Louisiana federal judge has ruled that teenagers being held in the state's notorious Angola Prison, a maximum-security prison farm, be removed until Friday, September 15.
Reportedly, they are being subjected to "intolerable" conditions, including extended solitary confinement, punishment with mace and handcuffs, and a lack of adequate education and mental health care.
Fight for Juvenile Detainees
Louisiana has one of the worst imprisonment rates in the world, and this verdict marks the culmination of a year-long dispute between civil rights organizations and the state. Angola Prison, so called because it is built on a former plantation that used African slaves, has a reputation for cruelty and violence among its inmates.
Since October 2022, Angola has been home to up to 80 youngsters. Almost all of them are Black males, and the youngest of whom is 15 years old. They have been kept in cells formerly used by those on death row.
This action was taken because of the instability in the state's juvenile prison facilities, which have experienced staff shortages, riots, and numerous escapes.
According to The Guardian, human rights organizations were quick to condemn the move, citing concerns that imprisoned children might be mistreated in Angola. They initiated legal action, spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Fair Fight Initiative, which resulted in a seven-day hearing last month and a federal court injunction just recently.
The judge's decision to release the youngsters from Angola was a relief, according to Antonio Travis of Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children. "This decision is long overdue ... and it's shameful that it has taken a lawsuit and federal intervention to try to make the [state] do the right thing for our kids."
Inside the Angola Prison
US district judge Shelly Dick criticized the state in her judgment for falling short of its own expectations.
Dick outlined the abuses that had been committed against the kids, all of which she deemed to be cruel and unusual. Solitary confinement was one of them, and it could endure anywhere from five to fourteen days at a time.
The minors were only supposed to spend one night in the solitary confinement cells used for those on death row. Many studies have shown that even adult prisoners suffer mental health issues after just a few days of seclusion.
The teenagers have been confined in an outdated structure with intermittently broken air conditioning when, last month, Louisiana declared a statewide emergency due to the scorching temperatures.
As a form of punishment, Dick discovered that chains and the restriction of family visits were regularly used on youngsters. When the judge visited Angola, she witnessed adolescents eating meals and playing cards while handcuffed; one youngster was also maced in his cell.
Moreover, only one of the three classrooms was functioning, so the juveniles spent half of their school day confined to their cells rather than studying. Dick also criticized the "anemic" state of mental health care in the prison.
