A Louisiana prisoner was punished and transferred for speaking to a reporter about misconduct in the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. William Kissinger corresponded with reporter Maya Lau of The Advocate about his experiences at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the most notorious prison in Louisiana. From The Advocate:
Kissinger described life at the prison and responses around Angola to articles about the warden and his domain. He also shared his own concerns and suggested areas for further investigation.
Then Kissinger went silent. A few weeks later, Lau received a handwritten letter from Kissinger — now incarcerated at [Elayn Hunt Correctional Center], in St. Gabriel.
“Angola snatched me up, chained me up, and drove me straight to Hunt, and put me in ‘the dungeon’ (punitive cells) in the middle of the night on February 4th,” Kissinger wrote.
“In a ‘kangaroo’-style disciplinary court I was found guilty of 2 serious rule violations for things I said to you in our emails. As a result, I have been stripped of basically everything and am now housed in a punitive cellblock, basically until they decide to let me out.”
A prison spokesperson confirmed that Kissinger was "under investigation," stating that "His behavior going forward will dictate his future housing and other assignments." The Advocate says Kissinger's correspondence with Lau was "not threatening or profane, nor does he discuss committing any crimes. Mostly, he writes about goings-on at the prison; his descriptions include criticisms of the staff."
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said that prisoners have “a right to send media mail unopened and to receive media mail that has been opened only for the inspection of contraband in the inmate’s presence." However, as The Advocate notes, Lau used an alias when writing Kissinger because she knew that he'd been punished before.
In the mid-1990s, he raised pointed questions in letters to federal health officials about a can-relabeling operation at Angola that then-Warden Burl Cain had set up with a private company using inmate labor.
Kissinger, who is serving a life sentence for murder and manslaughter, said at the time the business “stinks of impropriety” and is “shrouded in secrecy.” He was quickly demoted from his position as an inmate legal advocate to farm work, a move Cain admitted in court was retribution for his outspokenness.
Angola is the nation’s largest maximum security prison. At 28 square miles, it is larger than Manhattan. A former slave plantation, it is called Angola because that’s where the plantation’s slaves came from. The facility, which is 80 percent black, has long been known as one of the most punitive and inhumane prisons in the nation, and has been criticized for its hard labor practices—many prisoners are forced to work in the fields for little to no pay.