{"id":72039,"date":"2026-02-09T01:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/72039\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T01:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:57:18","slug":"theyre-still-humans-court-hearings-continue-on-the-lawsuit-filed-against-the-state-angolas-prison-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/72039\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They\u2019re still humans:\u2019 Court hearings continue on the lawsuit filed against the state, Angola\u2019s prison labor"},"content":{"rendered":"

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First<\/a>) \u2014 Advocacy groups involved in a federal lawsuit over prison labor at Angola held a press conference in Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n

The Promise of Justice Initiative and Rights Behind Bars spoke to the media on Thursday, Feb. 5, after court proceedings wrapped up for the day on the steps of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. \u201cThis week in court, we presented evidence that the farm line violates the Eighth Amendment\u2019s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and endangers people in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act,\u201d said Samantha Pourciau, Senior staff attorney for the Promise of Justice Initiative.<\/p>\n

The groups discussed the first week of testimony in VOTE v. LeBlanc, a class action lawsuit that challenges the \u201cFarm Line\u201d agricultural labor program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola. The lawsuit argues that the work conditions are dangerous and dehumanizing. \u201cI hurt myself in prison just like as I\u2019m standing here talking to you now, I had a back injury from working in the farm line and my back hurts me right now. So, it wasn\u2019t any it wasn\u2019t a good experience,\u201d said Terrance Winn, a former inmate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trial follows years of investigation, working with formerly incarcerated people to understand their experiences, the issues that so few of us can see or have access to,\u201d Samantha Kennedy, Promise of Justice Initiative executive director, said.<\/p>\n

ACLU says ICE is unlawfully punishing immigrants at a notorious Louisiana detention center <\/a><\/p>\n

Many who oppose the farm line argue this practice of tough, unpaid work, is modern day slavery. \u201cAngola\u2019s farmland basically imitates and replicates the conditions that the plantation that was formerly on those grounds used under to enslave people. And the inmates are being forced to cosplay as slaves,\u201d said Cecelia Kappel, Deputy Director of Litigation with the Promise of Justice Initiative. \u201cAngola\u2019s farmland basically imitates and replicates the conditions that the plantation that was formerly on those grounds used under to enslave people. And the inmates are being forced to cosplay as slaves,\u201d Winn said.<\/p>\n

Advocates say their main push is to get rid of this method, completely. \u201cThis practice is an anachronism. We are an anomaly. This is the only prison in the state that has a farm line and one of the only prisons in the country that continues to have a farmland there,\u201d said Kappel. And those like Winn hope the prison takes a different approach on how punishments are given out at the prison. \u201cI hope that they see the humans who made who committed crimes. We won\u2019t say that their mistakes will just say that crimes were committed. Choices to me that they made people break laws, but they still humans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Court proceedings in the case began Feb. 3 and are expected to continue through Feb. 10.<\/p>\n

Latest News<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) \u2014 Advocacy groups involved in a federal lawsuit over prison labor at Angola…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1151,41606,28805,41603,41601,41602,41600,41605,41604,7304],"class_list":{"0":"post-72039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-angola","8":"tag-angola","9":"tag-class-action-lawsuit","10":"tag-court-proceedings","11":"tag-louisiana-state-penitentiary","12":"tag-middle-district-of-louisiana","13":"tag-prison-labor","14":"tag-promise-of-justice-initiative","15":"tag-samantha-pourciau","16":"tag-terrance-winn","17":"tag-u-s-district-court"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116038195129038499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}