Louisiana State Penitentiary

===History of infrastructure at the prison===
[[File:Camp H00.jpg|thumb|Camp H, a prisoner housing facility that is no longer in service]]
Camp A, the former slave quarters for the plantation, was the first building to house inmates. In the early 21st century, Camp A did not house prisoners.<ref name="Anghist"/>

Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of ''The Life and Legend of Leadbelly'' (1992), stated that during the 1930s, Angola was "even further removed from decent civilization" than it was in the 1990s. The two added "that's the way the state of Louisiana wanted it, for Angola held some of the meanest inmates."<ref name="Leadbelly101"/>{{page needed|date=May 2017}}

In 1930 about 130 women, most of them black, were imprisoned in Camp D. In 1930 Camp A, which held around 700 black inmates, was close to the center of the Angola institution. Inmates worked on levee control, as the springtime high water posed a threat to Angola. The Mississippi River was nearly {{convert|1|mi|km}} wide in this area. Many inmates who tried to swim across drowned; few of their bodies were recovered.<ref name="Leadbelly101"/>{{page needed|date=May 2017}}

The prison hospital opened in the 1940s. The campus had only one permanent nurse and no permanent doctor.<ref name="Hoffa36"/>

In the 1980s the main road to Angola had not been paved.<ref name="Ashton1">Ashton, Linda. (Associated Press) "Louisiana Inmates Blame Unrest on Governor : Roemer's Stinginess With Clemency Has Created 'Time Bomb,' Lifers Claim", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. July 23, 1989. [http://articles.latimes.com/1989-07-23/news/mn-234_1_time-bomb/ 1]. Retrieved on March 22, 2011.</ref> It has since been black topped.{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}}

The outcamp buildings, constructed in 1939 as a WPA project during the Great Depression, were renovated in the 1970s. During May 1993 the buildings' fire safety violations were reported. In June of that year, [[Richard Stalder]], the Secretary of Corrections, said that Angola would close the buildings if LDP S&C did not find millions of dollars to improve the buildings.<ref>"[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AD&p_theme=ad&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB4774DFB379EB7&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Angola violations threaten closures]." ''[[The Advocate (Louisiana)|The Advocate]]''. June 5, 1993. Retrieved on November 2, 2010.</ref>

====Red Hat Cell Block====
{{main|Red Hat Cell Block}}
[[File:RedHatsLSP2.jpg|thumb|[[Red Hat Cell Block]]]]
The most restrictive inmate housing unit was colloquially referred to as "[[Red Hat Cell Block]]",<ref name="NPSList">"[http://www.nps.gov/nr/listings/20030228.htm 20030228.htm]." [[National Park Service]]. February 28, 2003. Retrieved on March 13, 2011.</ref> after the red paint-coated straw hats that its occupants wore when they worked in the fields.<ref name="solitaryconf"/> "Red Hat", a one-story, 30-cell building at Camp E, was built in 1933.<ref>[[Billy Sinclair|Sinclair, Billy Wayne]] and Jodie Sinclair. ''A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story''. [[Arcade Publishing]], 2000. [https://books.google.com/books?id=z84kkV52fW0C&dq=%22When+an+execution+drew+near+on+Louisiana%27s%22&pg=PA51 51]. Retrieved from ''[[Google Books]]'' on October 1, 2010. {{ISBN|1-55970-555-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-55970-555-4}}.</ref> Brooke Shelby Biggs of ''[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]'' reported that men who had lived in "Red Hat" "told of a dungeon crawling with rats, where dinner was served in stinking buckets splashed onto the floors."<ref name="solitaryconf"/>

Warden C. Murray Henderson phased out solitary confinement at "Red Hat".<ref name="sinclairs">Sinclair, Billy and Jodie Sinclair. ''A Life in the Balance: the Billy Wayne Sinclair Story''. [[Arcade Publishing]], 2000. [https://books.google.com/books?id=z84kkV52fW0C&dq=%22Hunt%27s+gesture+in+closing+the+infamous+cell+block%22&pg=PA132 132]. Retrieved from [[Google Books]] on October 28, 2010. {{ISBN|1-55970-555-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-55970-555-4}}</ref> In 1972 his successor Elayn Hunt had "Red Hat" officially closed.<ref name="sinclairs"/>

In 1977 the administration made Camp J the most restrictive housing unit in Angola.<ref name="solitaryconf"/> On February 20, 2003, the [[National Park Service]] listed the Red Hat Cell Block on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] as #03000041.<ref name="NPSList"/>