ALEX A. v. EDWARDS

In July 2022, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced a plan to transfer dozens of incarcerated youths to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola. The facility is the nation’s largest and has a longstanding record of human rights violations. It housed some 5,000 adult men, the vast majority of them convicted of violent crimes.

A former official with the state Official of Juvenile Justice, called the move “abhorrent” and the “worst juvenile justice policy decision probably ever made in modern times.” The prison was not equipped to safely and humanely house youth and provide them with the educational and rehabilitative services required under federal law.

A coalition of civil rights groups and attorneys filed a class action federal lawsuit on behalf of children moved to Angola, and a federal judge in August 2023 ordered the state to remove them, citing unconstitutional conditions that amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.” Children had been subjected to solitary confinement for days and weeks at a time; excessive force; denial of education; and the routine use of shackles, handcuffs and chemical agents. The state appealed the decision and lost, but the order was time-limited and no longer in force, returning the case to the district court, where the plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction to end the confinement at Angola or any other adult facility.

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.