When Val Browning’s friend suggested he participate in a local prison visitation program with the Louisiana Parole Project, he agreed, but, before his visit in May 2023, he said he didn’t expect to get much out of the experience.
“I expected everybody that I met to have a long rap sheet,” Browning, from Baton Rouge, said. “I expected them to not be doing much.”
When he visited the Elayne Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, his expectations were proven wrong…