Prison Radio

Lord, hear our penitential Cry: Salvation from above; It is the Lord that doth supply, With his Redeeming Love.

—Jupiter Hammon, from “An Evening Thought”

At first glance, it could be the broadcasting booth of a college radio station. A poster advertising a recent film symposium hangs on the wall; people are mopping up after the rain, working on newly acquired equipment, queuing up CDs. The DJ looks through the newspaper and marks the stories he will read on air, most of which regard Louisiana corrections. There are no armed guards, no nametags—nothing to indicate that this is a maximum security prison. Looking around, I can see why inmates would want to work here. For a moment, we could be anywhere else.

“The radio station helps me to relieve stress and tension,” the Reverend A.J. explains. The 71-year-old inmate serving a life term for first-degree murder looks gentle and grandfatherly. If this were indeed a college campus, A.J. would be a model student. Here at Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola), he is a member of the Lifer’s Association, Chairman of the Elderly Assistance Group and hosts a gospel show on KLSP, Angola’s radio station. He visits sick prisoners in the hospital and preaches to other inmates during church functions.

“I’ve done so much wrong to people,” he says. “Now that I have the chance to give back, that’s what I do.”

Reverend A.J., whose full name is Andrew Joseph, first came to Angola in 1948. “When I came to prison, [it] wasn’t a place of rehabilitation. Everything was survival.” As a 17-year-old kid who “attracted the older inmates,” A.J. survived by “develop[ing] a violent attitude.” He was in and out of correctional facilities several times before being sentenced to life in 1978. About 10 years ago, Burl Cain, Angola’s warden asked him to become involved with the radio station. “Just to realize that I was counted as a trustworthy inmate to work at a radio station was a big deal for me,” A.J. says. “I jumped at that.” KLSP is the only FCC-licensed radio station in the country facilitated by inmates, and it’s an integral part of Angola’s unorthodox approach to inmate rehabilitation. The station was established under a previous warden in 1986 as a means of communicating with everyone in the prison at once. Angola is the country’s largest correctional facility, with 5,108 inmates, so the need to disseminate information rapidly is critical.