Within the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the largest maximum security prison in the United States, incarcerated men live under dangerously unsafe and degrading conditions.

“The heat is unbearable. I get up at three in the morning, and it’s still hot. It never cools off, day or night,” said Shannon Zeno, who’s been inside Angola for 27 years. “I walk around with a wet shirt just to keep from overheating.” 

The “ventilation” consists of one exhaust fan for the whole dorm, he said, to the point where it feels like the heat is inescapable.”It drains you physically and mentally,” he said. “I’m tired all the time, and nobody listens when we complain. It’s like we’re invisible in here.”

In one of the prison’s four “out-camps,” Camp C, more than 100 men are crammed into each dormitory, roughly double the original capacity. With no air conditioning, broken ventilation systems, and failing infrastructure, temperatures soar above 100°F inside the buildings during Louisiana’s stifling summer heat. These conditions, inmates argue, not only violate basic human dignity but may also constitute a constitutional violation.

Now dozens of men imprisoned in Camp C have reportedly filed “urgent” administrative complaints describing traumatic conditions: extreme heat, overcrowding, electrical hazards, and a lack of adequate sanitation facilities. At the heart of the grievances is the assertion that Angola officials have demonstrated “deliberate indifference” to the physical and mental well-being of incarcerated men — a legal threshold for violations of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. 

The men are asking that prison immediately reduce dormitory populations, provide better cooling, regularly maintain water fountains, and install more toilets, sinks, and showers.

A complaint viewed by The Lens alleges that the conditions violate state and federal safety regulations, American Correctional Association (ACA) guidelines, and federal court rulings for health and safety in correctional institutions.

“You want me to follow the rules? Then you need to follow the rules too. That’s where I’m at with them,” Zeno said, who filed a grievance about the conditions that also asks for protection from retaliation.

Cramped, sweltering conditions

The complaint paints a vivid picture of neglect. In each Camp C dormitory, 104 men are crammed into 4,100 square feet of floor space. That’s 40 square feet per person, well below the ACA’s 60-square-foot minimum for dormitory-style housing in maximum-security prisons.

Heat is perhaps the most urgent concern. Conditions inside the dormitories routinely reach heat indices of 113°F, even at night, even as 13 wall-mounted and floor fans attempt to circulate air. Roof-mounted exhaust fans have been inoperative for over a year, and, in the dormitory cited in the grievance, only half of the total 290 windows can be opened. 

“We’re sentencing people to exposure to really high heat conditions without any type of relief,” said Andrea Armstrong, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans who specializes in prison conditions and constitutional law.

“The dormitories turn into an oven,” said one 50-year-old man who served 23 years in Angola. To him, it goes beyond physical health. “This ain’t about comfort, this is about survival. The heat don’t just wear your body down, it messes with your mind.” That contributes to what the grievance describes as a mounting mental health crisis inside the dorms, with rising levels of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and PTSD. 

Many people incarcerated at Angola have to wake up early to work. In the summer, that often means that they are dragging themselves to work with a few hours of rest – if that.

“It don’t start to cool off in the dormitories until two o’clock in the morning. And even then, it’s barely a break,” recalls exoneree Troy Rhodes, who spent 16 years at Angola and now works as a criminal-justice-reform activist. “We used to sleep on top of our sheets, just in our underwear and we were still miserable. You tossed and turned until your body just shut down from exhaustion.” 

“Even the free folks – the guards – was overheating,” Rhodes said, remembering that paramedics had to come get some guards who fell out from the heat. Rhodes recalled several incidents where security had become ill after working the excruciatingly hot dormitories.

In their grievances, the men argue that these conditions violate court precedent set in Ball v. LeBlanc, the case brought by Death Row inmates that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, then was dismissed before being heard by the highest court, when the Louisiana Department of Corrections agreed to provide Death Row with better access to showers, ice, fans, water and “Icy Breeze” units that blow cold air. In that case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that excessive heat in Louisiana prisons poses a substantial risk to health, particularly for individuals with underlying medical conditions or mental illness.

 “These prisons are stacking humans on top of one another in heat that we in regular everyday life can hardly bear indoor temperatures well above 100 degrees,” said Samantha Kennedy, executive director of the Promise of Justice Initiative, whose lawyers litigated the Death Row heat case. “It is colossal cruelty beyond belief. This is happening by choice and by design of our lawmakers, the governor, and the Department of Corrections.”

If similar measures are instituted in Camp C and other prison dormitories, officials should be deliberate about how the measures are installed – because heat affects people differently, Armstrong said. “The first priority should be the elderly, the sick, and the people who are more likely to be impacted because of their prescription medicine,” she said.

Two showers for 100 men; poorly built bunkbeds

Basic hygiene and sanitation are also in crisis. The dorms offer just two working showers, five toilets, six sinks, and two water fountains for more than 100 men. There are no privacy partitions, forcing individuals to use the bathroom or bathe in full view of others — a practice that violates federal standards established in the 2002 decision Laube v. Haley, the grievance notes. 

Similar cases such as Smith v. Washington found that subjecting male prisoners to overcrowded conditions, poor sanitation, and the complete absence of privacy during basic bodily functions could constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. 

The 60 iron bunkbeds, double-stacked and welded together without inspection, pose injury risks due to their unstable construction, the grievance notes. 

In looking at the electrical systems, the grievance writers also found that the exhaust fans were not integrated with the fire alarm system, violating National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes, which require that fans shut down when smoke is detected, to prevent the spread of smoke and fire. 

The dorm’s main electrical panel also lacks a labeled cutoff switch, making it difficult to respond quickly in emergencies. Ventilation and water heating systems are not connected to backup power, which leaves the dorm unlivable during outages.

“Just when you think the situation couldn’t get worse, the power goes out, said the 50-year-old who was formerly incarcerated at Angola.  “Now the fan that was blowing hot air? You don’t even have that anymore.”