Angola 3 - Visiting Albert Woodfox

International Coalition to Free the Angola 3

Black August Summer doldrums have kept much of anything happening with the Angola 3 case these past months. We'll have more news in September regarding both Herman and Albert's cases and the civil suit as well. Meanwhile, we pray that the heat breaks in Louisiana and that we have good news to report in next month's newsletter.

Visiting Albert Woodfox

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A3 supporter Rebecca Hensley recently visited Albert at the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer, LA, where he is now held. In a letter written shortly after seeing Albert, Rebecca writes:

I had a great visit with Albert. He's holding up well and is trying to maintain a more or less positive attitude in the face of temperatures averaging 110 degrees plus heat index. At 8:15 pm Saturday night, it was still 108 degrees in my car! In the cells, Albert and the fifteen fellow sufferers on his tier have four floor fans between them, so they sleep in 20-60 minute stretches on their mattresses on the floor, having given up sheets entirely because they just stay soaked. And this is on the non-punitive tier. Where guys are being punished, there is one fan for sixteen cells.

In addition, when a prisoner on another tier was gassed a couple of weeks ago, Albert's cell trapped some of the gas, making his eyes burn and causing him to vomit. Now, he has a repetitive, wheezy, dry cough. The "doctors" are checking him for "damage" related to disease, rather than admitting that the gas caused the coughing!

Albert says there's a new way to send money to prisoners in Louisiana. Prisoners will only be able to receive money deposited into the JPay system. There will be three ways to do it:

1) Go online to www.jpay.com to leave money for a prisoner using your debit or credit card (a fee will be charged).

2) At some point, deposits to prisoner accounts will be made possible over the phone, but according to Albert's information, the phone number has not yet been set up (a fee will be charged for this, as well).

3) It will be possible to send a money order directly to JPay at P.O. Box 531370, Miami Shores, FL 33153, but you must have completed a "deposit slip." I'm assuming this means you'll have to request or print out the slips online.

For more information, call 866-333-5729.