Mike Banford can still remember how hot the metal from his tools got in the hot Louisiana sun.
“When you come out in the field at 7 in the morning, they gone give you a L-blade or a swing blade, then they gone give you a hoe, so now you got two tools,” said Banford, who worked on the Farm Line during his 29 years at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
With those two tools, he was expected to cut the grass on the levee precisely – as close to the ground as possible. “Like you a lawn mower,” he said.
Like agricultural machines, people who work the Farm Line work straight through many days with 90-degree heat, or worse. But they are human beings, their lawyers say. And on those scorching hot days, the men barely received any water breaks. Some workers would literally fall out, he said.
Then, in the summer of 2024, a federal court extended heat protections for the incarcerated men working on Angola’s Farm Line.
Last year, Farm Line lawyers argued, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections fell short of what was demanded – only offering limited compliance with the judge’s mandates — shade, high-SPF sunscreen, necessary field equipment, and water — in response to “Heat Alerts,” declared anytime the heat index hit 88 degrees Fahrenheit.
But this year, the protections started to improve, with slightly better opportunities for shade and more water. The relief didn’t happen as often as promised, but it was an improvement from the days before the injunction, when breaks were few and the only water was lukewarm and often had bugs in it, some workers said.
Late last month, as this summer’s order expired, U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson renewed his injunction for another 90 days.
Jackson, who sits on the federal bench for the Middle District of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, surmised that, without an extension, workers could needlessly suffer from conditions like heat exhaustion and dehydration. “Defendants’ current policies and practices place incarcerated persons at LSP at substantial risk of suffering serious harm,” Jackson wrote in his order.
The safety measures must remain in place until late November, when temperatures typically begin to drop.
But Lydia Wright, supervising attorney at Rights Behind Bars, is adamant that the DOC not receive credit for implementing basic, humanitarian procedures. “It took a federal court order for the state to start providing sunscreen, ice water, and breaks in the shade,” Wright said. “But a cup of water and a dab of SPF does not change the fundamental fact that the Farm Line has always been a mechanism of cruel and unusual punishment.”
Injunction first granted in 2024
The request for an emergency injunction against the DOC came early last year, as incarcerated Farm Line workers and members of the advocacy group Voice of the Experienced (VOTE) asked for a ban on Farm Line work during the hottest summer days.
Wright, who represents the plaintiffs, requested the summer-heat injunction as part of a larger 2023 lawsuit that demands that Angola stop using the Farm Line altogether, because it violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
In response to the plaintiffs’ request in 2024 for a halt to the Farm Line during hot summer days, Jackson did not order any work stoppage. Agriculture across the state of Louisiana doesn’t stop during the summer, he noted. Instead, Jackson instituted very specific heat protections for Farm Line workers.
Work continues during Heat Alerts. DOC protocols allow outdoor work to continue until the heat -index reaches 113 degrees.
The DOC appealed but most of the protections were upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the nation’s most conservative courts. Still, the DOC has continued to fight the protections, which baffles Wright.
“At this point, it’s clear the State is fighting a losing battle at mounting taxpayer expense,” she said.
Even after last summer’s Temporary Restraining Order expired, the DOC could not simply accept the new Farm Line heat protections. Instead, DOC officials attempted to raise the Heat Alert threshold to a heat index of 91 degrees. The court rejected that revision, finding it unsafe, especially for those with heat-impacted medical conditions.
This year, the protections were first implemented on May 23. To make sure that the Heat Alerts were issued promptly, the plaintiffs asked the judge to keep the DOC in line, by mandating that Angola Farm Line supervisors checked the heat index every 30 minutes.
Workers were put at risk because the DOC was inconsistent in its temperature checks, the plaintiffs contended. “The state was aware that the (heat) index could rise rapidly within within periods of less than an hour, yet protection remained inadequate to prevent serious harm,” said Anna Stapleton, from the law firm Paul Weiss, who is assisting Rights Behind Bars as appellate counsel on the case.
In response, the DOC claimed that it was monitoring conditions every hour. Evidently, that was sufficient for Jackson, who denied the plaintiffs’ request for more frequent monitoring. Anna Stapleton, from the law firm Paul Weiss, who is assisting Rights Behind Bars as appellate counsel on the case.
In response, the DOC claimed that it was monitoring conditions every hour. Evidently, that was sufficient for Jackson, who denied the plaintiffs’ request for more frequent monitoring.