Cain has served as warden of Angola since January 1995.
During his tenure, the prison has seen a dramatic drop in inmate-on-inmate violence, the formation of the first closed-circuit inmate-run TV station, and an expansion of the internal Bible college.
Warden Burl Cain came to Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 to serve as warden of the prison. Still there today, he is the longest standing warden in the history of Angola. "I felt compelled to try to make this a normal, decent place to live and do your time. The prison is really like the city — your bed in the dorm is your house, and three beds down is three doors down and go speak to your neighbor and build community and that's what we did."
"I think in America we should live as free people, we should live free of fear and... we need to do a better job of inmate victim reconciliation."
Known for his innovative approaches to prison programming and management, his correctional philosophy is based on "moral rehabilitation" by promoting the church and other methods of religious and moral guidance for the inmates. "Moral rehabilitation is the only true rehabilitation. We can teach them the skills and trade, read, write and all that, but we just made a smarter criminal unless we have a moral component with it. And that comes form the heart and so. We don't care what we find in morality we can — an atheist can be moral. And we get them in here, and we can start working on them to be more moral person."
"No one should be released from prison that someone is going to be afraid of. I think in America we should live as free people, we should live free of fear and so therefore for that to happen we need to do a better job of inmate victim reconciliation."
