{"slug":"camp-57-angola-ice-detention","title":"'Camp 57': ICE Detainees Held in a Former Disciplinary Unit Inside Angola Prison (September 2025–)","date":"2025-09-03","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"On 3 September 2025 DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry opened \"Camp 57\", also called \"Louisiana Lockup\", an immigration detention unit for more than 400 men inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. The reopened unit had been used for disciplinary confinement of state prisoners; Prism reports it is the former \"Camp J\" solitary-confinement unit closed in 2018. Noem said Angola's notoriety was part of the message to detainees. A former detainee describes small dirty cells, flooding toilets and poor food, which ICE denies; he was deported to Laos in October 2025 despite a federal judge's temporary restraining order blocking his removal while he pressed a \"substantial claim of U.S. citizenship\" (AP). ACLU Louisiana says people are being held there indefinitely as a form of punishment that civil immigration detention cannot lawfully be.","summary":"DHS reopened a disused punitive unit inside the largest maximum-security prison in the US to hold civil immigration detainees, and said the prison's fearsome reputation was the point. One former detainee's account describes harsh conditions, which ICE denies; that detainee was deported in breach of a court order. ACLU Louisiana is challenging detentions there in court.","category":"deportation-to-torture","severity":"severe","ongoing":true,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-new-immigration-detention-facility-inside-louisiana-state-penitentiary-angola-prison/","title":"DHS opens new immigration detention facility inside Louisiana's Angola prison","publisher":"CBS News"},{"url":"https://prismreports.org/2026/04/06/immigrants-complain-of-poor-conditions-in-notorious-unit-at-angola-prison/","title":"Immigrants complain about notorious unit at 'Angola' prison","publisher":"Prism"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/immigration-alabama-man-deported-589bde743ebd5068529807e755fcfb25","title":"Lawyers say Alabama father deported to Laos despite court order blocking removal","publisher":"Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.laaclu.org/press-releases/attorneys-file-habeas-petition-challenging-unconstitutional-indefinite-detention-at-angolas-camp-57/","title":"Attorneys File Habeas Petition Challenging Unconstitutional Indefinite Detention at Angola's \"Camp 57\"","publisher":"ACLU of Louisiana"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["immigration detention","Angola","Camp 57","Louisiana Lockup","solitary confinement","detention conditions","ICE"],"relatedEntries":["alligator-alcatraz-detention-torture","immigrant-detention-deaths-conditions","systematic-bond-denial-indefinite-detention","wrongful-deportations-pattern"],"timeline":[{"date":"2025-09-03","title":"Camp 57 opened","summary":"Noem, Bondi and Landry hold a news conference at the unit, renovated in about 30 days; 51 detainees have already arrived (CBS News)."},{"date":"2025-10-28","title":"Detainee deported despite court order","summary":"AP reports that Chanthila Souvannarath, held at the Angola facility, was deported to Laos although Judge Shelly Dick had issued a temporary restraining order blocking his removal pending his citizenship claim (AP)."},{"date":"2026-04-06","title":"Former detainees and prisoners describe conditions","summary":"Prism publishes accounts from Souvannarath and from men held in Camp J before 2018, together with ICE's denial."}],"location":{"name":"Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola), Louisiana","lat":30.9549,"lng":-91.5965},"custom":{"era":"second-term","posture":"reported","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Convention against Torture","article":"Article 16","provision":"Prevention of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in any territory under the state's jurisdiction"},{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Articles 9 and 10","provision":"No arbitrary detention; persons deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for their inherent dignity"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Civil immigration detainees held at Camp 57, many of them long-term US residents with old criminal convictions detained at routine immigration check-ins (per ACLU Louisiana); Chanthila Souvannarath, deported to Laos","perpetrators":"DHS Secretary Kristi Noem; ICE; Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (state partner)","keyPoints":["Camp 57 is inside the 18,000-acre Angola complex, holds only men, and is designed for more than 400 detainees; 51 had arrived by 2 September 2025 (CBS News).","Law enforcement officials told CBS News the unit had been used for disciplinary actions against state prisoners before it was shut; Prism reports it is the former Camp J solitary-confinement unit, closed in 2018 and notorious for suicides, fighting, extreme heat and isolation.","Noem: 'This is a facility that's notorious, it's a facility, Angola Prison is legendary — but that's a message that these individuals that are going to be here, that are illegal criminals, need to understand' (CBS News).","Landry said the unit sits next to a lake 'full of alligators' and a 'forest full of bears' (CBS News).","Former detainee Chanthila Souvannarath describes small, dirty cells locked at night, small portions of 'disgusting' food, flooding toilets, no cameras and cruel guards: 'We're not criminals, … [but] we were being treated like criminals' (Prism).","Souvannarath, a lawful permanent resident since infancy, was deported to Laos in October 2025 from detention at Camp 57 despite a temporary restraining order by U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick barring his removal while he pursued what she called a 'substantial claim of U.S. citizenship'; ACLU Louisiana called it a 'stunning violation of a federal court order' (AP; Prism).","ICE: 'Any claim there are subprime conditions at Camp 57 in Angola, Louisiana is false' (Prism)."],"searchAliases":["Louisiana Lockup","Camp J","Angola ICE"],"legalBasis":"Fifth Amendment due process (civil detainees may not be subjected to punishment); limits on post-removal-order detention; CAT Art. 16 and ICCPR Arts. 9–10. No international-crime characterisation is in play.","postureNote":"The facility's location, purpose and official statements are confirmed by on-the-record reporting from the opening. Conditions inside rest on one former detainee's account, historical accounts of Camp J, and ACLU Louisiana's statements; ICE denies them, and no inspection report or court finding on conditions was located. The removal of one detainee despite a temporary restraining order is reported by AP from court records. ACLU Louisiana's habeas and supervision-revocation challenges were pending per Prism (April 2026).","relatedIncidents":["alligator-alcatraz-detention-torture","immigrant-detention-deaths-conditions","systematic-bond-denial-indefinite-detention","wrongful-deportations-pattern"]}}