There are few wardens in this nation’s prison systems that couldn’t benefit from reliable volunteer help. Most prisons survive under inadequate budgets because nobody likes to pay for prisoner incarceration — although everybody is happy to see bad guys sent away.

One warden in Louisiana has a small cadre of volunteers patrolling the five and one half square miles of piney woods surrounding his 28-square mile prison.

This maximum security facility, dubbed "Angola" for its remote setting, is 115 miles northwest of New Orleans. The prison is run as a farm and is largely self-sufficient for food.

The penitentiary is surrounded by many kinds of wildlife including alligators, rattlesnakes, and wild pigs. But that’s not what keeps the inmates from attempting to escape.

Mostly the inmates fear being attacked by one of the volunteers — the eight to 10 black bears living in the woods outside the prison fence.

Prison officials have measured bear footprints averaging about six inches. Wildlife officers say each inch of imprint represents some 75 pounds of bear. "That size imprint makes a 450 pound black bear," says a wildlife officer.

A member of Louisiana’s Large Carnivore Program says the black bear is a very shy animal, and will almost always avoid contact with humans. The agent is surprised that prison guards or inmates even spotted one of these bears.

A wildlife official says he’s never heard of a predatory attack by a black bear in Louisiana. "As for a black bear coming out and rushing an inmate — I don’t see that ever happening," says the officer.

Fully aware of the low risk from bear attacks, prison officials don’t spread the word that these bears are vegetarians. According to one prison official, "There hasn’t been an escape attempt from this prison in over three years. If our inmates choose to believe there’s a platoon of bears out there waiting to attack them, that’s okay with us, we can use all the help we can get. This is, after all, a high security prison."