FARM, THE: ANGOLA, USA {AKA THE FARM: LIFE INSIDE ANGOLA PRISON} (TV)

Summary

A documentary film examining the lives of inmates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola.

The documentary focuses on the lives of six inmates serving life or near-life terms: George Crawford, Eugene “Bishop” Tannehill, George Ashanti Witherspoon, Logan “Bones” Theriot, John Brown, and Vincent Simmons. Twenty-two-year-old Crawford is transported to Angola and processed as a new inmate. While talking about his life experiences on the streets Crawford readily admits to wrongdoing, but he is intimidated by the life sentence that he has received for a first-degree murder conviction. Tannehill, an elder who has served thirty-eight years of a life sentence for murder, explains that all Angola inmates are forced to a breaking point where they adapt in one of three ways: they change their lives, they become hardened, or they are killed by prison life. Information follows about Angola’s history as a nineteenth-century slave plantation and about the prison’s ethnic composition, population, and average sentences. Next, Witherspoon gives an orientation lecture to new inmates in which he refers to the armed robbery that led to his seventy-five-year sentence. Witherspoon discusses the ways in which he has changed his life in prison to become a positive, contributing member of society, as well as his hopes for parole.

Theriot speaks from a hospital bed in Angola, where he is dying of lung cancer. He recalls the murder he committed, and he gives a more optimistic perspective on life in prison. Head warden Burl Cain tours the Angola farmland in which prisoners perform hard labor, and he speaks about the business of running a prison and the practicalities of prison labor. From death row, thirty-five-year-old John Brown describes the crime that led to his death sentence, and he speaks about the futility of his life before being imprisoned as well as the new perspective he has gained while on death row. Vincent Simmons, a forty-five year old who has served twenty years of a one-hundred-year sentence for aggravated rape, prepares to go before the parole board. Simmons explains that he has discovered evidence proving his innocence, which was suppressed at the time of the trial. Both Simmons and the two victims speak before the parole board during the review of Simmons’ case, which is also being submitted to the United States Supreme Court. The board rejects his request for a parole, still convinced that he is guilty in spite of the evidence presented.

Crawford meets with his mother during visiting hours and discusses the possibility of an appeal. Witherspoon joins a select group of prisoners who tour Louisiana giving lectures and CPR instruction. Tannehill, an ordained minister, preaches at an Angola church service. Theriot prepares to die and speaks about both his spirituality and the practical matter of his burial. Cain and prison technicians prepare the execution chamber for Brown and comment on the ways in which they rationalize the execution process to themselves. Brown’s hearing before a pardon board is held. A number of close friends visit Theriot on Christmas Eve as he lies on his deathbed. The entire Angola property is threatened by flooding of the Mississippi River, with inmates working around the clock to prevent a disaster. Brown is moved to the "death house," in which he spends his last day before execution. The surviving inmates talk about their dreams of freedom, and Theriot’s friends and family assemble to lay him to rest in the prison cemetery following his death. Updates on the legal cases of the four surviving prisoners are also provided. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: A&E
• DATE: November 7, 1999 Sunday 5:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:31:12
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: T:59870
• GENRE: Public Affairs/Documentaries
• SUBJECT HEADING: Louisiana - Correctional institutions; Prisons; Prison administration; Crime and criminals
• SERIES RUN: A&E - TV, 1999
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Michael Cascio … Executive Producer
• Gayle Gilman … Executive Producer
• Jonathan Stack … Producer, Director
• Liz Garbus … Producer, Director
• Wilbert Rideau … Director
• Curtis Lundy … Music by
• Mr. James Allen's ARC Gospel Choir … Choir
• Bernard Addison … Narrator
• George Crawford … Interviewee
• Eugene "Bishop" Tannehill … Interviewee
• George Ashanti Witherspoon … Interviewee
• Logan "Bones" Theriot … Interviewee
• Burl Cain … Interviewee
• John Brown … Interviewee
• Vincent Simmons … Interviewee
• Steven Daffner