Prisoners fight against working in heat on former slave plantation, raising hope for change in South

Inmates at Louisiana's Angola prison sue to end working farm lines in brutal heat

As daily temperatures hit record highs across much of the South, a federal judge has taken an unusual step, challenging the treatment of mostly Black incarcerated workers in the fields.

Prisoners fight against working in heat on former slave plantation, raising hope for change in South

As daily temperatures hit record highs across much of the South, a federal judge has taken an unusual step, challenging the treatment of mostly Black incarcerated workers in the fields.

Prisoners fight against working in heat on former slave plantation, raising hope for change in South

Beneath the blazing summer sun on a former slave plantation, Lamont Gross and fellow prisoners stooped in long rows, picking vegetables by hand under the watchful eyes of armed guards on horseback. He said breaks were short and infrequent, with nothing to protect workers from the heat.

Prisoners fight against working in heat on former slave plantation

Several incarcerated workers along with an advocacy group filed a class-action lawsuit calling for an end to the farm line.

Prisoners fight against working in heat on former slave plantation, raising hope for change in South - The Morning Sun

Beneath the blazing summer sun on a former slave plantation, Lamont Gross and fellow prisoners stooped in long rows, picking vegetables by hand under the watchful eyes of armed guards on horseback. He said breaks were short and infrequent, with nothing to protect workers from the heat. “I saw guys collapse,” Gross said of his days on the so-called farm line at Louisiana’s state penitentiary, where men work for pennies an hour or nothing at all a…