Prisons are built on the supposition that time, discipline and routine transform inmates into new people. Nelson Davis has lived with this idea since 1980, when he arrived at the Louisiana State Penitentiary to fulfill a life sentence.
His days are spent between the prison’s kitchens and self-help programs, which structure his reformation. But how effective are these methods? Davis reflects on his time away from society with oral historian Mark Cave.
Click here for Nelson Davis' account of life in at Angola.
Davis earns 14 cents an hour to work as a cook at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. This interview was conducted by Mark Cave forThe Historic New Orleans Collectionand produced forWWNOby Thomas Walsh.
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