NEW ORLEANS —
A federal judge denounced the State of Louisiana’s plans to move incarcerated teenagers to the state penitentiary at Angola, but denied a request to block it, according to our partners at The Advocate.
In a 64-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ruled that moving the teenagers to a facility on Angola’s grounds does not violate federal law.
Judge Dick wrote, “The prospect of putting a teenager to bed at night in a locked cell behind razor wire surrounded by swamps at Angola is disturbing.”
"While locking children in cells at night at Angola is untenable, the threat of harm these youngsters present to themselves, and others, is intolerable. The untenable must yield to the intolerable," she wrote.
This case comes after months of escapes, riots, and disorder at the Bridge City Center for Youth on the West Bank. Neighbors have called for the state to close the facility.
The state’s plan included moving about half of the juvenile inmates to Angola, which is a maximum security prison that many consider one of the toughest prisons in the country.
Activists, families of the incarcerated teenagers, and attorneys have pushed back vehemently against the plan, and appeals may be possible.
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