In December 1900 the Board of Control of the Louisiana State Penitentiary bought nearly 3,000 acres of land between New Iberia and Jeanerette to use as a prison farm. They named it, somewhat facetiously, Hope Plantation.
According to the memories of some of the people who lived near the farm, the only hope for more than 200 inmates who were housed there was the hope of escape — something they t...