The Return of Inmate Guards Inside Louisiana Prisons

Brandon LaVergne explains how inmate guards were once outlawed in Louisiana due to widespread brutality, only to quietly return decades later through modern prison programs that grant incarcerated men dangerous levels of authority over others.

Up until the 1970s, Louisiana and many other southern states used inmate guards. In Louisiana, these inmate guards had guns and uniforms. The khaki-colored uniforms gave these inmate guards their nickname “khaki backs.” They were notorious for killing and beating other inmates.

In the 1970s, Louisiana Civil Code Title 22 outlawed the use of inmate guards. Most of these former guards were given pardons and released from prison. Only a few were kept in prison. One of them, Eugene Tannehill, was placed in protection in a trusty area for many years, but then eventually moved back into regular population. He then took to calling himself “Bishop” Tannehill, claiming God had put him in charge of all the Christians at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. It appears Tannehill was still looking for a way to keep a sense of control over other inmates. Tannehill was eventually released and later died a free man. He was the last known former inmate guard still in custody when he was released.

The Quiet Return of Inmate Guards Through Reentry Programs

Yet the practice of inmate guards being used in Louisiana didn’t die with Tannehill. In the 2000s, Louisiana found a new way to bring them back. Louisiana established the Reentry Program that had a noble but flawed concept: allowing men serving life without parole sentences to mentor and teach mostly younger men life skills and vocational trades. These younger guys received anywhere from a 10- to 20-year sentence that was suspended, and then after completion of the two- to three-year program, they were released.

The problem was that these “mentors” quickly started enforcing rules and were given the power to decide who could enter the program from the street and who could stay in the program. Failure to complete the program meant up to a 20-year sentence. This gave inmate guards massive power and control over these guys.

Abuse and Coercion

I’ve seen with my own eyes a mentor physical grab and slam against a wall one of the guys in the program. Guys in the program have told me they were forced to pay mentors money to stay in the program. Some of the guys were allegedly asked for sexual favors from mentors. That part I can’t confirm. But I do know of at least two mentors who were removed from the program for these allegations.

I’ve also seen mentors force guys to buy them food at inmate concession clubs in exchange for “escorting” the guys in the program to the concession. The guys can’t go anywhere without a mentor escorting them. Mentors watch them at all times, even in the shower areas. I saw a mentor try to force his way into a meeting a guy was having with his lawyer. The lawyer told the mentor he couldn’t be in the room. After some protest, the mentor sat in the hall outside with the door open so he could watch the meeting but not hear it.

How Inmate Guards Control Daily Prison Life

Mentors have shirts with their names on them and wear special lanyards that identify them as mentors. They’re only missing guns. Louisiana allowed this cancer to spread to other programs, and now the BMP, New Men, Young Man’s, and Transition programs use the new inmate guard system.

The day before Thanksgiving, I moved into the Young Man’s Program dorm. I wasn’t in the program. I was simply living in the dorm where the program was located. When I moved in, the inmate guard over the program asked me who moved me into the dorm. I told him the shift major. He said, “That Major knows she needs to check with me before she moves anyone in this dorm.” I blew it off and thought nothing else of it.

But the following Monday, that same inmate guard went to a warden and not only had me moved out of the dorm, but he had the warden place me under investigation for nine days without a disciplinary report. I’m not even sure what I was accused of. I had to write three different wardens, file an emergency grievance, and seek an emergency injunction in federal court just to get out of administrative segregation. After all that, I’m still not 100% sure what the inmate guard told the warden. I only have heard rumors.

Constitutional Violations

At the moment, Louisiana has placed itself into a crisis. The new governor, Jeff Landry, had the legislature pass a series of laws that guarantee the prison population will explode. The Louisiana State Penitentiary was already being run on a skeleton crew before these new tough-on-crime laws were passed. Now it appears Louisiana is intent on making up their staffing shortages by using inmate guards to control and run the prison.

For my part in this, I already have a pending federal lawsuit against the State, challenging the use of inmate guards. With this latest incident, I was in church when I was ordered to leave the service to go move out of the dorm after an inmate guard talked to the warden. That’s a violation of my First Amendment right to religious assembly. I’ve now had a recognized constitutional right violated by an inmate guard. I already had standing to file the suit; that new violation was the icing on the cake. I will be amending my suit soon to include these new violations once I exhaust that claim through the prison grievance process. It’s my hope I can personally bring an end to this inmate guard system.

Ending Inmate Guards Without Ending Rehabilitation

The programs being run by the inmate guard system don’t need to end. Mentors could still act as vocational tutors and teach life skill classes. What needs to end is their supervisory power and control over other incarcerated men. That’s the problem. And that’s what I’m trying to stop.

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