NOLA to Angola bike ride October 18,19,20

For both prisoners and their families, the value of visitation cannot be overstated. For many of the families who ride the bus, visiting incarcerated loved ones would be otherwise impossible due to the cost-prohibitive nature of securing travel to a rural Louisiana prison two or three hours outside of New Orleans city limits. That the Cornerstone Bus Service be free of charge has been crucial to Leo Jackson’s mission and the reason for this fundraising page. In organizing and driving a bus, he’s made some unconventional allies. For five years now, cyclists have been meeting in front of Orleans Parish Prison in the third weekend of October, and biking en masse for three days and 170 miles to Angola Penitentiary. 

Nola to Angola is an annual affair. Each rider raises money by soliciting sponsorships, hosting events, organizing professional donations, culling awareness, and encouraging active participation. The funds raised in this support the Cornerstone Builders Bus Project which sends FREE, monthly transportation for Louisiana families to visit their incarcerated loved ones all over the state, including Angola Prison (two and a half hours away). Nola to Angola supports community riders and builds connections between riders and working-class folk, together in solidarity against mass incarceration. The ride is fully supported and entirely volunteer-run. Donations will help families stay connected by funding bus trips. As we ride from the Orleans Parish Courthouse in the French Quarter to the country's largest maximum security prison, your funding supports many lives.

• 1 bus from New Orleans costs $1200
• 1 bus from Shreveport costs $2000
• $25 funds one round-trip ride from New Orleans
• $50 funds both a parent and child from New Orleans
• $75 allows one individual to visit 3x per year
• $100 funds a four-person family from New Orleans

The barriers built up by incarceration routinely tear families apart. An individual sentenced to prison is not only isolated from society, they’re also separated from preexisting networks of support—a hardship endured by both the prisoner and their loved ones

“When we talk about incarceration, we normally just think of the individuals that are incarcerated,” Ernest Johnson, the Juvenile Justice Director for Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, recently told me. “We should talk about the impact that incarceration has not only on that individual, but on the entire family.”

(this piece owes a huge debt to Andru Okun's excellent article from Antigravity Magazine: http://www.antigravitymagazine.com/2015/11/prison-road-the-far-flung-effects-of-incarceration-in-louisiana/)