Arbitrary Cruelty, Louisiana Style

I was kicked out of prison last week.

I had gone to Angola prison in Louisiana to visit my friend Albert Woodfox -- one of the Angola Three. I hadn't been with him for more than an hour before a phalanx of guards rudely announced that our visit had been terminated and escorted me out the door. No explanation, nothing.

I was angry and frustrated, but not entirely surprised.

Although I didn't know beforehand that he would be there, I saw my friend Robert in the visiting area. He was visiting another inmate, but had the chance to say hello to his old friend Albert after two long years. Robert is one of the Angola Three and was imprisoned himself until February 2001, when he proved he was innocent of the crime for which he was being held. After 31 years in Angola -- 29 of them spent in solitary confinement -- Robert had walked out of Angola a free man. Last Friday was the first day he had been back since. Robert hates Angola -- for good reason -- but it turns out that Angola hates him more.

According to the rules of visitation at Angola, any former inmate may apply to visit after he has been out of prison for at least two years, presuming his criminal record has been spotless in the intervening years. Robert met all the criteria, so he applied. He didn't expect to be approved, since he had been a thorn in the sides of the prison administration for all of his 31 years inside. He had organized hunger strikes to improve the conditions inside the prison, and openly challenged the corruption and abuses of power he saw. As a former Black Panther like Albert, he was a moral leader inside the prison walls. And that made him a constant threat to the wardens.

But he was approved to visit, so he went. When the guards recognized him, they exploded with anger and threw him, and then the rest of us, out.

The why of it is somewhat complicated. It turns out that when Robert was released, his lawyers helped him get set up for life outside. He needed fundamental things, like identification. So when he went to the Social Security Administration for a card, he discovered that the name he had always used -- Robert King Wilkerson -- was not, in fact, his legal name. He learned that his real name was Robert Hilary King. And his birthday was different, too -- he discovered he was a year younger than he thought.

So when he applied for visitation, he used his legal name, as instructed. He also answered truthfully on the form that he had been incarcerated at Angola, and gave the date of his release, and his social security number. But someone in the classification department at the prison didn't put two and two together, because Robert got in, and they clearly didn't want him there.

I was sitting at a table talking to Albert, and Robert was on the other side of the table, talking to his friend Roy. It was Roy's first "contact visit" -- that is, one in which he didn't have to sit shackled behind a metal screen -- in 10 years. Also seated at the table were several supporters of the Angola Three, all of whom had been approved through official channels for a visit. Suddenly, five guards converged on Robert and demanded his identification and paperwork. He complied, and they left the room. The tension around the table shot up.

About 20 minutes later, they burst back in and escorted Robert out of the visiting room and into a waiting car. They drove him outside the prison gates and left him there. A few minutes later, all of Albert's visitors were ordered out, too. Albert sat coolly as he watched it happen; he refused to give his keepers the satisfaction of seeing him angry. I barely had the chance to say goodbye.

Pointless Show of Power

We met outside the front gates. A film crew that had been following me for the previous week or so was waiting outside. They began filming as Robert and I described what had just happened. Then, a warden strolled up and ordered us out of the parking lot and off the prison property. So we complied, and stood just beyond the yellow boundary line, and continued filming. About 10 minutes later three wardens came out again and ordered us to remove our cars from the parking lot. All of it was clearly harassment, a pointless, childish and pathetic show of power.