News Angola 3 media coverage

Albert Woodfox has spent the last 41 years in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Documentaries, Amnesty International and Desmond Tutu have all weighed in on his case, and those of the rest of the “Angola 3.” Now a Louisiana congressman has introduced a bill in Congress meant to prevent their experience from ever being repeated.

“I know you’re only doing your job, Doc. You have your job and I have mine. I am a teacher. And I am living proof that we can survive the worst to change ourselves and our world no matter where we are. I do not want to die in a cell, but if I must to make the lesson clear, then I am willing to do just that.”

Just as Albert Woodfox’s case is a lens through which to better see the nightmarish practice of prolonged isolation in the United States, the legal process which has kept him in isolation behind bars exemplifies the discrimination and corruption rife in Louisiana’s justice system. After nearly four decades, it is time for Albert to walk free. It is time for to relieve Teenie Rogers of the burden of believing that the wrong man is being punished for her husband’s murder.

Robert King still remembers well the dimensions of his cell: 6 x 9 x 12 feet. There was a steel bed and a sink that doubled as a toilet where he would also wash clothes. King spent 29 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana. He has been free since 2001, but still has difficulty with geographical orientation.