The Louisiana Department of Corrections is showing a “callous disregard for human health and safety” in its paltry response to a July court order, a federal judge found on Thursday.

At the beginning of July, U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson ordered the DOC to improve conditions for “Farm Line” workers, prisoners laboring in extreme heat in the fields at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Jackson’s temporary restraining order ordered prison officials to “take immediate measures to correct the glaring deficiencies in their heat-related policies.” Specifically, the prison needed to provide sufficient shade, rest, and equipment for the incarcerated men who are forced to work Angola’s Farm Line for pennies an hour.

After an appeal that narrowed Jackson’s original ruling, the case came back to Jackson. The DOC told the court that it had purchased some sunscreen and a single 10×10 pop-up tent to provide shade for around 20-30 laborers. “Grossly insufficient,” Jackson wrote. 

Lawyers from the Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI), who represent Farm Line workers, alleged that the solutions touted by the prison border on bad faith. Jacksson agreed, and blasted the prison’s “apparent obstinance towards proposing meaningful changes to conditions on the Farm Line.” 

Earlier this year, Farm Line lawyers had filed an emergency motion, asking for a halt to all Farm Line work once the heat index reached or exceeded 88 degrees.  The conditions, they argued, created “a serious risk of injury or death to even the healthiest of individuals and an even greater risk to those with underlying health conditions.”

Earlier this month, because of the DOC’s minimal response, Farm Line lawyers repeated their request for a complete stop to the crew’s work during the summer’s worst heat.

Again on Thursday, Jackson declined to halt work on the Farm Line altogether.

Instead, Angola must buy several more tents for shade, with chairs, water, and ice available under each tent. The tents must be set up near where the Farm Line is working, to ensure that the men don’t spend breaks walking back and forth. And instead of the DOC’s brief breaks – of five minutes every half hour – Farm Line workers must be given time to cool down, with 15-minute breaks after every 45 minutes of work, Jackson ordered.

The ruling is “another clear signal that the State must end the Farm Line altogether,” said PJI lawyer Lydia Wright. 

“The fix is really that simple. Instead of forcing elderly and sick men to dig in the plantation dirt with their hands, imagine if the State instead invested in programs that provide safe and meaningful opportunities for rehabilitation.”

Lawsuit part of a larger effort to end forced agricultural work

The emergency motion, to end work in extreme heat, is part of a larger proposed class-action lawsuit that seeks to end Angola’s long tradition of forced agricultural labor, brought by PJI on behalf of Farm Line workers and Voice of the Experienced (VOTE).

While other agricultural operations at Angola utilize modern farming techniques, Farm Line workers are ordered to perform tedious and grueling tasks such as pulling grass with their bare hands, and watering crops with a styrofoam cup — for no purpose other than to ‘“break’ incarcerated men and ensure their submission,” the suit alleges.

The men on the Farm Line labor in extreme heat, while being provided with little rest, water, or shade, they allege. If they refuse, they are put in solitary confinement.

This summer, even as the National Weather Service has issued repeated heat advisories, Farm Line works seems to have continued unceasingly.

In late July, after a visit to Angola, PJI lawyers and VOTE members saw almost no improvement in conditions.

Prisoners were still taking breaks in direct sun, they said. The single tent was far too small and placed far away from work areas, while five-minute breaks didn’t allow anyone to cool down or sufficiently rest.

Based on pictures supplied from that visit, Jackson, too, was unimpressed with measures taken by the prison.

“These photographs depict a singular pop-up tent in an expansive field, lacking any nearby trees or buildings to provide cover, haphazardly propped up in a dirt road adjacent to several rows of low-growing crops,” Jackson wrote. “What appear to be two water coolers are visible within the tent, one sat directly on the loose dirt and another on a plastic crate approximately one foot off the ground. There are no places to sit within the tented area, save for upon the dusty, rock-strewn ground.”

Jackson said the tent was “obviously not large enough” for the number of workers it is supposed to provide shade for, and that “based on the position of the sun and the configuration of the tent, the actual shade provided is a mere fraction of the tent’s formal dimensions.”

Also, the Farm Line men appear to be suffering health impacts from working in the dire heat, Jackson wrote, pointing to Angola medical records.  Between July 2 and August 5, prison medical staff recorded roughly 50 sick calls from the Farm Line that “either explicitly or potentially relate to heat-related conditions.” In seven of those calls, men required emergency medical treatment. 

The medical-log incidents tied to workers coming from the fields are likely only a portion of the total heat-related medical complaints that originate from the Farm Line work, Jackson said, noting that “heat-related conditions do not necessarily abate as soon as one stops outdoor labor.”