My first day in Angola Prison

There were different “first days” of my confinement:

1. There was the period when I woke up in the hospital and realized that I had been shot in the head.
2. There was the day when I was moved from the hospital to the Caddo Parish Prison, and on to the Caddo Correctional Center.
3. There was the day when I was transferred back to the Caddo Parish Prison (when the new prison was built).
4. There was the day when I was transferred back to the Caddo Correctional Center. 5) There was the day when I first arrived in Angola.

As you can see my first day had different meanings at different points of my “first day,” but for now let’s look at my first day in Angola.

Traveling to Angola was an emotionally moving experience. I was nervous, tense and prepared to kill or die. The horror stories of Angola seemed to find a permanent place in my thoughts and it wasn’t a comfortable feeling. I was relieved when I got off of the bus, stepped through the doors of the Reception Center and recognized the face of someone from the city Shreveport. He worked in the area and was assisting the security guards with checking in the new arrivals. He nodded to me, and when we were out of ear shot of the others he told me that he had a knife for me and would get it to me by the time I reached the dorm.

We went through the general procedures of being finger printed, etc., and we received the general heckles from some of the convicts who were already living in the area, but it wasn’t until we were standing in the hall outside of the dorms we were to be assigned to that reality hit me.

There was a former shotgun guard (an inmate guard who used to guard other inmates with a firearm) and a ranking officer (he was either a lieutenant or captain). The captain was telling us the general do’s and don’ts, e.g., how to contact someone from the classification department, what days and time was commissar, how to get to the hospital, what time the mail arrived (mail call) etc. At the end of his talk he said something that caused me to realize that all of the stories about Angola were true. He said “I want all of you to get yourself a knife and if someone messes with you you are going to have to kill them and kill them quick. Don’t play around. Kill them quick, because there aren’t enough guards around the protect you, and that’s the only way you are going to get your respect.”  When I heard that I was very anxious to get the knife that I was promised, and when I didn’t have the knife on me by the time I entered the dorm I found myself feeling somewhat paranoid. I wondered if the guy who told me that a knife would be waiting for me was telling the truth. I was in “attack mode,” ready to strike out at anyone who didn’t look right.  My paranoia died and I felt a sigh of relief when, as soon as the security officer left the dorm, someone called me to the door and handed me a dictionary through the open window in the door. I stepped into the rest room, opened the pages and there was a heavy duty shank cut into the pages. I felt a lot better and when I stepped back into the dorm I realized that there weren’t any beds and a lot of people were sleeping on the floor. I found me a spot and was set on being content with my little spot until one of the guys from Shreveport came into the dorm and saw me. He rallied some of the other convicts around me and making me the center of attention because I had been in a shootout. As the days went on I seemed to gain a little respect from a few of the others in the dorm because of my charge, but I actually didn’t trust anyone.

The first day was very tense and it got worse as the evening came and the field workers returned to the dorm. The dorm became loud, noisy and it seemed like many of the people were looking for a fight, or someone to gain a reputation off of. RC/AU (Reception Center – Admitting Unit) was a very violent place because it was the place where a lot of convicts felt they had to create a name for themselves so that their reputation would proceed them throughout the prison. It was a place where men were raped, became a slave and sold to someone else in another section of the prison.

There were a couple of fights between others, but it wasn’t until after the lights went out that I became very paranoid. A couple of the guys from Shreveport jumped on another convict and took his bed. Then I was told that I could have the bed because I was their “home boy.” I didn’t take it. I thought it might be a set-up. I was satisfied with my spot on the  floor, against the wall. Fighting from the floor with my back to the wall seemed much safer than sleeping on a top bunk. Like many other’s I didn’t go to sleep that night and a few days later I got my own bed (against the wall).

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Ashanti Witherspoon spent 27 years in Angola Prison. In 1999 he was granted parole. Since leaving prison Ashanti has become a motivational speaker and is devoted to mentoring at-risk youth. He was featured in Jonathan Stack’s film THE FARM and THE FARM: 10 DOWN, which will be released June 16th, 2009 on National Geographic Channel.