Angola State Pen

During our 5 year anny mini road trip, Mr. Husband Sir and I each had certain attractions that we were most excited about.  For him, it was going to prison,
The Louisiana State Penitentiary, aka Angola.
Located only a few yards from the main entrance is the Louisiana State Pen Museum, which was our actual destination.  Being that close to over 6,000 convicted criminals, with the majority of them serving life sentences for murder, put me very much at unease.

The museum holds many items from the prison's past and present.  The electric chair seen above in the top image is said to be a replica, but looks pretty convincing to me.  On the walls flanking, is a large photo of the lethal injection room and the other side is a framed display of some of the last convicts to be executed in the electric chair.

 The hearse seen in the above photo is not a replica and is used for funerals of convicts that are buried on the grounds.  The hearse and the wood coffin (seen to the far right) were built by convicts.
A very somber area.

Another section of the museum focused on escapes with displays of evidence, newspaper articles, and photos.

A can that had hidden guns inside...with the peanuts bagged and tagged.

The old tale of escaping by a bed sheet actually did happen at Angola. 

This escape involved two convicts hiding out inside a welded open air tank.
All of these convicts were caught, some killed during the escape, even some police were killed in their apprehension.

There is an intensive display of inmate weapons fashioned from all sorts of items.

Knives, shanks, tattoo guns, marijuana smoking apparatus, brass knuckles, alcohol stills, and even makeshift guns...really scary stuff.

On the "lighter" side, in the museum is a life sized jail cell, perfect to toss a husband into.

Since photos are allowed in the museum I thought it would be perfect for us to stage our 5 year anny photo with the jail cell.  I made Mr. Husband Sir a prison shirt with our wedding date as his convict number.

For the primary prop, I put together a faux mini wedding cake with a fake file sticking out of it.  The plan was for him to be in the cell and I would be acting like I was passing him the contraband filled confectionery.  

As we were setting up our tripod (we don't like to ask random people to take our photo because they don't know what they are doing nor care to frame a shot properly) and setting the timer on the camera, the front desk lady happen to walk by, the same lady who said we could take as many pictures as we like.
She gasped and walked into a nearby office, reemerging seconds later, telling us in a huff that we can take photos, but not staged photos!  I don't see the f*cking difference.  We were the only people in there and certainly not in the way of fire exits or what ever.
After she walked away and we started dismantling everything, Mr. Husband wasn't going to leave empty handed.  He told me to stand in front of the cell with the cake...which probably falls under the term "staged" and I didn't want to piss off prison people.  Like I mentioned, the prison is only a few yards away from the museum.
So the photo you see below is the face of a woman freaking out about being carted off.
No more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Both Mr. Husband and I were pretty miffed over the situation. We decided we would never give Louisiana any of our convict law breaking "business".  We are still saving that for Tennessee.

However the museum is really intriguing and I do recommend a visit.
Angola Museum at The Louisiana State Penitentiary
17544 Tunica Trace
Angola, La 70712