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Louisiana State Penitentiary warden Burl Cain delivers remarks prior to the screening of the documentary ‘Serving Life,’ by director Lisa R. Cohen, inside the prison chapel in Angola, La., Thursday, July 21, 2011. The film is about the volunteer hospice work done by inmates for inmates dying in the prison. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
News December 14, 2015
What Angola's Resigning Warden Is Leaving Behind
For 20 years, Burl Cain both punished and preached.
By
Life Inside July 29, 2021
A Filthy New Orleans Jail Made My Son Sick. The ‘Cruel and Unusual’ Medical Treatment at Angola Prison Killed Him.
This spring, a judge ruled that the healthcare at the Louisiana State Penitentiary violated prisoners’ Eighth Amendment rights. Lois Ratcliff tells the horrifying story of her son Farrell’s decline and death.
By Lois Ratcliff as told by
Norris Henderson founded Voice of the Experienced (VOTE) to organize incarcerated people to engage in civic issues after he was released from Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Life Inside March 12, 2020
What I Learned About Voting Rights in the Fields of Angola
“We asked ourselves: Do we want to change our conditions, or do we want to change our circumstances?”
By Norris Henderson as told to
A prison tower and grounds are seen behind a chain-link fence in the foreground.
Feature August 22
The Next Alligator Alcatraz Could Be in Your State
Plans to use Indiana’s “Speedway Slammer,” Louisiana’s Angola and other state prisons to house ICE detainees raise problematic questions, attorneys say.
By and
A Black man wearing a red T-shirt that reads “No kids in Angola” shouts during a protest at the Louisiana state Capitol against the state’s decision to house some youth at the adult prison Angola.
Inside Story February 2, 2023
When Kids Are Punished Like Adults
Louisianans protest temporary youth housing in notorious Angola, and Bryan Stevenson speaks on sentencing reform.
By and
News March 10, 2015
The $14 Million Death Sentence
Louisiana tried to sentence five men to death for the murder of a prison guard. It wasn’t cheap.
By
An illustration shows a Black man in a white T-shirt with his arms around an older Black woman in a polka-dotted shirt and an older Black man in a newsboy cap and black T-shirt. The left side of the illustration shows a freeway, with trees at the edge of the road.
Life Inside May 12, 2023
My Brother Was Wrongfully Convicted for Murder. 20 Years Later, So Was My Son.
Although it was a coincidence, I knew it wasn’t a mistake. What Louisiana was doing to men like my brother Elvis and my son Cedric was intentional.
By Earline Brooks Colbert, as told to
Albert Woodfox at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, La. on Feb. 19. He was released from Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La. earlier in the day.
Q&A February 21, 2016
‘I’ll Believe It When I See It.’
After 42 years in solitary, Albert Woodfox walks free.
By
Feature December 17, 2021
‘The Only Way We Get Out of There Is in a Pine Box’
Elderly, ailing and expensive, lifetime prisoners cost Louisiana taxpayers millions a year.
By John Simerman
Taurus Buchanan, then 19, at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
News October 2, 2018
Louisiana’s Taurus Buchanan Wins Parole After 25 Years
At 16, one deadly punch sent him away for life. The Supreme Court gave him a second chance at freedom.
By
A group of people walk through a dark hallway with prison cells on either side.
Feature June 9, 2022
Rethinking Prison Tourism
Many former prison sites draw on the spooky and salacious to entertain visitors. But some are having second thoughts.
By Hope Corrigan
Feature January 4, 2016
This Boy’s Life
At 16, Taurus Buchanan threw one deadly punch—and was sent away for life. Will the Supreme Court give him, and hundreds like him, a chance at freedom?
By and
A barbed wire fence surrounds a tan-colored building.
Closing Argument September 23, 2023
Juvenile Detention Centers Face One Scandal After Another
Despite repeated efforts at reform, allegations of mistreatment mount at youth facilities across the country.
By
Dawn breaks over Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman, where death row prisoners are housed, outside Florence, Ariz., in 2010.
News July 23, 2017
Condemned to Death — And Solitary Confinement
Arizona is set to become the latest state to move away from automatic isolation for death row inmates.
By
A photo shows the silhouette of a prison tower, trees and lamp posts against an orange sunset.
Closing Argument July 22, 2023
‘Concrete Coffins’: Surviving Extreme Heat Behind Bars
Record temperatures in much of the U.S. threatening more people in prisons.
By
An illustration shows a floating prison cell in the middle of a red barren landscape. A person in a gray uniform sits on a bed and leans on a wall inside the cell.
Investigate This August 4, 2025
Journalists: How to Investigate Dangerous Heat in Prisons
Exposing the risks posed by heat behind bars requires coverage at the intersection of public health, climate change and criminal justice.
By , , , and
Commentary February 19, 2015
What Are 30 Years Worth?
In the case of this wrongfully convicted man, Louisiana says $0.00.
By
Raymond Flanks, a Black man, and Cassandra Delpit, a Black woman, embrace each other by Lake Pontchartrain.
Life Inside July 26, 2024
Love Beyond Bars: Raymond and Cassandra
Raymond Flanks spent nearly 39 years in Louisiana lockups for a murder he didn’t commit. Luckily, he found love with an old friend, Cassandra Delpit.
Photographs by Camille Farrah Lenain
As-told-to by
Feature December 10, 2015
The Marshall Project’s Holiday Gift Guide
From prison pups to personal trainers with rap sheets.
By
News January 25, 2016
The Supreme Court May Have Just Granted Thousands of Prisoners a Chance of Freedom
The Montgomery ruling says juveniles sentenced to life without parole must get a shot at a new sentence or parole.
By
Case in Point May 3, 2016
Exonerated, Dead and Still on Trial
In a notorious Louisiana case, a judge gets in a last kick.
By
Feature September 9, 2016
When There’s Only One Public Defender in Town
Meet Rhonda Covington, the one-woman office.
By
Henry Montgomery, flanked by two deputies, awaits the verdict in his 1964 trial for the murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles H. Hurt in Louisiana.
Commentary February 28, 2018
For Henry Montgomery, a Catch-22
His “meaningful opportunity for release” came with impossible conditions.
Ashley Nellis
Louis Schexnayder, right, unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court to rescue him from a life sentence in Louisiana.
Case in Point December 11, 2019
His Appeal in Louisiana Was a Sham Proceeding. But the High Court Won’t Review the Case.
Louisiana automatically rejected appeals from prisoners who represented themselves. One prisoner hoped the Supreme Court would consider his conviction in the light of that scandal.
By
At the Orleans Justice Center, the city jail in New Orleans pictured here, eight employees and one contractor have tested positive for the virus.
Coronavirus March 28, 2020
How Is The Justice System Responding to the Coronavirus? It Depends On Where You Live.
While some cities free people from jail and stop arrests, others are much more business as usual.
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