Donald Trump appears to have chickened out after Louisiana tried to name a brutal prison camp in his honor. The camp was forced to shut down due to its appalling conditions but is now reopening to host people rounded up by ICE.
The area of Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana was already painted with a sign that read “Camp 47,” in a nod to Trump, who is the 47th U.S. president, according to photos of the unit captured last week by a local news station WAFB.
However, the administration appears to have had second thoughts, and the unit was unveiled on Wednesday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as “Camp 57”—apparently in homage to Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s 57th governor.
The rebrand comes as details emerge about the unit’s horrific past, which the White House may have deemed too bleak to be associated with Trump.
The four-block disciplinary complex—long known as Camp J—was shut down in May 2018 after a cascade of security failures, suicides, and staff fleeing.
According to Prison Legal News, Angola’s warden warned of malfunctioning locks that sometimes opened on their own and rampant weapons use, while 85 officers assigned to Camp J resigned, retired, or were terminated in a single year because the unit was deemed to be so miserable.
Mercedes Montagnes of the Promise of Justice Initiative called the unit “more akin to a dungeon.” Two men hanged themselves there on the same day in April 2016, amid concerns over the mental health of inmates.
The Department of Homeland Security is using its own branding—“Louisiana Lockup,” which is yet another alliterative title that follows the already set-to-close “Aligator Alcatraz” in Florida, Indiana’s “Speedway Slammer,” and Nebraska’s “Cornhusker Clink.”
At a press conference, Noem, Landry, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan confirmed ICE had already begun transferring detainees into the Angola unit. On its opening day, 51 people were already in custody.
DHS says the site will add up to 416 beds and is intended for “some of the worst of the worst” criminal migrants.
Noem said the notorious prison—built on a former slave plantation and still infamous for farm labor and abuse allegations—was chosen to encourage “self-deportation,” while DHS said it was part of a multi-state expansion of hard-line detention sites.
Officials say the unit has been repaired and segregated from the rest of the prison after emergency orders to fast-track fixes this summer, according to the Louisiana Illuminator.
However, Landry leaned into Angola’s fearsome reputation during a guided look inside the facility, saying: “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.”
Bondi hailed a “historic agreement” with the state of Louisiana.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and DHS for comment.
