Dear Secretary LeBlanc, Warden Hooper, and Director Stagg,

It is beyond time to end compulsory agricultural labor (the “Farm Line”) at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Every day, the State subjects incarcerated men to forced labor at Angola. Often overseen by armed guards on horseback or four-wheelers, incarcerated men—most of whom are Black— must walk or ride into the fields to dig ditches and cultivate plantation crops by hand. Some are paid two cents an hour for their labor. Many are paid nothing at all. They are forced to work in extreme heat and humidity, without basic safety gear or modern agricultural equipment—even though the State has that equipment—under threat of serious harm if their work is unsatisfactory.

The Farm Line is particularly and obviously dangerous during the summer months, when the heat index in the Angola fields regularly reaches into the “danger” and “extreme danger” zones. Heat exposure is particularly concerning in Louisiana, which experiences some of the highest average summer temperatures in the nation. This summer alone, the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for the Angola fields on 80 days.

The science is clear that prolonged exposure to high heat places people, even younger and healthier people, at serious risk of death or permanent physical injury. People with certain chronic illnesses or psychiatric disorders, or who take certain common medications, are even more susceptible to serious heat-related illnesses. At Angola, these individuals are still forced to work in the plantation fields, notwithstanding their increased risk of illness and injury.

The Farm Line serves no legitimate penological or institutional purpose. It is not calculated to lead to gainful future employment, as the State has projected agriculture to have a decrease in future employment. Prison Enterprises, which directs all agricultural operations at Angola, actually loses money because of its inefficient and outdated work methods and reluctance to reclassify incarcerated people to jobs that offer more valuable work skills.

Instead, the Farm Line appears calculated to “break” incarcerated men and ensure their submission. This causes obvious psychological harm to the Black men who are forced to hand-cultivate plantation crops on the site of former slave plantations. Extracted under threat of punishment and serious harm, including disciplinary confinement and loss of canteen and phone access, compulsory agricultural labor at Angola is humiliating and degrading. It is arbitrary and traumatic.

The Farm Line must end.