up next we report on america's largest maximum security prison or inmates volunteer to battle balls but without special training in order to make money that's up next . it's complicated and brutal event gladiatorial event. in its waltz and then this new dignity to these me and. it's nothing but exploitation of people who have no choice. since. the last summer samina laugh sums up my patient

data and go. to see what he plans on opportunity to be an example. it's a long way to those gates and once man reach there they know they're just so so far away far away from our vision far away physically far away among. louisiana it's more than five thousand men considered the most dangerous criminals in the state

a locked up in this penitentiary. inside the inmate population is eighty percent black he comes mostly from louisiana's poorest neighborhoods. nine inmates out of ten a serving sentences so long that they're going to die and. they go into the fall eighteen thousand acres the largest maximum security penitentiary in the united states. in the eighteenth century and below was a slave plantation it took its name from the origins of the slaves who came from uncle a in africa. today any incoming prisoners first assigned to hard labor in the jails.

i. don't know if there's no. doubt found. five times the ten thousand people gather at angola to watch the prison rodeo a rodeo for the prisoners inside the prison they don't started in one hundred sixty five and today it's the only rodeo allowed in a u.s. prison it's gone the while the show in the south it's all sold out. kane is the man behind the success of the rodeo. in the last decade cain has

transformed the rodeo into a massive money spinner for his prison. warden k. . a southern baptist is a popular figure in louisiana in two thousand and three his peers voted him warden of the year. i'm ok a pound and i wanted their baby or me and them are the five you know we're in this together i'm doing tam good so there at the bike and my depression is there is that we really are are locked together at war i will follow it through it the font i like a feeling of basic clerical not that the people clap with them i never forget the back of the ballot crap they're here because the crime victim but still we can be rehabilitated program because the rodeo paid. the inmate cumberlands volunteers. but each rodeo around fifty of them signed up to face the bulls on wild horses the rodeo is considered

a special treat to the business only those with a good record are allowed to enter the arena. and it's almost like fredo for me in a galaxy far at any event i do will i'm now behind balls about how they can create this special case when american spirit could take. a look at us you know you know all i've been taking away from this is. the rodeo gives the inmates the chance to see them families outside the prison visiting area even though they're not allowed to touch their loved ones this some official visit is something a lot of inmates look forward to. in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight this journalist published an in-depth book on the angola prison rodeo. these men are not

seen even often by their own families once they pass the ten or fifteen year mark of their. once so here comes this event once now twice a year where the stadium is packed or society comes and these inmates take that chance to be seen. oh. i can eat but. but this exposure has a price most inmates come from urban areas of louisiana and have never been around bulls old horses little being locked up in angola and despite them lack of previous rodeo experience none of them is allowed to train.

i think there's a program or so aspect to it definitely i mean look you've got convicts who are not trained who are quite likely to get hurt and a crowd that's coming there to see the oddity and perhaps the purpose of that event that is troubling to say the least. her.

lakhani trying arena without trying to you might get we have to read the doc to come here is a knockout. now you can try any time on open mike you better rather we put on our own home we have prank call to my own and you'll see today i don't expect anybody going to be our very badly if at all. like the. people really want us to see. somebody get flipped by the bull you know somebody get through by the horns. nor is henderson spent twenty seven years of angola but never took part in the

rodeo today he works as a paralegal in new orleans. just by the grace of god there's nobody who's actually been killed in the situation. as they have been maimed i've seen guys who have been kicked in the face by a homeless kicked in the face by you know who would buy a bull. but some of these guys just continue to put to supply you know what motivates them you know lord knows i don't some of them go out there for the simply for the prize money simply in it's not that it's a fortune it's the fact that in prison one hundred dollars is a lot of money. one hundred dollars can sustain a person in prison for years his basic needs for alone time. whether paid for inmate labor is about twenty five cents an hour most inmates are more than willing to clash with the bulls but the biggest prize money some cowboys use they winnings to improve their life in prison some spend it on legal fees of ascended to the

families. it's time for a comeback poca the premise is simple the last man sitting at the poker table wins the two hundred dollars pot. i do it for the money and for the excitement you have to i mean that's what is about to come out and compete if you want to do want to compete you want to win and part of what it is. sacrificing is some time to review your own body you have to sacrifice to get what you need. i. guess dad must have some suicide attempts. you

know they're trying to. maneuver fourteen hundred two thousand. to. value my life well. we've talked to guys about the rodeo why did you do it and there is there's just not one concrete answer to carry my as it's been locked up in angola for the past fifteen years as editor in chief of the prison magazine miles's covered many rodeos. some of it is is the is a recognition you got a guy who a lot of people in prison have low self esteem they don't feel like they've ever accomplished with. the. they want people out there to see that they've done something in here but they're more they're worthy of something they're they're actually you know worthy of. being human but on the one hand is

this moment when the men get this chance at transcendence and redemption but on the other side. the rodeo is now conducted in these striped shirts which were always a symbol of sort of the. totally separating the end mates from society totally separating them from any image of humanity those striped shirts were abolished in the one nine hundred fifty seven gola for precisely those reasons of being excessively degraded or detains brought them back i don't think that's something that thrills the convicts though they probably won't say always around front. this is a human. this sprite something to the human. look like. nothing. now for us to see. jerry brown's favorite event is the guts and glory. the inmates have three minutes to grab

a chip off the homes of a two thousand pound raging bull the winner gets three hundred dollars. even after the peaceful first but is ten where you have to get aggressive you gotta get. crazy i'm a look at him like the bill of illinois i'm just going to tell you that now i look at him like the operative. words to me and we did. so made good use they do with doesn't glory god jerry. jerry is twenty eight locked up since ninety ninety five he's serving a life sentence since he first entered the competition in two thousand. brown has

become a celebrity. in a way i feel like i don't malone i feel like i'm out of place you know because of the level of education is different my process goes on different. where care of myself is different you know. what i have to offer society in very day for. jerry brown decided to get an education in prison he reads books writes poetry and especially letters which is the only way to avoid censorship but i'm glad. when i mentioned i wanted to be an example i meant to be can of hope inspiration and courage meant and six us to all those that chose to watch and witness said.

