Judge orders changes to Louisiana prison work program, likened to ’19th century slavery’

A federal judge on Tuesday condemned working conditions for inmates at the Louisiana State Prison’s “Farm Line” and ordered corrections officials to change their heat policies. In the same ruling, however, the judge denied a request to temporarily halt such work when the heat index — also known as the wind chill — exceeds 88 degrees.

As summers continue to warm, “coping with the Louisiana heat has become a matter of life and death,” wrote Judge Brian A. Jackson in his more than 70-page ruling. “Conditions at Farm Line ‘pose a substantial risk of injury or death.’”

Last year, several inmates at the Louisiana State Prison, better known as Angola, and the human rights group Voice of the Experienced (VOTE) sued the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections and others, arguing that Farm Line violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

The lawsuit seeks to permanently close Farm Line, but it could be months or longer before the case is resolved. As the lawsuit is still pending, the plaintiffs filed a temporary motion in May to protect the men in Angola from having to work at Farm Line in potentially deadly heat.

In granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order Tuesday, Jackson identified “glaring deficiencies” in Angola’s heat policies, noting they fail to meet federal and state requirements for heat safety in agricultural settings. He ordered corrections officers to make changes to “preserve the health and safety of the public.” But Jackson also denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order to immediately halt work on Farm Line until the case is resolved.

Among the required updates to Angola’s heat policy, Jackson ruled that corrections officers must address the current “failure to provide adequate shade, rest, sunscreen, and other protective equipment, as well as the failure to provide accommodations for incarcerated persons suffering from a disease or condition that significantly inhibits thermoregulation.” Corrections officers must also “develop additional heat policies to protect persons working outdoors when heat indices reach or exceed 113 degrees, the temperature at which the National Weather Service issues excessive heat warnings.” Defendants must file their revised policies with the court within seven days.

In a statement to The Appeal, the plaintiffs said they were “pleased with the district court’s careful finding that the Farm Line, in its current form, does not meet basic constitutional standards.”

On the site of a former slave plantation, Angola’s Farm Line labor involves prisoners — most of whom are black — working in the fields, often for no pay or as little as two cents an hour, according to the plaintiffs’ motion. The plaintiffs say they could be placed in solitary confinement if they refuse to participate. Farm Line is “similar to 19th-century slavery,” the motion states.

“During their shifts, the men perform grueling but meaningless manual agricultural work, such as picking rotten watermelons, okra and other crops with their bare hands, weeding and pulling grass by hand, and watering crops using Styrofoam cups,” the lawyers wrote in their court filing. A medical expert representing the plaintiffs said the men who work at Farm Line in extreme heat are “at risk for serious heat-related disorders,” including fainting, heat cramps and heat stroke, which can cause death or “permanent disability.”

The plaintiffs claim that workers provide water to Farm Line workers that is “filthy and full of insects.” Damion Thompson, who has been incarcerated at Angola Prison since last summer, told the court that the heat in the fields is “unbearable” and that he drank dirty water to “avoid fainting.” He said he was forced to work at Farm Line despite having nerve damage from a gunshot wound.

In the state’s response to the court filing, officials said they provide workers with jugs of water with lids and that the containers are disinfected daily. Officials say that because of their work at Farm Line, prisoners at Angola “enjoy fresh vegetables at least twice a day.” They also raised concerns that a ruling banning work at Farm Line in heat indexes above 88 degrees “will effectively open the floodgates to halt all work at any facility in the South.”

Advocates and experts say prisoners across the country are bearing the brunt of the deepening climate crisis. In addition to working outside in brutally hot weather, many are locked up in prisons without air conditioning. These facilities are typically made of heat-trapping steel and concrete and have minimal air circulation. Corrections officers often provide limited access to showers, drinking water and ice. Items that could provide a modicum of relief, such as fans or cooling towels, are sold at high markups at the commissary.

Judge Jackson’s ruling said Farm Line employees must buy their own sunglasses from the store or do without them. (In April, The Appeal published lists of prison sunglasses stores in 46 states; Louisiana was one of four states that did not provide such records.)

The stakes are especially high in Louisiana, where inmates have faced the hottest summer on record, according to the complaint. In Angola, the heat index topped 88 degrees nearly every day from May 1 to Oct. 31. It reached a whopping 156 degrees in August.

Jackson acknowledged that temperatures in the state are becoming more extreme, writing that the “worsening climate situation in Louisiana” increases the risk for workers at Farm Line.

In an email to The Appeal before Jackson’s ruling, a spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections called the allegations in the lawsuit “baseless” and said the agency “takes the health and well-being” of all incarcerated individuals “very seriously.”

In the face of last summer’s heat, Louisiana prisons “adjusted outdoor work hours to allow tasks to be performed on cooler mornings,” the spokesman said. He added that the prison’s heat precautions require that employees provide Farm Line employees with water, ice and a rest break every 30 minutes when the heat index reaches 88 degrees. Additionally, people taking certain medications or with certain medical conditions are prohibited from working outside from May through October when the heat index exceeds 88 degrees, he said.

Jackson rejected many of the state’s claims in his ruling Tuesday. People with “serious medical conditions or pre-existing conditions worked in the field without any work restrictions,” he said after reviewing medical records for emergency sick calls from April through May 15. One of those men had AIDS. Another 53-year-old man had a history of prediabetes, asthma, fainting, knee pain and osteoarthritis, according to the ruling.

Jackson found “abundant evidence” that people at Farm Line are not provided with shade, sunscreen or required rest breaks. Statements by Farm Line workers “uniformly state that breaks are rarely granted, that the water is dirty, that they are required to work beyond their physical capabilities and that they are not provided with other necessary protective equipment.” The ruling noted that state officials “dispute these claims, but not persuasively.”

The plaintiffs submitted several statements to the court from people who worked at Farm Line. Nate Walker said he was disciplined for having difficulty standing and walking while working at Farm Line in 2017.

“I told the guards I was feeling unwell but they ignored me,” he said in his statement to the court. “When I tried to walk I started to wobble. The guards called an ambulance and told them I was intoxicated.”

Walker received a disciplinary citation for the poisoning. Walker is currently on heat-related duty, meaning he cannot be assigned to work in a hot environment, according to state officials.

Another plaintiff, Darrius Williams, said he once fainted while working at Farm Line. The next day, workers told him to come back to work. When he refused, he was placed in solitary confinement for five days and denied access to the cafeteria for a week. On another occasion, Williams said he was placed in solitary confinement for a month because he refused to work at Farm Line without proper protective gear. Williams currently has no assigned position, according to state officials.

Plaintiff Myron Smith told the court that when he works at Farm Line, he buys his own water because the water provided is “dirty, in a moldy cooler that often has dead insects in it.” Workers often have nowhere to use the bathroom, and when portable toilets are available, they are “extremely unsanitary,” Smith said. He added that prison staff regularly ignore heat warnings.

“The heat and humidity in the fields are unbearable,” Smith said. “I often feel lightheaded, dehydrated and dizzy.”

Smith earns two cents an hour for his work.

“I only work on Farm Line to avoid serious harm and punishment, such as solitary confinement, loss of telephone time and access to the canteen,” he said.