The Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as 'Angola', is a sprawling facility that was opened in 1901 on former plantation land. Known throughout much of the 20th century as one of the hardest places to be incarcerated, the legend of Angola permeates deep into the dark history of American justice and racial division. Today, Angola is a maximum-security prison prison and is managed and operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named Angola after the former cotton plantation that occupied this territory, which was in turn named after the African country that was the origin of many enslaved Africans brought to Louisiana in slavery times. This is the largest Maximum security prison in the United States[with some 6,300 prisoners and 1,800 staff.
It is located on an 18,000-acre site and bordered on three sides by swamp land and the Mississippi River. Not an easy place to escape from!
Over 90% of the inmates who are convicted and sent to Angola to serve time will die on the premises -with many buried in the allocated graveyard within the grounds.