Novelist and journalist Daniel Bergner was raised in Washington state, the son of two dedicated public servants. While covering the annual Louisiana State Prison at Angola rodeo, he discovered corruption in the form of Warden Burl Cain, who requested a payment of $50,000 and the right of editorial control on Bergner's project. Bergner's eventual book on the affair, God of the Rodeo: The Search for Hope, Faith and a Six-Second Ride in Louisiana's Angola Prison, deals in part with the fact that not all public servants are as helpful or as dedicated as his parents were.