Dozens of jailed kids, nearly all of them Black, must be removed from a former Louisiana death row unit after facing cruel punishment, judge says

• A judge said dozens of jailed kids must be moved out of a former Louisiana death row prison unit.
• The Louisiana State Penitentiary is the largest adult maximum security prison in the country.

A group of incarcerated children, most of them Black, spent nearly a year jailed in a former death row wing of the Louisiana State Prison.

Court testimony later brought to light concerning conditions: They were forced to stay in their cells for sometimes an entire day. One child was pepper-sprayed for throwing liquid at a guard. And they were denied adequate education.

Louisiana State is the country's largest adult maximum security prison. It is sometimes called Angola, the name of the old prison — a slave plantation — where the new one now sits.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards first ordered the kids moved to Angola last summer. Months of legal battles followed.

Now, after a year, a federal judge has intervened, ruling Friday that the kids must be moved out of the prison by September 15.

"For almost 10 months, children — nearly all Black boys — have been held in abusive conditions of confinement at the former death row of Angola — the nation's largest adult maximum security prison," David Utter, lead attorney on the case, wrote in a statement on Friday. "We are grateful to our clients and their families for their bravery in speaking out and standing up against this cruelty."

While rates of US youth incarceration have fallen in recent decades — declining 77 percent between 2000 and 2020 — racial disparities persist. As of 2019, Black children were 4.4 times more likely to be incarcerated compared to white children, according to the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy organization focused on decarceration efforts.

In his ruling, the judge said prison officials had violated the Fourteenth Amendment and that the children had faced cruel and unusual punishment, according to the ACLU of Louisiana.

The ruling came after a hearing last month revealed officials detained the children in their cells for long periods of time, used pepper spray in certain cases, and limited their access to education.

Testimony from a guard at the facility and an expert witness revealed officials held several children in their cells for anywhere between 14 and 22 hours, depending on the day, local news station WWNO reported. State law prohibits guards from holding children in their cells for longer than eight hours outside of sleeping hours.

Video footage played at the hearing also revealed a guard had used pepper spray against a child after he threw liquid from his cell toilet, according to WWNO. Submitted testimony from the children involved in the case also indicated that their required access to education had declined since moving to the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Following the judge's ruling, the Office of Juvenile Justice said in a statement their office has taken "extraordinary measures" to ensure the children maintained access to education and had suitable living conditions.

"While we disagree with the court's ruling today and will be seeking an emergency writ, we will continue to explore every option available to us that ensures the safety of staff, community members, and youth in our care," the statement read.