Collection:LPB

Genre: Newsmagazine

Place Covered: West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

Copyright Holder: Louisiana Educational Television Authority

Date Issued: 1976-11

Duration: 00:27:38

Subjects: Filmed panel discussions | Louisiana State Penitentiary | ANGOLA STATE PRISON | PRISONERS | Louisiana. Department of Corrections | Prison overcrowding | REHABILITATION | Prisons

Contributors:

• George, Beth Host
• Phelps, C. Paul Panelist
• Carleton, Tom Panelist
• Freeman, Bobby Panelist

The first episode of the series “Louisiana: The State We’re In,” produced in November 1976. This episode features a segment on the history of Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary located in West Feliciana Parish, and a panel discussion on the prison with C. Paul Phelps, the Secretary of the Department of Corrections, Dr. Mark Thomas Carleton, the Research Director for the Public Affairs Research Council, and State Representative Bobby Freeman of Plaquemine. Angola was put under a federal court order in June 1975 in order to address the overcrowding of the prison population and the poor living conditions of the inmates. The panel discusses the response to the federal court order, the political problem of appropriating funding to prisons, the problems associated with decentralizing the prison system away from Angola, the prison employees, the farm work performed by the inmates, the issue of the rehabilitation of prisoners, the medical services provided to inmates, and the future outlook of the prison system in Louisiana. Host: Beth George