The cover of Captive State
An in-depth account of Louisiana’s infamous legacy of mass incarceration, recently explored in a critically acclaimed exhibition at the Historic New Orleans Collection, has been adapted and expanded for a new book released this month.
Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration builds upon last year’s exhibition of the same name, tracing the roots of the state’s global record of incarceration back to New Orleans’s brutal role in the American slave trade. The exhibition, which ran from July 2024 to February 2025, attracted a broad audience, from formerly incarcerated individuals and victims’ advocates, to law enforcement and prosecutors; singer-songwriter John Legend even paid a visit, along with respected death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean.
Through profiles of people impacted by incarceration, discussions of key historical artifacts, and assessments of data visualizations, the text interrogates Louisiana’s relationship to the prison industrial complex, exploring whether the carceral forces that shaped the state will continue to hold it captive. The book was written by curators Eric Seiferth, Katherine Jolliff Dunn, and Kevin T. Harrell, and edited by Nick Weldon.
In the foreword, University of Loyola New Orleans law professor Andrea Armstrong writes, “Captive State is not merely history. Rather, it is evidence of how the past shapes and reverberates within the present. Black Louisianians are still disproportionately incarcerated within dangerous conditions. There is a torturous continuity in descriptions of Louisiana jail and prison conditions.”
“If you could change Louisiana’s incarceration system, where would you begin?”
Asserting that the three-hundred-year origins of the state’s reliance on forced and institutionalized labor is inextricably linked to a capitalistic foundation in racism, the book unflinchingly tackles the horrors of colonialism, the practice of convict leasing, the depersonalized bureaucracy that designed a blueprint for mass incarceration, and the weighty significance of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. From newspaper clippings advertising searches for runaway slaves and political campaigns exploiting the public’s fear of crime, to paintings and photographs of horrific prison conditions, the book draws readers into the ugly realities of incarceration over the centuries.
Much of the book’s epilogue is dedicated to a single question: “If you could change Louisiana’s incarceration system, where would you begin?” Over two pages, the authors provide space for real responses to this query, handwritten by visitors to the HNOC exhibition. Some examples include policy suggestions, such as “fund education,” and “end mandatory minimums,” while others remain simple, to the point: “compassion,” “love,” “mercy.”
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