one of the things that struck me while walking around angola was how many men i met who seem to be focussed on changing their lives. one of them. i just knew i had to do something different than just do time and die in prison. since coming to angola back in 2004, he says he s turned his life around by taking advantage of the prison s programs. i was selected to be a social mentor. at the prison, he earned a masters degree from a bible college. he even became an ordained minister. a couple of times a week, he gospel raps his former preaching to the population. it s hard to square the man
how much do you get paid? two cents an hour. one time we made four cents an hour. and for some reason or another, the budget got cut. it s injustice. so this particular job is not one of the more desired ones. no. this is bottom of the barrel. the field? nobody wants to be in the field. angola is not like any other maximum security prison i have ever been to. all of this as far as the eye can see is angola, a series of prisons, they call them camps. you guys from camp d. yes, sir. and doing work like this. today we happen to be picking carrots. so should i be worried about my safety here? if you was an inmate, yeah. yeah? if you was an inmate, most definitely. a majority of the inmates here are people of color.
you know kids watch television all the time, and they re like, your dad is about to be fried chicken. and by me having the same name, when people would call my name, i would put my head down because i was ashamed of what i believed that name had meant. but over the years, he says programs at angola helped change him. opportunities that weren t available when his father was here. and still aren t available at most prisons across the country. there is a whole movement around trying to revive the rehabilitation debate we have abandoned. we have people locked up with nothing to do. and we know that education is transformative. it reduces recidivism. education and programs have also proven to reduce violence inside prison. angola was once known as the bloodiest prison in america. but things began to change here in the 1990s when the prison began to focus on more than simply locking up people and feeding them. go ahead. now in addition to its
in america, most inmates get paid pennies per hour. how much do you get paid? two cents an hour. one time we made four cents an hour. and for some reason or another, the budget got cut. it s injustice. so this particular job is not one of the more desired ones. no. this is bottom of the barrel. the field? nobody wants to be in the field. angola is not like any other maximum security prison i have ever been to. all of this as far as the eye can see is angola, a series of prisons, they call them camps. you guys from camp d. yes, sir. and doing work like this. today we happen to be picking carrots. so should i be worried about my safety here?
million over the next decade. some of that money will be invested into re-entry programs for those coming home. an important investment because every week an average of 12,000 prisoners in america are released back to society. 95% of the inmates are going to get out. and when you do next to nothing to prepare them for successful re-entry, then you are creating a future that is more riddled with crime. but louisiana s reforms focus on nonviolent offenders. so what about violent offenders? like the juvenile lifer group i met, or the men dying in hospice. we clearly met people in that prison who don t pose a threat to society. but in your opinion do some people simply belong in prison because what they did was just reprehensible? well, because what they did was reprehensible and there continues to be opposition in the community and among the victim s family. look, whether someone continues