Animal Planet's New Series LOUISIANA LOCKDOWN Premieres Tonight, 6/1

Welcome inside the gates of Animal Planet groundbreaking new series - LOUISIANA LOCKDOWN, premiering tonight, June 1, at 10 PM ET/PT, set inside one of the country's largest maximum-security penitentiaries, Angola Prison. Angola is home to 5,300 prisoners who may never see the outside world again. With an army of 1,300 dedicated staff-people, the prison grounds are also home to hundreds of guards and workers and many of these families have dwelled there for generations.

The penitentiary has a bloodied past, known for the numerous grisly murders that occurred there, but Warden Burl Cain has since introduced correctional programs to correspond with his motto - "Land of New Beginnings." The earned opportunity to be released temporarily from the prison walls to train animals outside in fresh air gives Angola inmates the incentive to work hard, stay in line and feel the reward of the closest thing to freedom many of them will ever experience again.

These dangerous criminals, with the harshest and most enduring prison sentences, have a simple choice: Either they rebel and live in despair or they cooperate and earn privileges at Angola. If they can earn the title of "trustee," they are entrusted to do meaningful work, much of it with animals. It can take an inmate 10 years to reach trustee status and become eligible for the most sought-after jobs on the grounds, such as herding cattle, raising bloodhounds and training wild horses. Good behavior also earns the prisoners the chance to compete in Angola's controversial, yet popular annual rodeo where prisoners intermingle with the general public, work with horses and have the potential to earn prize money and acclaim. As one convict says, it's worth being good all year to have just "eight seconds of freedom" on the back of a bucking bronco.

"To the average person, the rodeo may seem non-traditional," says Cathy Fontenot, assistant warden of Angola Prison, "but I have personally seen the transformation of these prisoners since we startEd Moral rehabilitation and expanded on ideas like the rodeo and the trustee program - the improvement is phenomenal."

Of course Warden Cain and his employees aren't naïve to the possibility of rebellion and escape. At any moment, they're prepared to protect themselves and society from acts of violence, using an army of guards and guard dogs as insurance. In the premiere episode of LOUISIANA LOCKDOWN, the threat of flooding (a likelihood as the prison is surrounded by water), can turn the prison into an escape route. With the Mississippi River nearing historic heights, the warden and his staff face their first-ever evacuation thus risking utter chaos by transporting hardened criminals to institutions across the state.

LOUISIANA LOCKDOWN is a groundbreaking series, providing viewers with exclusive in-depth access to a prison with a fierce reputation and distinctive setup. Despite its numerous safeguards and extreme preparation for the worst-case scenario, Angola is not a place of extreme rigidity. It gives each inmate the control over his fate while serving his sentence and purpose behind working hard.

LOUISIANA LOCKDOWN is produced for Animal Planet by Original Media. Charlie Corwin, Jay Peterson, Lisa Bloch, Jonathan Stack and Simeon Soffer are executive producers for Original Media. For Animal Planet, Keith Hoffman is executive producer.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 96 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.

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