News — Louisiana State University

The Louisiana State Penitentiary nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the South” is the largest maximum security prison in the country. Six thousand, three hundred men, 80 per cent of whom are black are held there. Before the Civil War, the prison property was known as the Angola Plantations and was owned by Isaac Franklin, who at the time owned the largest slave trading firm (Franklin & Armfield) in the United States. The prison grounds occupy a 28-square-mile area. To put that in perspective, the prison property covers an area larger than Manhattan (22.8 sq miles).

Angola’s origins as a prison date back to 1880. Then the state awarded the lease of Louisiana State Penitentiary and all of its convicts to a former Confederate Army officer, Samuel L. James. James purchased several plantations across Louisiana, in addition to the Angola Plantation. Inmates were housed in the old slave quarters and worked on his plantations. The majority of black inmates, however, were subleased to landowners to replace their emancipated slaves. They were leased to businesses to build levees, dig railroad tunnels, build roads, reclaim lowlands, and harvest crops. White inmates, seen as more intellectual, were given clerk and craftsmanship work.

Under this private prison system, profit was the main concern. Humane treatment of prisoners and accountability to the state of Louisiana were ignored. In many instances, inmates suffered worse abuse under the convict lease arrangements than under the now abolished slavery system. As a result, a constitutional ban of convict leasing was successfully adopted in 1898. The State of Louisiana purchased the prison camp from the James family in 1900 and assumed operational control in 1901. Thus, began state control of Angola prison.

Presently, Angola has numerous enterprises. They include a license tag plant, printing services, and a mattress factory. Inmates cultivate, harvest, and process a variety of crops, making the facility self-supporting. Each year, the prison produces four million pounds of vegetable crops including cabbage, corn, cotton, strawberries, okra, onions, peppers, soybeans, squash, tomatoes, and wheat. The facility also has approximately 2,000 head of cattle, and some of the herd is sold at local markets for beef. Inmates also breed and train the horses used at Angola for field work. The prison is known for its professional rodeo which is held one weekend every April, and every Sunday in October. Inmates are allowed to participate in the events. The Angola prison rodeo is open to the general public and attracts 10,000 spectators annually.

At one time, 68 per cent of Angola’s inmate population were serving life sentences. Consequently, a large portion of its prison population consists of elderly inmates. In 2015 a class-action lawsuit (Lewis vs. Cain) was filed stating that inadequate inmate medical care is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment”. According to the lawsuit, the Louisiana Department of Corrections (LADOC) neglected the serious medical needs of people incarcerated there. The lawsuit further claims that Angola is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, by not addressing the mobility issues of inmates who are physically unable to access parts of the prison. As of this writing, the two parties have not reached an agreement.

Andrew Fusaiotti, as part of his routine calls to the cook of his former fraternity house, found out that the cook had not retired and was still working two jobs to pay off her mortgage. The former Louisiana State University fraternity brother then rallied 91 of his fraternity brothers (the Phi Gamma Delta brothers) to help pay off their cook’s mortgage as a birthday present and a testament to the love they have for her.

“They were my kids. They still are,” Jessie Hamilton of Phi Gamma Delta, also known as Fiji, told the Washington Post. “They used to tell me they loved me, and now, they’ve proved it.”

Hamilton received a check for $51,765 on April 3 as part of her 74th birthday celebrations in front of her Baton Rouge home. She was in awe of the turn-up and love from her boys whom she did not only feed but mothered during their stay in the Fiji frat house.

“That shows how they all felt about her,” Fusaiotti, who was a member of the frat back in the eighties, told The Advocate. “Jessie is one of these people that shows up to work and always has a smile on her face, eager to please and never complains.”

Hamilton worked in the Fiji house for 14 years from 1982 to 1996. During that time, she would be the first person to arrive at the house to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the boys all the while going above and beyond for them. Some say she never allowed any boy to go hungry and would save food for those who missed their mealtime. Additionally, she served as a mother figure and counselor for the boys who needed a listening ear and would drive some of them for grocery shopping or to their doctors’ appointments.

“I enjoyed doing it. They loved my cooking,” she told the Post. “I was always there to talk things through with them. They’d come in the kitchen and sit on top of the counter and tell me their problems.”

So when Fusaiotti, now 52, heard she still worked at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport and as a cook at a country club, he decided to set up a fundraiser for Hamilton. Each of the 91 Fiji brothers contributed an average of $560, according to the Post.

Hamilton had serviced her 30-year mortgage for 14 years and needed $45,000 to fully offset the debt. The Fiji boys made it happen and even outdid themselves by raising $6,000 more, which they gave to her as a check on her birthday or what they now refer to as ‘World Hamilton Day.’

 She was truly overwhelmed and humbled by the boys’ generosity. “This has been a blessing to me,” stated Hamilton. “I have been worrying about how I was going to pay my house off. I am grateful for what God has done and has led them to do for me.”