Angola is the Louisiana State Penitentiary, and is reckoned to be the largest prison in the US, with 5,000 inmates - 80 per cent of whom are black - and over 1,000 staff. Located on an 18,000 acre (73 km²) plantation close to the Mississippi border, it is surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi River, making flooding a constant menace.

It was established in 1880 and was originally leased out to private management. Louisiana state only assumed full control in 1900. In 1916, to save money, all the guards were fired and selected inmates were used as trusties, a system which led to a great deal of abuse.

By the 1950s, Angola had degenerated to become one of the very worst prisons in the USA. In 1952, 31 inmates cut their Achilles tendons in protest at the hard work and brutality. Conditions improved - only to worsen again in the 1960s as the corrections budget was cut.

Eventually, in 1972, a reforming director of corrections was appointed by Governor Edwin Edwards and the US courts orderd Louisiana to clean up Angola once and for all. Successive wardens have continued the improvements and Angola is now regarded as a showcase among US penal establishments. The current Warden, Burl Cain, maintains an open-door policy with the media, which led to the production of the award winning documentary The Farm. Films such as Dead Man Walking and Monster's Ball were partly filmed in Angola.

Angola is still, indeed, run as a working farm, and Cain once said that the key to running a peaceful maximum security prison was "you've got to keep the inmates working all day so they're tired at night."

The prison hosts a rodeo every August and its inmates produce an award winning magazine The Angolite, available to the general public and free to publish whatever it chooses. There is also a museum which features among its exhibits Louisiana's old electric chair, last used in 1990.