It seems I am bypassing Lent entirely, as I have not stopped playing Carnival songs. Today, though, I visited the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where I am accompanying a prisoner on death row for as long as it takes. I have been doing this since 1992 and that is twenty years.
In prison we ate from the visitors’ canteen, splurging on the $6.50 meals because it was the prisoner’s birthday. I had a grilled shrimp salad and he had fried pork chops and smothered potatoes. The food in the canteen is really good. Beans and sheet cake without frosting is the menu on the tiers tonight.
I only saw about 25 other visitors, because death row is in a separate building and when you go there, you are going to the outcamps, not down the walk. One visitor besides me was white, and many were children – cute and excited and careening around. Visiting prisoners is a key feature of African-American life.
Only three other people were visiting death row, a family visiting their son. I saw him and he is very young, and that was the saddest sight I saw today although the group appeared to be having a good time. Getting involved with the prisons is the most interesting and significant thing I have done.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 