Angola maximum-security prison is one of America’s grimmest lock-ups, where prisoners – mostly Black – pick cotton for pennies on the same fields their ancestors farmed as slaves.
But on one special day the men wore evening dress and clutched bouquets to welcome some very special visitors.
The high-school prom is a milestone for young Americans, and just one of the family events that fathers miss out on while serving long prison sentences. But at Louisiana State Penitentiary, in America’s Deep South, jailed dads welcomed their daughters into the prison for its first Daddy-Daughter Dance.
The girls, in prom dresses, danced and dined with their fathers, in an evening intended to restore family ties and build hope.
Leslie Harris, who has nine years left to serve of his decades-long sentence for armed robbery, danced with his 17-year-old daughter to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Isn’t She Lovely’. He told Associated Press: “Seeing her in a dress, crying and running to me just broke me down. It made me think of all the years I missed out on in her life.”
He said the event brought back memories of life before prison, when his daughter was just two years old and she would sleep on his chest and play with his hair, and he would buy her little dresses.
Twenty-nine men were chosen for their good behavior to take part in the event in November, which was organized by the Christian group God Behind Bars. For some, it was the first time they had worn a tuxedo – the US term for a dinner jacket.
Ahead of the event, the men spent weeks practicing a line dance to surprise their daughters with. Authorities at the maximum-security prison say it may become an annual event.
The prison, also known as Angola, is on the site of a former slave plantation. Today’s prisoners – many of them lifers – must pick cotton in extreme summer heat for a reported wage of 4 cents (3p) per hour, on the same fi elds that their ancestors farmed as slaves.
Angola is the last prison in America to hold an annual rodeo, where prisoners are paid to perform dangerous stunts involving rampaging bulls in front of a paying audience.
Photo credit: God Behind Bars