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With a stronger voice, staff to push harder for changes at USA’s largest maximum-security prison

The entrance to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 2009. Photo credit: Wikimedia
With a stronger voice, staff to push harder for changes at USA’s largest maximum-security prison
By Aaron Gallant ·
With a stronger voice, staff to push harder for changes at USA’s largest maximum-security prison

Thousands of AFSCME members work in corrections across the United States. We watch out for each other, we keep inmates safe and we’re proud to protect our communities. 

It’s no different at the Louisiana State Penitentiary — known as Angola — where hundreds of corrections officers and employees work every day to serve the public. 

Angola has a painful history. The prison was built in the 1800s on former cotton plantations, and for decades, it used forced labor from mostly Black incarcerated people. In the 1960s, it was called the “bloodiest prison in the South.” Today, it’s the largest maximum-security facility in the United States. 

But for the people who work there, having a strong union voice is one of the best ways to make progress. 

“There have been several administrative changes over the last few years that have not been kind to the employees,” said Shirley Coody, president of AFSCME Local 3056 (Council 17). “A lot of employees are working an extreme amount of overtime and don’t feel like people care about them.” 

She explained that there are more than 200 vacancies at the facility. Persistently low staffing levels makes it harder for staff to keep each other and the inmates safe. 

Photo

Photo credit: AFSCME Council 17

In April, more than a dozen AFSCME members and staff went inside the facility to organize the security and support professionals at Angola. Over four days and nights, they had conversations with hundreds of corrections officers and employees throughout the facility. 

Sonia Rico, president of HOPE AFSCME Local 123, came to help with a group of volunteer member organizers from Houston. 

“For the young people that we talked to, we were letting them know about what the union is and what we had won in our own contract,” she explained. “I told them, ‘You have to be involved.’” 

Workers at Angola shared their concerns about fixing disciplinary procedures and addressing chronically low staff levels. 

By the end of the organizing drive, 263 new members joined our union. 

Organizers expressed hope that creating better working conditions for Angola’s employees through our union will mean improvements for everyone — including the incarcerated people in their care. 

“When conditions get better and workers have what they need, the environment would change for everybody,” Rico explained. 

The staff at Angola are already noticing a difference. 

“Since that organizing drive, people now feel like they have a voice,” Coody said. “You can definitely tell the working atmosphere has changed for the better.” 

She emphasized that the union has a constructive working relationship with Warden Darrel Vannoy, who leads the facility. 

Just last year, members of AFSCME Council 17 beat back attempts to take away our union freedoms in Louisiana. And now, the corrections officers and employees at Angola are coming together to use their collective voice on the job. 

Public safety professionals are turning to our union to build power. AFSCME members in corrections, law enforcement and emergency response are proud to protect our freedoms and our communities.   

Visit the AFSCME Public Safety website to get involved. 

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