrough here with no guards. For the next couple of days, i will be staying here, exploring key issues of the Prison Reform delate. Juveniles sentenced to life without parole. We got children incarcerate sgld the lasting effect of the war on drugs. Sentence was 150 years. Power of rehabilitation. You know that you have done something. Your life is worthwhile. And the demand by many for punishment. Personally i think hes where he needs to be
Through steel mesh. Louisianas highway 66. Its beautiful countryside is not lost on the countless men driven to the place where they will most likely die. That road ends here. The Louisiana State penitentiary, former plantation the size of manhattan. 28 square miles. Most people call it angola, named after the african country owned by the slaves. Now it is confining about 5,500 men. Today im heading into ground zero of mass incarceration. Theres certainly a heightened awareness as i walkthrough here with no guards. For the next couple of days, i will be staying here, exploring key issues of the Prison Reform debate. Juveniles sentenced to life without parole. We were children when we got incarcerated. The lasting effect of the war on drugs. Sentence was 150 years. Power of rehabilitation. You know that you have done something. Your life is worthwhile. And the demand by many for punishment. Personally i think hes where he needs to be. I will also be staying in a cell. Not to play prison
working the field, growing vegetables, it is something given back to the prison itself. smith tells me the crops not only provide the inmate population fresh food, but he says it also saves taxpayers money. it costs $1. 70 a day to feed each offender. this will be the life for many of these men for decades to come. and some have left young children behind who are among the five million kids in america who have had a parent in prison. javonte has two of them. you know the way it works sometimes is you re in prison because your daddy was in prison, and your kid will be in prison. are you afraid for your children? yeah, i definitely am. i mean, when i grew up, i didn t know my father. my father got murdered when i was three years old. i never knew him. it s hard to imagine knowing that you will be spending the rest of your life here, especially if you re convicted as a teenager. advocates like brian stevenson say juvenile
farmland. thousands of cattle are raised here to be sold on the open market, and a variety of crops are grown here as well. all of it happening with inmate labor. that s one of the many hot button issues in the mass incarceration debate. another day in the field. i m on my way out to the fields, riding on this truck. many of the men are convicted killers, including the ones sitting on either side of me. 28-year-old javonte sanders beat a woman to death and stole her car. what is your sentence? life, without parole. terry mays shot a man in the neck during a drug deal. you have been here how many years? 30. 30 years. here, like prisons everywhere in america, most