The Red Hat Cell Block is a former prison housing unit of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana which, for a time, also contained the state's execution chamber and electric chair.

After a 1933 escape attempt, prison authorities constructed a new prisoner cell block,[2] a one-story, 30-cell building at Camp E.[3] That cell block, which became the most restrictive inmate housing unit in Angola, was colloquially referred to as "Red Hat",[4] after the red paint-coated straw hats that its occupants wore when they worked in the fields.

[5] After a federal court ordered Louisiana prison authorities to enact reforms at Angola,[2] Warden C. Murray Henderson phased out "Red Hat",[6] and in 1972 Elayn Hunt had "Red Hat" officially closed.

[2] In 1977 Camp J took "Red Hat"'s role as the most restrictive housing unit in Angola.

"[2] Brooke Shelby Biggs of Mother Jones said that men who had lived in "Red Hat" "told of a dungeon crawling with rats, where dinner was served in stinking buckets splashed onto the floors.