Group petitions for access to Angola records

A New Orleans nonprofit organization wants a federal court order that would require officials of the Louisiana State Penitentiary to grant center attorneys and a medical specialist access to death-row inmates and records at Angola.

Advocacy Center attorneys say in a civil lawsuit that prison officials have refused to allow them to pursue prisoner reports that death-row temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees.

Pam Laborde, communications director for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, tells The Advocate since this is a legal matter, the department will respond to the court.

In the civil suit filed Friday in Baton Rouge federal court against prison officials, the attorneys noted that some death-row inmates have health-related disabilities, including mental illness, heart problems, lung disease and diabetes.