Weathering Natural Disasters at Angola Prison

 

Get an exclusive look inside Angola Prison in the all-new series Louisiana Lockdown, where Warden Burl Cain’s "Land of New Beginnings" offers inmates "eight seconds of freedom" in a unique Animal Correctional Program.  Cathy Fontenot, Assistant Warden, explains how Angola prepares for natural disasters such as flooding and hurricanes.

 

Having the Mississippi River surround us on three sides, while a perfect cost-effective perimeter, causes us to be ever vigilant to the rising tides of the Father of Waters.  We prepare for a major flood fight each Spring.  In 1997, we almost lost the prison to a historic rise in the water.  Half of the population was moved, in the middle of the night when it appeared that the levee would breach, to tent cities temporarily built on high prison grounds until the danger subsided.  Former Governor Mike Foster would later say that the rebuilding of Angola’s levees was the most important accomplishment of his tenure.  In the first episode of Louisiana Lockdown, we evacuate our invalid and active disciplinary offenders to other institutions as the river reaches an unprecedented height, threatening to destroy the only maximum-security prison for males in Louisiana, which would in effect cost the state billions and cause the overpopulation of all secure prisons and jails in a state that incarcerates more of its people than any other.

Hurricanes are the other big natural disasters that keep us in emergency practice mode.  We have weathered many storms here and are used to housing offenders from areas most often in the eye of the storms, as was our fate during and post Hurricane Katrina and Rita.  We evacuated and housed thousands of male and female prisoners (federal, state and local) during these crises.  During the devastating 2008 Hurricane season, Gustav and Ike proved to challenge us beyond our dreams, as in addition to the extra supervision of evacuated inmates, we found ourselves in the midst of the storms’ path and lost emergency power for a couple of weeks.  We pulled together, with the help of staff and offenders, and managed to survive without any loss of life or escape attempts.

 

Tune in TONIGHT for an all-new episode of LOUISIANA LOCKDOWN.
"Prison Suicide" premieres at 10 PM ET/PT.

 

Comments

[haylee]

amazing. How the heck do you move everyone into tents !!

[eBay fan]

Looks like the Earth is punishing us for our activity over the world.
You are doing great job, keep going to give a people second chance in life.

[theresa hodnett]

God bless you warden Cain, for giving people a second chance , even in a hard places like angola. Just to see how that young man was smiling ear to ear , for that second chance to ride in that rodeo,and for him to be doing life , it was something to see.

[Linda Ingram]

Hello Angola, love your show ! Hoping to write a letter to an inmate ! But, don't know if they will except it ! Linda

[Thabiso]

God chose u 4 a reason maybe ur strong u can handle it, im with u all de way.