US President Donald Trump appears to have quietly backed away from having his name tied to one of America’s most infamous prisons.
From Camp 47 to Camp 57
At Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary , a newly reopened prison unit briefly carried the sign Camp 47, a nod to Trump as the 47th US president. Photos captured by local station WAFB showed the name already painted on the building. But when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cut the ribbon on Wednesday, the site had been rebranded Camp 57, an apparent tribute to Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry , the state’s 57th governor.
The sudden change comes as the prison’s disturbing history resurfaces. Long known as Camp J, the disciplinary unit was shut down in 2018 after a wave of suicides, mass staff resignations, and reports of malfunctioning locks that sometimes popped open by themselves. Mercedes Montagnes of the Promise of Justice Initiative once described the unit as “more akin to a dungeon.”
A grim past revived
Prison Legal News documented the misery inside before its closure: in one year alone, 85 officers resigned, retired, or were fired. In April 2016, two men took their own lives in the unit on the very same day.
Despite that legacy, the Department of Homeland Security is now reopening the site as part of a hard-line detention expansion. Branded by DHS as the Louisiana Lockup , the unit joins other alliterative facilities such as Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” Indiana’s “Speedway Slammer,” and Nebraska’s “Cornhusker Clink.”
ICE moves in
On day one, officials said 51 ICE detainees had already been transferred into the prison, with capacity expected to rise to 416. Noem said the notorious prison—built on a former slave plantation and long plagued by abuse allegations, was chosen to encourage “self-deportation.”
Gov. Landry leaned into Angola’s reputation while giving reporters a tour: “With 18,000 acres bordered by the Mississippi River, swamps filled with alligators, and forests filled with bears, nobody really wants to leave the place.”
Officials insist the unit has been repaired and walled off from the rest of the prison after emergency upgrades this summer. Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the opening as a “historic agreement” with Louisiana.
Whether the new name will erase its grim past, or Trump’s brush with association, remains an open question.
From Camp 47 to Camp 57
At Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary , a newly reopened prison unit briefly carried the sign Camp 47, a nod to Trump as the 47th US president. Photos captured by local station WAFB showed the name already painted on the building. But when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cut the ribbon on Wednesday, the site had been rebranded Camp 57, an apparent tribute to Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry , the state’s 57th governor.
The sudden change comes as the prison’s disturbing history resurfaces. Long known as Camp J, the disciplinary unit was shut down in 2018 after a wave of suicides, mass staff resignations, and reports of malfunctioning locks that sometimes popped open by themselves. Mercedes Montagnes of the Promise of Justice Initiative once described the unit as “more akin to a dungeon.”
A grim past revived
Prison Legal News documented the misery inside before its closure: in one year alone, 85 officers resigned, retired, or were fired. In April 2016, two men took their own lives in the unit on the very same day.
Despite that legacy, the Department of Homeland Security is now reopening the site as part of a hard-line detention expansion. Branded by DHS as the Louisiana Lockup , the unit joins other alliterative facilities such as Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” Indiana’s “Speedway Slammer,” and Nebraska’s “Cornhusker Clink.”
ICE moves in
On day one, officials said 51 ICE detainees had already been transferred into the prison, with capacity expected to rise to 416. Noem said the notorious prison—built on a former slave plantation and long plagued by abuse allegations, was chosen to encourage “self-deportation.”
Gov. Landry leaned into Angola’s reputation while giving reporters a tour: “With 18,000 acres bordered by the Mississippi River, swamps filled with alligators, and forests filled with bears, nobody really wants to leave the place.”
Officials insist the unit has been repaired and walled off from the rest of the prison after emergency upgrades this summer. Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the opening as a “historic agreement” with Louisiana.
Whether the new name will erase its grim past, or Trump’s brush with association, remains an open question.
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