A Hospitality House for Angola

The Vision

Create a hospitality house near to the Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Angola) where families, loved ones, lawyers and advocates stay for free when visiting incarcerated people at Angola.

Inspired by models like the Catholic Worker and other hospitality houses directly serving incarcerated people, the Abolition Apostles hospitality house will create a vital hub for anyone visiting Angola to stop by for a meal or to stay for the night. Given the remote location of Angola, this is a much-needed resource that doesn't currently exist. People visiting Angola often drive several hours to get there and there are no affordable places to stay nearby.

Additionally inspired by the Highlander Folk School and other popular education projects, the Abolition Apostles hospitality house will be home to a national abolitionist study center, a place for organizers, artists, and scholars to gather from across the country to further the theory and praxis of abolition — all in the backyard of one of America's most notorious prisons.

About Angola

Located on the site of a former cotton plantation, Angola is today the largest maximum-security penitentiary in the country. Having transformed from a plantation to a site for post-Civil War convict leasing, Angola exemplifies the unbroken chain from slavery to mass incarceration. In fact, prisoners at Angola still grow cotton and other crops in the fields, overseen by guards on horseback.

By establishing the headquarters of Abolition Apostles in close proximity to Angola, we will be better equipped to serve those incarcerated there as well as their families and loved ones; building solidarity across prison walls until the day when all are free.

About Abolition Apostles

Founded in 2019 by Pastors David Brazil and Sarah Pritchard, Abolition Apostles serves over one thousand incarcerated people in thirty states with the help of over eight hundred volunteers across the country through pen paling, material support, visitation, advocacy, and re-entry support.

Entirely volunteer-run and donation-based, Abolition Apostles has:
- Raised thousands of dollars in commissary donations
- Connected over 800 incarcerated people with pen pals on the outside
- Sent over 2,000 incarcerated people information packets about how to access the federal stimulus check
- Founded Abolition Apostles chapters in 18 states to support local and regional organizing
- Created and sent a quarterly print newsletter, The Apostle, to all incarcerated people on our list

The Fundraising Goal

We have identified a property that is within 15 minutes' drive of Angola. With a house, a barn, and 15 acres of land, we believe this is the ideal place to build a hospitality house that will comfortably host dozens of people. If we're able to raise the full $815,000, Abolition Apostles will be able to purchase the property outright with no mortgage, significantly reducing the monthly expenses of the hospitality house in the future.

We know that $815,000 is an ambitious goal, but we're confident that with your support, we can collectivize our resources to make it possible. Once the property is secured, Abolition Apostles will entrust it to a land trust, ensuring the property will remain in service to incarcerated people and their loved ones in perpetuity. 

If we are unable to meet the full $815,000 fundraising goal, we will use whatever funding we're able to raise to place a downpayment on the property and will secure a mortgage to finance the remaining cost. If the property we've identified is no longer available by the time this fundraiser ends, we will use the funds raised to identify and purchase a similar property located within easy driving distance of Angola.