Louisiana’s most notorious prison has a new warden who is a familiar face.
Darrel Vannoy is returning Nov. 25 to lead the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola after spending the past three years as warden of Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville, Miss., Louisiana’s Department of Corrections announced.
Vannoy began his corrections career at Angola in 1975 and served as warden there from 2015 until 2021, when he retired after contracting COVID-19 before recovering and resuming his career in Mississippi.
He will replace Tim Hooper, who is returning to his previous post as warden of Louisiana’s Elayn Hunt Correctional Center on Dec. 1. The agency said Hooper is expected to retire on Sept. 30, 2025, after more than four decades on the job.
Vannoy began his nearly five-decade corrections career at Louisiana State Penitentiary as a corrections cadet and remained at Angola before being promoted warden of Dixon Correctional Institute in 2013. In Dec. 2015, he returned to Louisiana State Penitentiary as warden.