BATON ROUGE - A federal judge has certified a lawsuit challenging work conditions on Angola Prison’s Farm Line as a class-action case, opening it to potentially thousands of inmates. The ruling comes just one month before the trial.

“It’s a critical moment because it means that the court recognizes that the state's operation of the farm line harms everybody at Angola prison,” said Lydia Wright, legal director of Rights Behind Bars.

The case began last summer, when inmates and advocacy groups asked a judge to stop Angola officials from sending prisoners into the fields during extreme heat. Wright said the plaintiffs argue the conditions violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

“It’s the dangerous and degrading practice of forcing incarcerated men, mostly Black men, into the plantation fields to work under conditions that are intended to simulate enslavement,” Wright said.

The judge ruled the case qualifies as a class action because the issues affect large numbers of inmates in the same way. This allows thousands of prisoners to join the lawsuit, not just the original named plaintiffs.

“Individuals can represent the interests of other people who don’t have their names on the lawsuit themselves,” Wright added.

Wright said Angola sits on land once used as slave plantations. Prisoners on the Farm Line plant, cultivate, and harvest crops, many without pay, and some earning just a few cents an hour.

“They make no money at all for their work, or some make two cents an hour, and that's been the pay rate at least since the 1950s,” Wright said.

Advocates argue that the Farm Line provides punishment rather than rehabilitation. “Work can be fulfilling, it can be rehabilitative, it can be productive, and it should be all of those things. It should also be voluntary, and it should be safe, and the farm line is none of those things,” Wright said.

The court has already issued temporary orders requiring Angola to provide heat protections for field workers, including shade, sunscreen, and rest breaks. The upcoming trial will determine whether those protections become permanent.

“It is simply stunning that in 2025 it takes a federal court order to require the state of Louisiana to treat people who are incarcerated with human decency,” Wright said.

The trial is set to begin on February 3rd.