As to why more coffins are needed.
The rise of lengthy, mandatory sentences and a nationwide tough-on-crime attitude has resulted in a booming prison population -- 2.1 million last June, compared with 501,886 in 1980 -- and an aging one. The number of inmates dying from natural causes rose to 2,700 in 2002 from 799 in 1982, according to the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Angola is no longer the most violent prison in the country, even though it only takes prisoners serving 50 years or more. The prisoners are too old. At Angola, they call it "criminal menopause."
The prison lost its oldest inmate earlier this year, a 95-year-old, who had been in and out of prison since Harry Truman was president.
At Angola, funerals are elaborate affairs, with hand-made coffins pulled to graves by horse-drawn carriages, in rites conducted almost entirely by inmates. Warden Burl Cain believes such services are a stabilizing influence, keeping inmates busy and offering purpose to those who have no hope of leaving alive. "A man wants to be productive, even the ones here," he says.
....During the last decade, there have been only four prison murders at Angola. Some inmates attribute that to what they call "criminal menopause" -- meaning when they hit a certain age, their violent natures dissipate. They also credit the warden, a former teacher who says he came to corrections because high-school students were too unruly.
Angola has been growing with its prisoners:
To deal with its aging population, over 500 inmates at Angola have been trained to perform CPR and there is a hospice here for those who are in the final stages of terminal illnesses. And Warden Cain has created a funeral industry, of which Mr. Leggett's coffin-making is a primary piece. Other inmates make shrouds for the caskets and plan services.
There's lots more to this article, but here's just one more quote:
About half of those of who die at Angola are buried on the prison's grounds because inmates have lost touch with their families and have no one to collect the remains. "Even your bones don't get a second chance to get out," says Mr. Dennis, the prison's unofficial historian.
