Oppressive Conditions in Louisiana Control Units

This is a plea for help from all prisoners housed in Louisiana at David Wade located in Homer. This plea is for advocacy against the cruel and unusual conditions. No one in their right mind should let this suffering and these inhumane living conditions go on. The unconstitutionally tortuous conditions need to be stopped. This is solitary torture.

We have been fighting with hunger strikes and cutting ourselves trying to make DOC make some changes here in our living conditions. We also have over 10 of us in court on all the confinement issues in the 19th District Court in BR. LA Case #647-104. We are trying to make this a class action but we need counsel representatives to help and to make our voice heard outside these walls.

All prisoners are housed in their cells 24-7 and get only one hour outside a week. All cells are approx. 8’ x 7’ which do not meet ACA standards of sixty-four square feet of unencumbered space for prisoners.

Many studies have been conducted showing these conditions to cause extreme psychological stress and trauma due to prolonged isolation periods. There has been much activism done in several states about the conditions of confinement. But not here in Louisiana where Albert Woodfox did 46 years at this jail in one cell, and he won a court case on the confinement issue but not a thing has changed here.

It is past due for Louisiana to be recognized for oppressive and tortuous conditions imposed upon prisoners in this state. I would like to point out some significant differences between Louisiana and other states. Besides the similarities of torture and indefinite time done by prisoners, with no determinate criteria or programs for release or to get out of lock-down, we are living in far worse conditions. We do not have TVs or radios, nor access to any educational programming, etc. We are limited to three books, and we endure eighteen hours of continuous bright light in the cells everyday, no exceptions!

We must endure the elements of both cold and heat, with temperatures often times reaching triple digits. We are not provided any ice, and are forced to wear a heavy linen jumpsuit from 5am to 4pm.

All prisoners suffer the effects of the chemical agents that are used on us on a daily basis. Many prisoners are also placed on “strip cell” in a thin see-through paper gown for thirty-day periods. During the winter months this is beyond torture.

These are only a few of the many conditions imposed by this prison administration. All continue to suffer and as many are illiterate and unable to express or articulate themselves, I speak on their behalf. We need help! We need change! We need publicity to expose this torture!

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade is documenting conditions in the long term isolation units in Louisiana. This battle is part of our fight to shut down prison control units across the country. As this writer explains, these cells are physical and mental torture. The long-term effects can be devastating. Our incomplete data from the state of Louisiana indicates that there are over 1000 long-term isolation units in that state. And we know that solitary confinement is used as a tool of control for political activists, as Louisiana infamously held the Angola 3 (who had formed a chapter of the Black Panthers) in such conditions longer than any other U.$. prisoner, as the comrade alludes to above. Join this comrade in our campaign to expose and put an end to this torture!