After fourteen years there, he was elevated to warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary.[4] After accepting the job at Angola, he continued to live on the grounds of Dixon.[6] Until 2011, Cain served as the vice chairperson of the Louisiana Civil Service Commission.[4]
Tenure at Angola
Louisiana State Penitentiary, also called Angola after the name of the slave plantation that formerly occupied its land, is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. Many of the inmates are imprisoned for life or for equivalently long terms[7] and are unlikely ever to be released. Commissioner Cain claims that under his tenure violent incidents decreased significantly among the inmate population as the prison transitioned to a model based on a Christian religious atmosphere and manual labor, enforced in part with threats of solitary confinement and other punishments. But his claims are highly disputed.[citation needed] During his tenure he became the most famous warden in U.S. history[citation needed], but before he retired he also became one of the most controversial wardens in U.S. history.[8]
As warden, Cain created an exclusively Christian religious environment in which inmates who displayed adherence to the faith were rewarded and those who did not were punished.[4] A branch of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was established at Angola during Cain's tenure, one of the prison's eight churches.[9] In August 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit accusing then-Warden Cain and the Louisiana state prison system of hindering a Mormon inmate's access to religious texts.[10] At least one Catholic inmate was also allegedly harassed for requesting to receive Mass while imprisoned on Death Row.[11]
Cain increased media access to the prison, and several documentaries were filmed at the prison during his tenure.[12] He also established a television station at the prison and supported the newsmagazine and radio. Filmed events at the prison include the Angola Prison Rodeo, football, and boxing matches. Cain established a prison-run hospice program in 1997. In 2008, Cain became the longest-serving warden in the history of Angola.[13]
While at Angola, in September/October 2005, Cain also became the warden of Camp Greyhound, a temporary jail in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.[14]
In 2016, when he resigned, the prison had 3,600 inmates on 18,000 acres.[9] Gordon Russell and Maya Lau of The Advocate reported that Cain's salary, $167,211 per year was $30,000 higher than that of James LeBlanc, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Corrections and a previous subordinate and personal friend of Cain. According to Russell and Lau, many observers said that Cain was de facto the head of the department.[15]
In 2008 Cain said he supported continuing solitary confinement for the men known as the Angola 3. In a 2008 deposition, attorneys for Woodfox asked Cain:
'Let's just for the sake of argument assume, if you can, that he is not guilty of the murder of Brent Miller.' Cain responded, 'Okay, I would still keep him in CCR…I still know that he is still trying to practice Black Pantherism, and I still would not want him walking around my prison because he would organize the young new inmates. I would have me all kind of problems, more than I could stand, and I would have the blacks chasing after them.'"
Cain's resignation as warden came amid allegations about his private real estate dealings raised by The Baton Rouge Advocate. The capital city newspaper claimed that Cain sold interest in land that he owned in West Feliciana Parish to two developers who were reportedly either family or friends of two Angola inmates incarcerated for conviction of murder. The state legislative auditor and the state Department of Public Safety & Corrections began investigations into the issue.[9] In May 2016, Cain was exonerated of any wrongdoing, with respect to using his employees to perform home renovations.[17]
In January 2017, a separate report from the office of Daryl G. Purpera, the state legislative auditor, said that some ten correctional department employees performed work on Cain's private residence near Central in East Baton Rouge Parish. One worked for Cain for three weeks while on official duty at his regular state job. In addition to the labor which Cain received, the audit alleges that the former warden obtained appliances and furnishings, such as iron gates, and food and lodging at the penitentiary for a number of his relatives, mostly his children.
Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc, Cain's long-term friend and business partner, said that Cain was "personally liable" for $20,000 for the costs of the food, lodging and gates; and that the department will file a civil suit or seek restitution if Cain faces prosecution in the matter.[18] Cain discounted the findings of the Purpera report, saying it had misinterpreted his "creative" approach to handling his duties as warden. Cain claims to have transformed the long-running Angola Prison Rodeo into a self-sustaining facility, resulting in a financial windfall for the state. He also authorized the construction of five new chapels built with privately raised funds.[19]
Cain said that it was his
"being creative and thinking outside the box that got me in trouble. These kinds of things discourage state employees from being entrepreneurial. … I stole nothing. I gave. … I should be tossed off rather than condemned."[19]
Ultimately Cain was cleared by the Daryl Purpera investigation and by another probe into his activities by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Cain said that he never doubted that he would be cleared because he had stolen nothing, had merely "thought outside the box" to bring needed changes to the penitentiary. He said that prayers from his fellow Southern Baptists assured that he would receive justice in the investigations.[20]
The district attorney for the Louisiana 20th Judicial District, Sam D'Aquilla, indicated that he would refer the case to a grand jury.[19]
According to a biography by Ridgeway, Cain "enjoys hunting and traveling around the country on his motorcycle."[4] Both he and his brother, former state senator James David Cain, are Republicans.[1]
Cain's eldest son, Nathan "Nate" Cain, II (born April 1967), and his younger son, Marshall Arbuthnot Cain (born October 1971), of Ouachita Parish, also have had careers with the Louisiana Department of Corrections. Cain, II, had advanced to become warden of Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, a facility since named for former state Representative Raymond Laborde of Marksville. He vacated the warden's position in Cottonport on May 24, 2016. Marshall Cain is a manager of Prison Enterprises. Cain's son-in-law, Seth Henry Smith, Jr. (born January 1974), of East Feliciana Parish, also works for the corrections department, as a "confidential assistant" to one of the appointed officials.[15]
Prior to Nate Cain's decision to resign from Avoyelles Correctional Center, his wife, the former Tonia Bandy, business manager of the prison and another top official, also stepped down. Tonia Cain's attorney cited her client's health issues as the principal reason for the resignation. Meanwhile, the state corrections department said that it had halted the construction of the "Ranch House" building at the Avoyelles prison, a structure for which some $76,000 had already been spent. Nate Cain had built an identical structure at the C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center in DeQuincy in Calcasieu Parish, where he was earlier the deputy warden.[22]
Nate and Tonia Cain divorced in 2017, and she resumed her maiden name of Bandy. She agreed to plea bargain and admitted to some of the seventeen wire fraud charges (and an additional count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud) in hopes of getting a lighter sentence than she would have received if convicted of the crimes. The two stood accused of purchasing personal items, including television sets, furniture, and guns and ammunition, on a state credit card. As it developed, Bandy pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the federal corruption case against both her and her former husband. The government then dropped seventeen fraud charges pending against her. Sentencing was originally scheduled for October 9, 2018, with Tonia Cain facing up to twenty years in a penitentiary, though she was expected to receive a more lenient sentence.[23] On June 17, 2019, Tonia Cain received an eight-month sentence in federal prison, while Nate Cain received a 38-month sentence in federal prison; both were also ordered to serve two years of supervised release and to pay more than $42,000 in restitution.[24]
Representation in media
The Execution of Antonio James (1996), documentary at LSP directed by Liz Garbus and Jonathan Stack
The Farm: 10 Years Down (2009), documentary directed by Stack
Serving Life (2011), documentary about LSP's hospice care of inmates, a program established in 1997. It is directed by journalist Lisa R. Cohen; the narrator and executive producer is Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker.[25]
West Feliciana Parish is a civil parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 15,310. The parish seat is St. Francisville. The parish was established in 1824.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates prisons. It has its headquarters in Jackson. As of 2020 Burl Cain is the commissioner.
Wilbert Rideau is an American convicted killer and former death row inmate from Lake Charles, Louisiana, who became an author and award-winning journalist while held for 44 years at Angola Prison. Rideau was convicted in 1961 of first-degree murder of Julia Ferguson in the course of a bank robbery that year, and sentenced to death. He was held in solitary confinement on death row, pending execution. After the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states had to rework their death penalty statutes because of constitutional concerns, the Louisiana Court judicially amended his sentence in 1972 to life in prison.
The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former slave plantation that occupied this territory. The plantation was named after the country of Angola, from which many enslaved people originated before arriving in Louisiana.
The Angola Three are three African American former prison inmates who were held for decades in solitary confinement while imprisoned at Louisiana State Penitentiary. The latter two were indicted in April 1972 for the killing of a prison corrections officer; they were convicted in January 1974. Wallace and Woodfox served more than 40 years each in solitary, the "longest period of solitary confinement in American prison history".
Moreese Bickham was an American resident of Mandeville, Louisiana who was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death for the July 12, 1958 killing of a sheriff's deputy, reportedly a local Klan leader. In 1974, Bickham's death sentence was converted to life without parole after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia, which invalidated death penalty convictions in certain circumstances. In April, 1995, through a detailed legal challenge to Bickham's 1958 conviction, the Governor of Louisiana consented to commute Bickham's sentence to 75 years. Several months later, Bickham's attorney won a full release, and Bickham left Angola State Penitentiary in January, 1996, after 37 1/2 years in prison. Bickham lived the rest of his life in California, and in April 2016, died in hospice care in Alameda, California after a short illness, at the age of 98.
