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2. I see a column of inmates, most of them black, marching out to soybean and vegetable fields, their hoes over their shoulders. Behind and in front of the marching men, guards on horseback with rifles watch their charge. In antebellum days three cotton plantations occupied these 18,000 acres, worked by slaves from Angola in Africa . . . Since its beginnings in 1901, abuse, corruption, rage, and reform have studded its history.

In Chapter 2, Prejean describes seeing Angola for the first time. Her description suggests that the modern day prison bears a strong resemblance to the slave plantation Angola once was. Long before Angola became a prison, its history was filled with abuse, corruption, and rage. Its reincarnation as a prison has done little to mitigate that legacy. Prejean notes that since the prison was opened in 1901, abuses have continued. The penal system and slavery are drastically different institutions that are connected by a shared history of human rights abuses, racial discrimination, and violence.

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