🛑 Stop Governor Landry’s Unlawful Prison Expansion: Say NO to Camp J and Louisiana’s Modern-Day Plantation 🛑

In August of this year, Governor Landry claimed there was a “lack of beds” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use to detain immigrants – despite Louisiana having the second-highest number of immigrant detention centers in the country. Landry used this pretense to declare a “state of emergency” and re-open the Camp J unit. Camp J is a site so brutal and inhumane that prison staff have previously refused to work there. In 2018, Camp J at Angola Prison was referred to as “the dungeon” and was shut down due to its inhumane conditions.

Now, this unit — long notorious for its use of solitary confinement — is being hastily “renovated.” Under the direction of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, people detained at Angola—mostly Black men—are subjected to harsh, unconstitutional conditions, including forced agricultural labor. The emergency is clear: every person detained at Angola is at risk of serious harm. No renovation can fix a system that is fundamentally broken. As congressional leaders and/or members of the House Committee on Homeland Security, we strongly urge you to act without delay by using every tool at your disposal—including, but not limited to, issuing a request for information or letter of inquiry, calling for an independent investigation by the Government Accountability Office, and conducting an unannounced visit to Camp J to directly engage with individuals being held in inhumane and unacceptable conditions.

This is part of a broader, deeply racist and anti-immigrant agenda supported by Landry and the Trump administration. They want to further criminalize, cage, and dehumanize Black, Brown, and immigrant communities. By re-opening Camp J, the carceral state and violence continues Louisiana’s gruesome plantation and mass incarceration legacy.

Across the country, both ICE and unscrupulous state actors are blurring the lines between immigration enforcement and incarceration. This year alone, at least 14 people have died in ICE detention – a tragic tally that Camp J threatens to raise. Landry is weaponizing both civil and criminal systems to detain Black, Brown, and immigrant communities – without due process, oversight, or accountability.

Currently, at least 51 noncitizens are being held in Camp J, many transferred far from their families and under the cover of darkness. Plans are underway to detain up to 400 individuals. The people detained in Camp J are being tortured with isolation in solitary cells; suffering severe medical neglect, including reports of untreated hernias and vomiting blood; and cut off from legal representation, advocates, and loved ones.

Our taxpayer dollars – meant to support communities – are being funneled into this cruel and unaccountable effort. This is not just a prison expansion — it is a modern-day extension of slavery and state violence that Black communities, particularly African Americans in Louisiana, have endured for generations. It builds on the ugly legacy of Angola, a former plantation turned prison. This expansion will only continue the deliberate criminalization and dehumanization of Black, Brown, and immigrant communities.

We demand:

1) An immediate end to all transfers and detentions at Camp J.

2) Full public transparency regarding the facility’s operations, contractors, funding, and people detained.

3) Independent oversight and access for legal representatives, advocates, and media.

4) A full investigation into Landry’s misuse of emergency powers and taxpayer funds.

5) A statewide shift away from mass incarceration and toward investments in real public safety — housing, healthcare, education, and community care.

They want to keep building cages in our state — we say NO.
We refuse to let Louisiana be turned into a prison state for profit and political gain.
We will not stand by while lives are destroyed in cages under the cover of night.