The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola must consider the “human health and safety” needs of prisoners who toil for pennies an hour in the prison’s fields, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Lawyers filed an emergency motion in May on behalf of prisoners who are forced to work the “Farm Line,” asking for work to halt any time the heat index rises above 88 degrees, reports The Lens in New Orleans. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson heard from lawyers for the Louisiana Department of Corrections and from Lydia Wright of the Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI), which represents inmates forced to do agricultural work and the organization Voice of the Experienced (VOTE). In his ruling Tuesday, Jackson allowed the Farm Line to continue — just as other agricultural work in Louisiana continued during the hot weather. To continue, the Farm Line must undergo marked changes, Jackson wrote, as he issued a temporary restraining order, ordering prison officials to “take immediate measures to correct the glaring deficiencies in their heat-related policies.”
Wright called the ruling "validation that the unconstitutional and inhumane conditions of forced labor that exist at Louisiana State Penitentiary will no longer stand unchallenged,." Climate change makes the Farm Line policy corrections more crucial, Jackson wrote, describing how the Farm Line operates under increasingly scorching conditions. The prison’s own temperature logs from May to October 2023 showed 145 days when heat alerts were issued, or should have been, he noted. Department of Corrections lawyers argued that stopping Farm Line work in high heat would deprive thousands of prisoners of fresh vegetables harvested from the fields and used in prison kitchens. Angola work crews had reasonable breaks and sipped on Gatorade, they said. Jackson said the "wealth of evidence here shows that incarcerated persons laboring on the Farm Line are not provided with shade, sunscreen, or required rest breaks. Further ... (evidence shows that) breaks are seldomly given, that the water provided is dirty, that they are required to work beyond their physical capacities, and that they are not provided with other necessary protective equipment, like lace-up boots or sunhats.” The VOTE lawsuit argues that the Farm Line serves “no legitimate penological or institutional purpose” and violates prisoners’ Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment.