My goal is to abolish the Angola Prison Rodeo and ultimately end the slavery-like conditions inmates are forced to exist within. It is cruel & unusual punishment to make prison inmates participate in Gladiator-like bull riding competitions, where blood is shed, injuries are amassed, and fatalities occur. If one is sentenced to prison, they should not be sentenced to participate in blood-sport for the prison's income and racists' entertainment. Please help me bring this 'tradition' to an end, and allow inmates to live out their years in prison without the looming doom or participation in the rodeo.

"Angola was and is still is very much a plantation, right in the heart of the Incarceration Capital of the World. At 18,000 acres and 6300+ inmates, it is the largest prison in the US – the only prison with its own zip code. Mostly black men are still maintaining the same agricultural activity – planting, hoeing, picking cotton and other crops by hand – that slaves did originally. And they are doing so as captives who are compensated for their back-breaking labor with mere pennies per hour. The very same practices and social control mechanisms that existed under slavery persist – just under a new name.....

....He described several inmate deaths at the rodeo (including that of Johnny Brooks in 1999, gored by a bull one year after being featured in God of the Rodeo). Additionally there are extreme injuries and on-going chronic conditions as a result. Younger, newer, less wise inmates especially are encouraged to participate for the lure of the small prize money and the moment of “freedom”....

.....The Warden needs participants for the highly lucrative rodeo; it nets anywhere from $450,000 to $1 million per weekend with all proceeds going to Cain’s pet evangelical Chapel building project. (These are ticket sales figures alone – there is no accounting of revenue made from the sale of rodeo DVDs and other merchandise.) So the rodeo is highly touted with no  real discussion of the risks, no training or protective gear for inmates. And of course, a required signature waiving LSP from all liability for injuries or deaths that may result."

- CI: LSP Angola Prison Rodeo, At the Intersections of Abuse
POSTED BY NANCY A HEITZEG