this type of example is needed here in a place of such does elation disparity and neglect. and environment i came up with violence around you all day when these are going fighting someone against their family can shag is invalid it's vile that's why i want to face the war i'm not scared. me to say look this guy someone vanity blah to some of us that but i'm alive and not steal breve then x. gospel for sure he'll give a reason my destiny with a life full of hortense's a mother's bless his soul journey grew up in one of the fools like my godson in three florida you know the e.c.m.

a second place suits you down just down to town and his mother was a drug addict jerry had to be raised by his little sister and his grandmother. as a kid he tried to escape his drug and gang infested neighborhoods by wrapping. them. to predict. the future. for. charles around his jerry's brother in the small studio as jerry was growing up charles was the first one to believe in jerry's talent and i believe you know he with faye in that. and he just. you know took it from there you know he became. a big rapper you know if he'd of been out on the street to me. you know he.

says look. it's my right. more about jerry. you know i learned to pencil and paper that i was the most important woman is i. bunny brown jerry's mother has been on probation for four years. since her release from prison she's been fighting for the right to go to angola and visit jerry the son she hasn't seen in ten years terri he loved me more than anything. and. when things took a turn for the worse for me. it took a turn for terri for the first. it's it's my personality is built around our seeing around us at

a young age when i was small like. this guy used to be my mom the palm of time right in front of. my mom you know and for me when he. was not known was that it was creating a lot of anger in me because i was so small and i couldn't help him and he moved on boom boom boom i became a drug addict advocate crack addict. a good indeed syria was constantly in fights concerning his mother. over the ocean. and this. this way. if you'll souls not the human having any. role models or anything he didn't really have anybody to. relate to his his family members that were all

oh most in and out of jail all of his life in concentrated. to. make it. to. beg you will be a part of the gang in the tolkien. i guess he. took. you know the. place of protection a word now because the. at first we used to be to go out and then like a fast go to work and so between a native night i really would never fall and you know and he just had to do and if what he thought he had to do and he became a poet again. as a teenager jerry joined a gang on june the sixteenth one thousand nine hundred five a man you want to deal goes bad jerry shoots and kills.

on the day of jerry's arrest it was bunny who convinced him to end this standoff and surrender. louisiana has one of the highest crime rates in the united states legislators who adopted a tough on crime approach to try to solve the problem they've stepped up arrests and convictions since the seventy's been made population in louisiana has increased by one thousand percent. the culture of louisiana is one that. does not prepare people in general for success in life the culture is one the prepares people for success in prison. louisiana also has the highest rate of inmates capita in the world. the state has around eight hundred prisoners to one hundred thousand people that's ten times more

than countries like france germany. the cost of a professor of criminal justice has been a regular visitor to angola for the past twenty eight years. he's an expert in corrections systems. legislators who are primarily. it's primarily white primarily coming from smaller cities smaller towns and rural areas who are making laws designed to protect the people of louisiana from crimes committed mostly about poor people living in cities many of whom are boy probably in this room within the next few years one of you will be murder if you believe this. and i say

this tough on crime approach enjoys broad support in louisiana a majority of the citizens believe the tougher laws and permanent and concentration on needed to beat the criminality in this state. community do you realize. we're locking our sales up instead of the problems we're putting our sales behind bars we're building better tetra walls around our stuff while those we're afraid of the criminals out there with prey to what happened to us like they should be locked up and we should be able to walk around the streets we do we have a strong sense of family and family values and lose analysts that if you abuse or murder one of our family members then we want you to take the. sentence is a tough eighty nine inmates sit on death row and i'm going. since one thousand nine

hundred fifty two whole life sentences without the possibility of parole. louisianan still cost his life sentences for murder aggravated rape kidnapping and the so-called third strike by the beach will attend is. done cravings democratic state senate of the louisiana has been fighting since nine hundred ninety two to try to reform the legal system in his state. we fail i mean we fail miserably because we have not provided a better community we have not transformed their lives of those young people especially who make mistakes we've not given them an opportunity to redirect their lives so what we do is we tend to believe that if we lock them away lock them up and throw away the key that somehow we're going to be safer i don't think our system is failing it just means that our culture demands

a different criminal justice system than they have in your bennett demands the death penalty or. the. most will be out of control in this country if we don't take a very firm stance. as you may or may not know a child whose parent is in costa rated has a five time greater chance of want to present themselves so we are creating generations of new in sometimes even worse criminals. and and and we paying for it and we paying for it miserably in. this prison policy is costly. in two thousand and five louisiana budgeted six hundred million dollars for its prisons including around one hundred million for angola.

in april two thousand and five new orleans hosted an international wardens convention for three days would lose from across north america shared their experiences and told business. it gave them the opportunity to shop around for the latest security systems for their prisons. and go lays looking at their needs on law need the fence fence that's give you a shock and then change the. anything more than them will kill big business each tile cost two hundred fifty thousand dollars four thousand million dollars he of just to maintain you put a system like that to get to what actually is a very big if we can afford to incarcerate our murderers but there is a better cost if you don't there is a cost to society and pain and suffering and misery oh there's a cost and terror and fear. in we don't want these people out

so if the prisons are overcrowded then we should build bigger ones if you've been down go you know we've got a lot of room. for the full story we've got it for us the biggest issues get the human voice face to face with the news makers.

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