I. Punishment in the Pre-Civil War South

II. The Post-Civil War Period
                A. The Lease System
                B. Chain Gangs

III. Prison Farming in the 1900s
                A. The Parchman Penal Farm in Mississippi
                                1. Trusty-Guard
                                2. Conjugal Visiting Program

                B. Growth of the Prison Farm Complex

                C. The Courts Intervene

                D. Arkansas: The Worst of the Southern Systems
                                1. The Pre-Murton Arkansas System
                                2. The Murton System
                                3. The Courts Intervene

IV. The Texas System
                A. The Contract Period and Contract Lease System
                B. The Plantation Farm Period
                C. The Period of Reform and Stability
                D. The Trusty-Guard System
                E. The Courts Intervene: Ruiz v. Estelle

V. The Value of Work Camps and Prison Farms

VI. Summary

Learning Objectives

After completion of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Specify the pre-Civil War conditions that affected the development of corrections in the south. Define and describe the "Black Codes."

2. Discuss the operation of the Lease System.

3. Describe the inmate living conditions on southern chain gangs.

4. Outline the organization and functions of the Parchman Farm prison plantation.

5. Explain why Arkansas Prisons were considered the worst of the southern prison farm systems.

6. Describe the process by which Tom Murton changed the prisons farms at Tucker.

7. Discuss the precedent setting Holt v. Sarver decisions.

8. Outline the development of the Texas prison system and the phases through which it progressed.

9. Define the role of the Building Tenders during the different phases of the development of the Texas system.

10. Explain the effects of the Ruiz decision on the Texas prison system.

11. Suggest some reasons why work camps or prison farms could still be beneficial to corrections.

Key Terms and Concepts

BLACK CODES: These were penal codes specifically aimed at controlling black slaves in the pre-Civil War South that inflicted more severe punishments on slaves than on whites for many offenses.

BUILDING TENDERS: Inmates who were given the authority to maintain order within the tanks at Texas prisons. Performed functinos similar to trusty-guards but did not carry firearms.

CHAIN GANGS: Groups of inmates, usually chained together, used by southern country and state correctional agencies, for working at clearing highway rights-of- way, etc.

CONJUGAL VISITS: A visit under which inmates and their visitors (usually wives, but in some earlier circumstances prostitutes) were allowed privacy. Emotional, and raw intimacy is presumed to occur.

CONTRACT LEASE SYSTEM: Under this system the state retained control of prisoners. Work was done within the prison under contract to private companies who paid the state a per-diem rate per worker and furnished the necessary instructors, machinery, and raw material for the production of the products, which it then sold.

DO-POPS: In the Arkansas prison farms, these were the inmates who had a status between the trusties and the rank men. They had duties which allowed them to avoid working i the fields.

HOE LINE: The inmate labor force in Texas prison farms.

LEASE SYSTEM: A method of contracting with a private company or individual to: control and operate prison shops, be entirely responsible for groups of convicts or for an entire prisons. Contractosr paid states a fee or a portion of the profits from inmate produced goods for this privilege.

PARCHMAN FARM: A Mississippi prison farm.

PENAL SLAVERY: A system of imprisonment of both Black and White convicts that made them the temporary of lifelong "slaves" of states or of the employees or corporations to whom they were assigned.

RANK MEN: The lowest level of inmate in the Arkansas prison farms. They were the farm laborers.

RUIZ V. ESTELLE: A district court decision that resulted in the most sweeping and detailed order in the history of prison litigation. It found almost all major aspects of the Texas prison system unconstitutional and resulted in a master being appointed to oversee the remediation of these conditions.

SWEAT BOX: A torture device consiting of a coffin-like cell with just enough space to accommodate a man standing erect. Generalllly made of wood or tin it was completely closed except for a hole two inches in diameter at nose level. In the heat of the southern sun temperature levels in these devices quickly reached 120 degrees or more.

TOM MURTON: A reform warden who exposed the barbaric conditions under which Arkansas prisons operated. He attempted in the late 1960s to bring these prisons up to mid-20th-century standards.

TOTALITY OF CONDITIONS: A court interpretation indicating, that, taken individually conditions cited may not represent constitutional violations, but when taken together ("their totality") they may constitute cruel and unsual punishment.

TRUSTIES: Jail or prison inmates who have been entrusted with some custodial responsibilities or who performs other services assisting in the operation of the facility.

TRUSTY GUARDS: These were inmates in many of the southern prison systems who were given the responsibility of guarding other prisoners. In many instances they were armed with rifles and were rewarded for shooting escapees.

TUCKER TELEPHONE: A torture device, previously used in the Arkansas prison system that consisted of an electric generator taken from a crack type telephone and wired in sequence with two dry cell batteries. An undressed inmate had electrodes attached to his big toe and his penis. The crack was then turned, sending an eletrical charge into his body.

YARD MAN: The chief trusty.