Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates have filed a class action against public safety officials, alleging that they were illegally required to perform agricultural work at the Angola prison during humid, triple-digit weather for 2 cents an hour or less.
New Orleans-based Voice of the Experienced, a nonprofit group of former inmates, and several current inmates filed the federal lawsuit Sept. 16 in the Middle District of Louisiana. The defendants include prison officials, the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections and Prison Enterprises Inc.
“Often overseen by armed guards, these individuals – most of whom are Black – must walk or ride into the fields, sometimes carrying hoes and shovels, to dig ditches and pick plantation crops on the so-called ‘Farm Line,’” the lawsuit states. “Some are paid two cents an hour for their labor. Many are paid nothing at all.”
The complaint alleges that defendants violated inmates' Eighth Amendment right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment and failed to fulfill their obligation to provide inmates with disabilities accommodations and services outlined in the Americans With Disabilities Act. In addition, the lawsuit argues that those obligated to work on the Farm Line who were convicted of offenses by non-unanimous juries suffered 13th Amendment violations stemming from “involuntary servitude.”
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections declined to comment on the lawsuit because the agency has yet to be served with the lawsuit.
The Massachusetts-based Prison Policy Initiative, which is not a party to the litigation, has done research into labor practices in U.S. prisons, including unsafe heat conditions in prison buildings. Its spokesman, Mike Wessler, said a lack of air conditioning in certain prisons can be considered cruel and unusual punishment.
“If simply existing in a building that has no air conditioning can be cruel and unusual punishment, then being forced to work and to toil in unsafe temperatures in direct sunlight could almost certainly be considered, from a legal standpoint, cruel and unusual punishment,” Wessler told the Louisiana Record.
Inmates serving sentences lasting a few years shouldn’t have to put their lives at risk by working in dangerous summer conditions as part of a manual agricultural workforce, he said.
“Both from a legal and moral standpoint, the choice to force people to work in these unsafe conditions seems unimaginable,” Wessler said.
Last year, Louisiana voters had a chance to end forced labor at the Louisiana State Penitentiary by voting in favor of a constitutional amendment prohibiting “slavery and involuntary servitude.” That measure went down to defeat.