John P. Whitley is a former Louisiana corrections officer who served as the warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary, the largest maximum-security in the United States, from 1990 to 1995. Time magazine credited Warden Whitley with turning around hopelessness and violence at Angola with "little more than his sense of decency and fairness."
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) is a state law enforcement agency responsible for the incarceration of inmates and management of facilities at state prisons within the state of Louisiana. The agency is headquartered in Baton Rouge. The agency comprises two major areas: Public Safety Services and Corrections Services. The secretary, who is appointed by the governor of Louisiana, serves as the department's chief executive officer. The Corrections Services deputy secretary, undersecretary, and assistant secretaries for the Office of Adult Services and the Office of Youth Development report directly to the secretary. Headquarters administration consists of centralized divisions that support the management and operations of the adult and juvenile institutions, adult and juvenile probation and parole district offices, and all other services provided by the department.
The United States Penitentiary, Pollock is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in unincorporated Grant Parish, Louisiana. It is part of the Pollock Federal Correctional Complex and operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp for minimum-security male offenders.
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) is a prison for women with its permanent pre-2016 facility located in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, United States. It is the only female correctional facility of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Elayn Hunt Correctional Center is immediately west of LCIW. LCIW includes the state's female death row. As of 2017 the prison has temporarily moved due to flooding that occurred in August 2016, and its prisoners are housed in other prisons. The administration is temporarily located in the former Jetson Youth Center near Baker. By 2021 the Baker area address was given for the prison on the LCIW website.
Dixon Correctional Institute (DCI) is a prison facility in Jackson, Louisiana. DCI, a facility of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, is approximately 30 miles (48 km) from Baton Rouge. Dixon is located about 34 miles (55 km) from the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola).
Louisiana Highway 66 (LA 66) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs 19.62 miles (31.58 km) in a general east–west direction from the main entrance of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola to a junction with U.S. Highway 61 (US 61) north of St. Francisville.
David Wade Correctional Center (DWCC) is a Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections prison located in an unincorporated area of Claiborne Parish, between Homer and Haynesville, Louisiana. The prison is located near the Louisiana-Arkansas border.
The Angolite is the inmate-edited and published prison magazine of the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.
Billy Wayne Sinclair is a former prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, convicted of first-degree murder and originally sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life in 1972. He became a notable journalist, known from 1978 for co-editing The Angolite with Wilbert Rideau; together they won some national journalism awards at the magazine, and were nominated for others. It published articles written by inmates at the prison.
C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center (PCC) was a Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections prison for men, located in unincorporated Beauregard Parish, Louisiana, about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of DeQuincy and 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Lake Charles. The center was located on Louisiana Highway 27. It had a capacity of 942 prisoners and was a medium security facility.
A prison cemetery is a graveyard reserved for the dead bodies of prisoners. Generally, the remains of inmates who are not claimed by family or friends are interred in prison cemeteries and include convicts executed for capital crimes.
Raymond Laborde Correctional Center (RLCC), formerly Avoyelles Correctional Center (ACC), is a state prison of Louisiana, operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is located in unincorporated Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, near Cottonport and about 30 miles (48 km) south of Alexandria.
Pitkin is a census-designated place (CDP) in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, United States.
Marlowe Parker is an artist who was an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Parker exhibited and sold his artwork during the Angola Rodeo art shows. Burl Cain, the warden of Angola, said in 2012 that Parker is "probably one of our best artists." Harry Connick Jr. is one of Parker's fans. Parker named Clementine Hunter and his stepfather, an artist and former Angola prisoner named Gilbert Green, as his influences. Parker is incarcerated due to a 25-year drug-related sentence. Parker had family members living in New Orleans.
↑ "Auditor says state paying too much by letting Angola warden live at DCI." The Advocate. February 7, 1997. Retrieved on February 3, 2011. "The state legislative auditor is questioning corrections officials for allowing two prison wardens to live off their prison grounds at extra cost to the state. But a top corrections official said the arrangement is fine. Warden Burl Cain of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola continues to live in the same house on the grounds of Dixon Correctional Institute where he lived while in his previous job as DCI warden."
↑ Much of the controversy is outlined in an article by Gordon Russell and Maya Lau, “Fall of Burl Cain: How 1 Last Side Deal Led to Angola Warden Undoing,” The Advocate (Dec. 15, 2015; updated May 20, 2020): www.NOLA.com/news/politics/article_987176f3-8571-543b-b331-186b8077a7cf.htm.Archived 2020-04-28 at the Wayback Machine
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