re: Angola Prison Rodeo experiences

The public doesn't seem to know as much about Angola Prison as they used to. That may be because media-savey warden Earl Cain is gone, and court-supervised reforms ended in 2000 after 25 years. Things to know are:

1. About 75 percent of the convicts have sentences of life without parole. The rest have 80-90 year sentences. At sometime in each prisoner's life outside they were very bad people.

2. Angola is their forever home. Reform and rejoining society is an unlikely outcome. It has to be a very tightly controlled environment. Most confinement facilities are not easily understood by people outside.

3. The average convict age is about 45 with many older guys.

4. Few are locked up in cells because of violence, being at risk or having a death sentence. Most live in barracks with a bunk and a locker. Older trustees have considerable freedom of movement. Before reform, trustees could also be guards! Bad idea,

5, Events like the rodeo break the monotony of strict confinement. Convicts who interact with the public have a record of good behavior.

So, enjoy the rodeo at least once while you are in the area. But, never exchange personal info especially contacts with a convict. They have lots of time to dream up ways of screwing with people.

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The rodeo itself is legit as close to a modern Roman Coliseum show you will experience

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They were playing "bull poker" where they sit at a red table playing cards while a bull struts around. I saw an inmate get rag doll tossed about 20 feet in the air. It was AWESOME!

And I got a great belt too while there.

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People bring their teens to this??

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Yes, Its a family event and there are plenty of kids.

Food is good.
Traffic is bad getting out.
You can take a guided tour of the prison grounds, worth it.
Cool, family friendly event that is worth going to. I would go every year if the traffic getting out wasn’t so bad.

I have been a few times over the years and have bought alot of neat furniture for cheap. Go the last Sunday and you can get some good deals because they will be eager to sell. Also, the traffic trying to leave is absolutely horrendous. Make sure you have plenty of gas. It took us 2-3 hours just to get off the prison property last time.

Go at least once for the experience. Leave early to escape traffic. Crafts are great, so get there early enough to walk around a couple or of hours.

I like to buy a wallet from one of the leather workers and make bad jokes about my prison wallet for the rest of the day.

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It's a shitty rodeo and trashy as frick.

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it is a cool cultural event that may one day become a thing of the past

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Damn man, it’s almost like you couldn’t decide if you wanted to be edgy or if you wanted to tell us how you really feel about the rodeo

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cool cultural event that may one day become a thing of the past.

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That’s where I landed on it. I’ve only been once. Approx two years ago. Took my youngest who was 15 at the time and made the trip with friends from church who go there every year.

They recommended getting there way early. I think we were eating breakfast at the St. Francisville Mickey Ds around 7AM. It made for a long day, but the time passed pretty quickly.

Be sure you have plenty of fuel in your vehicle. There aren’t any stations from US61 all the way to Angola, and you’ll be idling for at least an hour when exiting. Security was surprisingly unobtrusive—you could pretty much walk in/out of the area without issue.

It is a fully cash event. There’s plenty of food and drinks available, but no credit cards anywhere that I could find. Food is standard issue SELA festival fare. Lots of fried foods, sausage, etc. Cell service was surprisingly good, at least until everyone was leaving. At that point, it went to shite.

Definitely worth making a first trip. Not sure I’ll ever make a return visit, but for sure worth doing 1x.

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So which one is it?

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It is a low quality backwoods rodeo.

I think everyone should experience one of those; they are fun in their own way.


Same way Blind River Bar is (was) a trashy experience that everyone should experience. Step out of your comfort zone and experience a culture that is different than what you live every day, up or down.