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 just 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 and comes mostly from louisiana's poorest neighborhoods nine inmates out of ten a serving sentences so long that they're going to die and i go.

they go into the found eighteen thousand acres the largest maximum security penitentiary in the united states. in the eighteenth century anglo 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. and at that program and all.

no. there's no pocket knife. no weapon. five times ten thousand people gather at angola to watch the prison rodeo a rodeo for the prisoners inside the prison they don't started in nine hundred sixty five and today it's the only rodeo allowed in a u.s. prison it's cool in the wild a show in the south it's all so. will cain 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. wouldn't pay in a southern baptist is a popular figure in louisiana in two thousand and three his peers voted him warden

of the year. found him i wanted their baby or me and them are the five you know we're in this together i'm doing tammy good so they're at the buy it and not approach it there is that we really are are locked together it was i look forward to it the font i like to feed them because they're not that the people clap with them i never forget the big of about crime they're here because of crime victims but still we can be rehabilitated programs because the rodeo by. the inmate cumberlands volunteers. at each rodeo around fifty of them signed up to face the bulls and wild horses the radio is considered a special treat for the prisons only those with a good record are allowed to enter the arena. and this is almost like freedom for me galaxy. any event i do will. was about time

they create this special case when american spirit would. let us. take it away from this hill if. the rodeo gives the inmates the chance to see the families outside the prison visiting area even though they're not allowed to touch their loved ones this unofficial visit is something a lot of inmates look forward to. in one thousand nine hundred 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 sense so here comes this event once now twice a year where the stadium is packed for society columns and these inmates

take that chance to be seeing. oh my. feet 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 trade.

think there's a pro growth so i ask that too 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 perverse that of it that is troubling to say the least. i can make trying to read it without trying to make it we have to rip the doc to come tearing a knock out of the neck in trying to try a mound open mike you're better ranters we put on armor on him we have professional trial and you'll see today i don't expect anybody out of the art very badly if at

all. i. never liked the. people really want to see. some baggage flip 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 has actually been killed in a situation like al-jazeera been mayn't have seen the guy as we have been keeping the for. kicked in the face. you know who are.

these guys just continue to put us a plate and you know what motivates them you know. some of them go out there for the simply for the prize money. simply him it's not that it's a fortune it's the fact that in prison one hundred dollars is a lot of money. on hundred dollars can sustain a person in prison for years is 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 for 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 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 it's sometimes even your own body you have to sacrifice to get what you get but. his dad must have some suicide attempts. you know they're trying to pop a new book fourteen hundred two thousand. to. value my life. we've talked to guys about the rodeo why did you do it and there is there's just not one concrete answer. carrie myers has been locked up in

angola for the past fifteen years as editor in chief of the prison magazine miles has covered many rodeos. some of it is is the is a recognition you got a guy who a lot of people in prison. they don't feel like they've ever accomplished was 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 was 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 s. and gola for precisely those reasons of being excessively degraded or detains brought them back i don't think that's something that thrills the conflicts though they probably won't say always around. this is to the human. this strikes on the human. life. 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 loans of a two thousand pound raging bull the winner gets three hundred dollars. the next in a peaceful first but is ten where you have to get aggressive you gotta get.

crazy i'm a look at him like the feel of illinois i'm just going to tell you that now i look at him like the obvious. works to me and we did. see. some a good news make the wind doesn't blow it got to be 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 alone i'm alone here i feel like i'm out of place you know

because the level of education is different. processes and different. aware care myself and 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 the goal. 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 whether you are going

fight someone against their family can shag is invalid its vileness while when i face the boar i'm not skin. needed you see the discount someone vanity blom on to some of us that but i'm alive and not steal breve then x. gospel for sure he'll give all reason my destiny well the life full of hortense's a mother has blessed us. with its journey grew up in one of the pools like neighborhoods in three florida know the e.c.m. a second place she dances 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

but if you. break. charles around this is jerry's brother and then ends the small rap studio as jerry was growing up charles was the first one to believe in jerry's talent and i couldn't believe you know key with faye in that that he was. and he just. you know took it from there you know he became. the best rapper you know if he'd of been out on the street to me because you know he. says look. it's my right. to learn more about jerry so pencil and paper. we are best friends. you know i learned to pencil and paper that i was the most important woman in.

bonnie 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 he loved me more than anything. and. when things took a turn. for the worse for me. it took a turn for terry for them just. so my personality is built around same around the seven young age when i was small like. this guy used to beat my mom the palm of time right in front of me and my mom you know and for me what 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 and i became a crack addict. and a good indeed jerry was constantly in fights concerning his mother. over the ocean. and this. and this ole. if you'll souls now the human having any. role models anything he didn't really have anybody to. relate to his his family members that were all all in mostly in and out of jail all of his life incarcerated. begin to. make a. big. bag he will be a part of the gang in the delegate. i guess he took to you

know. a place of protection a word because the. at first we used to be to go out of ten like a fast old working so between a native night i really would never fall and you know and he just had to you know 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

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 on live because there's one that prepares people for success and prism. louisiana also has the highest rate of inmates by 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. 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 incarceration on needed to beat the criminality in this state. do you realize. we're locking our sales up instead of criminals we're putting our sales behind bars

we're building their territory walls around our stuff while those we're free 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 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 be punished. sentence is a tough eighty nine inmates sit on death row and then go. since nine hundred seventy two old 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 jewel offender is.

done cravings democratic state senate of the louisiana has been fighting since one thousand nine hundred 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 transform the 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 or 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 bend it demands the bounty 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 measurably 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 warden's convention for three days woodlands 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 goal is looking at that need some law need the fence fence that's give you a shock and then change to anything more than then we'll kill you big business each dollar 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 very big here we can afford to incarcerate our murderers but there's a bigger cost if you don't there's a cost to society and pain and suffering in misery there's a cost in terror and fear. in we don't want these people out so if the prisons are overcrowded then we should build big ones if you've been down go you know we've got a lot of. vote

for bush. the bush always adds by one vote for kerry for kerry so the people that are going to be validating this machine can stand there all day long and vote for somebody and it will be right every time but the guy can

walk up here and if he hits the right buttons.

including. top stories of the week today. thousands of people have lost. the record breaking heat. the number.

behind me they the devastation. left behind really pretty extreme lots and lots of people here have lost the homes and we know that around a hundred thousand hectares a huge amounts of land throughout central russia still burning and emergency services as they're really trying to get to grips with this now we know that the russian army has said that it's trying to gain control of the situation but thousands and thousands of people are now facing the reality reality if i missed the people that we spake and see in this area that have lost their homes destroyed when the fire happened they said it happened very very quickly in described as a firestorm it was really a very fierce indeed and didn't give them much time to do anything other than leave themselves and get out to the dentist they say they're obviously now less dealing with the situation that's two senses in the city head that it's taken them in and we let this one yes they usually huge amounts of blood.