Louisiana State Penitentiary

=== Inmate mental health ===
==== Mental health and faith at Angola ====
Louisiana State Penitentiary has been known for their non-traditional mental health interventions. One such initiative is a faith-based prototype program for mental healthcare and [[Mentally ill people in United States jails and prisons|inmate]] rehabilitation known as the Angola Prison Seminary.<ref name=":3" /> This model focuses on introducing inmates to faith and helping them to find value and purpose through it – be that internally or externally through serving as an Inmate Minister. Through this position, inmates are trained to offer counseling to other inmates, deliver sermons at religious services, officiate funerals for fellow prisoners, and deliver care packages to ill inmates. This model proved to be particularly effective in Louisiana State Penitentiary, especially with its "sidewalk counseling" component.<ref name=":3" /> In this type of guidance, the counseling inmate asks leading questions and helps to guide the other inmate to answering their own question, without revealing any type of positionality. This model positively impacted both the counselor and the advisee, as the counselor felt an increased sense of self-worth by helping someone else, and the advisee felt heard and seen, maybe for the first time in his life.<ref name="Routledge">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/956481272 |title=Angola prison seminary : effects of faith-based ministry on identity. |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-30061-8 |location=[Place of publication not identified] |oclc=956481272}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' reported that this program can help inmates feel "at peace with themselves and their lives".<ref name=":3">Eckholm, Erik. "Bible college helps some at Louisiana prison find peace." ''The New York Times'' (2013): 15.</ref> Reports noted that the Bible College behind bars made the prison feel significantly more relaxed than it truly was.<ref name=":3" />

Faith is referenced many times as being a catalyst for positive change in the lives of lots of Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates. Author Mark Baker describes this connection in his book entitled ''You Can Change: Stories from Angola Prison and the Psychology of Personal Transformation''.<ref name=":4" /> Here, Baker discusses how the high rates of reincarceration among Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates serves as an extremely demoralizing and discouraging reminder of the historical and systemic factors that landed them behind bars in the first place.<ref name=":4" /> Given the highly religious background of many of the inmates, who come largely from Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states, faith has proven to be a very strong motivator for many of the inmates in Angola.<ref name=":4" /> Baker discusses how inmates exposed to religious practices while incarcerated often went on to find a higher purpose in themselves and better avoid future reincarceration.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Mark W. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1133125908 |title=You can change : stories from Angola prison and the psychology of personal transformation. |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-5064-5565-5 |location=Minneapolis, MN |oclc=1133125908}}</ref>

This faith-based approach to mental healthcare is also seen in palliative care at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Due to the largely older population of inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary, the prison sees much higher rates of intakes than release as many men pass away while incarcerated.<ref name=":5" /> In partnership with the University Hospital Community Hospice program based out of New Orleans, the Louisiana State Penitentiary has introduced a hospice program for terminally ill inmates.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Evans |first1=Carol |last2=Herzog |first2=Ronda |last3=Tillman |first3=Tanya |date=August 2002 |title=The Louisiana State Penitentiary: Angola Prison Hospice |url=http://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/109662102760269797 |journal=Journal of Palliative Medicine |language=en |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=553–558 |doi=10.1089/109662102760269797 |pmid=12243680 |issn=1096-6218}}</ref> Inmate Ministers are able to assist in counseling with the ill inmates, as well as help them practice faith if they are interested in doing so. As seen with the other responsibilities they were assigned, this serious duty proved beneficial to not only the recipients, but the Inmate Ministers as well.<ref name="Routledge"/>

Though the blend of mental healthcare and faith interventions has been controversial and yielded mixed results in many spaces,<ref>Sullivan, Steve, Jeffrey M. Pyne, Ann M. Cheney, Justin Hunt, Tiffany F. Haynes, and Greer Sullivan. "The pew versus the couch: Relationship between mental health and faith communities and lessons learned from a VA/clergy partnership project." Journal of religion and health 53, no. 4 (2014): 1267-1282.</ref> research like Baker's suggests that it is working positively in Louisiana State Penitentiary. Though it is unclear why, the large role of religion, particularly Christianity, in the Southern United States, could be a major factor in this occurrence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bouchard |first1=Leah M |last2=Kye Price |first2=Sarah |last3=Swan |first3=Laura |date=2020-02-24 |title=The Role of the Contemporary Christian Church in the Rural American South |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.34043/swc.v47i2.100 |journal=Social Work & Christianity |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=47–64 |doi=10.34043/swc.v47i2.100 |s2cid=219677969 |issn=0737-5778}}</ref>

==== Violations of inmate rights ====
In 2021, a federal judge found that the Louisiana State Penitentiary violated the [[Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990|Americans with Disabilities Act]] through its treatment of inmates requiring rehabilitative services.<ref name=":1">Rold, William J. "Federal Judge Finds Unconstitutional Health Care and Violations of Americans with Disabilities Act at Louisiana State Penitentiary; Injunctive Relief to Follow."</ref> The judge, Chief U.S, District Judge [[Shelly Dick|Shelly D. Dick]], ultimately ruled that the Louisiana State Penitentiary had committed a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and concluded her opinion by describing fifteen areas in which the prison was in need of [[injunctive relief]].<ref name=":1" />