Last week, U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson extended protections through mid-August for the Farm Line, incarcerated men working in extreme heat at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
“It is an excellent start, because it may prevent someone from dying while working in that type of heat, but it needs to be made permanent,” said Michael Williams, who worked on the Farm Line during his 31 years at Angola prison.
On Wednesday, Jackson extended his May 23 temporary restraining order (TRO) mandating heat-related safety measures for Farm Line workers. The order will now remain in effect for 90 days, through August 21.
Though Jackson’s order was met with relief, it fell short of the larger goals of Farm Line workers, who originally filed suit to eliminate the prison’s agricultural work altogether.
DOC protocols allow outdoor work to continue until the heat-index reaches 113 degrees.
But now, heat-index measurements of 88 degrees or above trigger a heat alert — when the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections must provide water, ice, shade, sunscreen, and appropriate clothing for those working outdoors, the judge ordered.
The DOC must also monitor temperature and humidity every 30 minutes, Jackson ruled.
During the summer, people suffering from DOC-qualified heat-sensitive medical conditions are given a “duty status,” which allows them to grade vegetables by quality within the penitentiary’s grading shed and work other non-field jobs.
Judge began issuing heat protections last year
Jackson’s extension marks the second consecutive summer that the judge, who sits in Louisiana’s Middle District, has intervened to impose safety protections for incarcerated workers at Angola, citing the risk of serious harm from intense heat exposure. Last year’s order expired in October.
Attorneys from the Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI) and Rights Behind Bars filed the motion for the second TRO in March, in response to recent policy changes by the DOC that made conditions worse for Farm Line workers, who labor for pennies an hour.
Corrections officials had raised the Farm Line’s heat threshold to 91 degrees and removed exemptions for people with certain medical conditions, including diabetes. Advocates argued that these changes endangered the health of vulnerable prisoners and undermined previous court orders. Jackson’s order rolls back the heat-threshold increase, though the DOC was able to keep its more narrow list of heat-impacted medical conditions.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers have asked Jackson to consider several additional items for the relief fo Farm Line. These include a further extension of the current order, an expansion of the list of meds and conditions that qualify Farm Line workers for heat-precaution duty status. The lawyers have also asked the judge to lowering the threshold for outdoor work from 113 to 103 degrees.
Jackson has indicated that he will consider some of the concerns at a later date, perhaps after he visits Angola next month.
Also left unaddressed, incarcerated workers say, are protections for the Farm Line during the winter months, when workers labor in fields in cold temperatures, is not sufficient. “It’ll be 35 degrees; we surrounded by water in a big open field, wearing thin jeans, a coat with no insulation, with no beanies to cover our heads,” said Williams, describing some of his experiences on the Farm Line.
The vegetables grown in the fields are sent to the Angola kitchens to feed incarcerated men. Because decades of Farm Line workers have had to defecate and urinate in the fields, people have long been wary of whether disease could be spread through Farm Line produce, Williams said.
Corrections officials have maintained that stopping the Farm Line will affect vegetables in prison meals. But the prison also maintains modern farming practices within Angola’s grounds, workers say, and could likely grow vegetables using less archaic practices.
The Farm Line is equivalent to what happened at Angola when it was a plantation — and designed to be punitive, workers say. “But punishment don’t have to look exactly like what we went through — slavery,” Williams said.
The Louisiana DOC has not issued public comment on the extension.
The Farm Line filings are part of a broader civil rights lawsuit filed in 2023 by incarcerated men and the advocacy group Voice of The Experienced (VOTE). The 2023 suit seeks to shut down all forced agricultural labor at Angola, as a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
“This extension is a necessary step toward holding prison officials accountable for protecting basic human rights,” said Lydia Wright, Supervising Attorney at Rights Behind Bars. “It’s a clear message that extreme heat cannot be used as a form of punishment.”