Eye to eye with the bull: Rodeo behind bars

"The wildest show in the South": This is the slogan used by the Louisiana State Penitentiary to advertise its notorious folk festival. For 57 years, prison inmates have competed in the rodeo there, exposing themselves to great danger. The "Convict Poker" is one of the highlights: The last person forced to take his hands off the table before the wild bull charges wins.

In another competition, inmates in groups of three must try to hold a wild horse by a rope long enough for one of the team members to climb up and cling to it until the finish line is reached. The participants wear helmets and protective vests. Injuries are nevertheless common at this dangerous tournament.

Nevertheless, the rodeo is popular, offering visitors a carousel and horse riding for children in addition to the competitions. Prisoners offer homemade products at stalls.

The inmates are easily recognizable by their black and white striped shirts. The Louisiana State Prison, also called "Angola Prison," is the largest maximum security prison in the US. It is located on the site of a former slave plantation called "Angola," to which it owes its nickname. Many inmates are felons serving life sentences.

The prison rodeo in the southern US state is the oldest of its kind. It first took place in 1965, when inmates and guards held cowboy games in a field with the horses and cattle that were kept there. Since the rodeo has been open to the public, it has grown enormously. For many of the inmates who participate, it is also a day they can spend with their family.

Making handicrafts is as much a part of everyday life for the inmates as working on the farm. Larry Hamilton, sentenced to life in prison for murder, makes painted flowers out of wire and tape and offers them for sale to rodeo visitors.

However, the history of the Angola Prison Rodeo is controversial. The brutality of the competitions is often criticized; in the 1960s, moreover, the prison itself had the reputation of being the "bloodiest prison in the US." Only during the rodeo can the inmates move freely with their horses in the courtyard and prepare for the competitions — all behind meter-high fences lined with barbed wire.