NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge on Thursday ordered staff at the Louisiana State Penitentiary to provide more shade and take other steps to protect inmates doing agricultural work from the dangerous heat.
U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson’s Order Strengthened a similar one which he released in July. It cites photos of prisoners in the fields of a former slave plantation with a single pop-up tent for about 20 men, little protection from the sun and nowhere to sit. The photos were provided by Voice of the Experienced, the advocacy group that filed a lawsuit over the conditions of prisoners working on the “farm line” at the vast prison farm in Angola.
“Taken literally, plaintiffs’ claims in this case have cast the state of Louisiana in a harsh and unflattering light. Defendants contribute to this portrayal by their apparent reluctance to propose meaningful changes to conditions on the Farm Line,” wrote Jackson, who is based in Baton Rouge.
A spokesman for the state prison service said authorities would not comment until they had time to fully review Jackson’s order.
Jackson’s final order said there were 50 cases of inmates who became ill from July 2 to Aug. 5, seven of whom required emergency medical treatment. He ordered that more tents be installed and placed near inmate workstations. He also ordered that some form of seating be provided and that workers be given 15-minute breaks every 45 minutes when heat warnings are in effect.
State corrections officials appealed Jackson’s original July 2 order in the case. A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated some of the original rulings but kept several key requirements intact while the appeal proceeds. As he did on July 2, Jackson refused to suspend work on the farm line during heat warnings.
The lawsuit over farm labor conditions comes amid growing national attention to lucrative prison labor systems that date back to the era of slavery. A two-year Associated Press investigation The supply chains of some of the world’s largest and best-known companies—from Walmart to Burger King—are linked to Angola and other prison farms, where inmates are paid as little as a few cents an hour or nothing at all. Several companies, including Cargill, have said they have cut or are in the process of cutting ties with prison farms or companies that use prisoners as labor.