Trusty system

The "Trusty system" was a strict system of discipline and security made compulsory under Mississippi state law as the method of controlling and working inmates at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi's only prison. It was designed to replace convict leasing. Under this system, designated inmates were used by staff to control and administer physical punishment to other inmates according to a strict prison-determined inmate hierarchy of power. The case of "Gates v. Collier" (Gates v. Collier Prison Reform Case, 1970-1971) ended the flagrant abuse of inmates under the Trusty system and other prison abuses which had continued essentially unchanged since the building of the prison in 1903. [Taylor, p. 1]

Description

Parchman Farm, as the prison was originally called, was built in 1903 on the rich soil of the Mississippi Delta. By Mississippi law, the prison was required to pay for itself and even make a profit for the state. This essentially meant the State was entering into business, using no cost labour. This was harmful to normal businesses, which had to bear the normal cost of labour. The prison warden was in total charge of the prison, without outside interference. Its operations essentially remained much the same from 1903 until the "Gates v. Collier" Prison Reform Case (1970-1971) forced it to change. In 1911, the New York Times wrote an article praising the Mississippi prison system for its for-profit approach to incarceration. [cite web
year=1911
month=
url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B07E0DC1E3EE033A25757C0A9609C946096D6CF&oref=slogin
title=Penitentiary farm pays and makes money
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2007-11-29 ] The prison had approximately convert|16000|acre|km2 of farmland and grew such cash crops as cotton as well as engaged in livestock production. Although the population of the prison was around 1,900 inmates (two thirds of whom were black and in segregated units), by law only a maximum of 150 staff members were allowed to be hired to minimize operating costs. Thus the farm labor was done by inmates. The bulk of guarding and disciplining of the inmates was performed by inmate trusties. They also performed most of the administrative work, supervised by a few employees. Therefore the inmate trusties essentially controlled inmate care and custody. Essentially, the trusties ran the prison system. [cite web
author=Sol Chaneles
year=1985
month=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=1czXyLrvJnkC&pg=PA160&lpg=PA160&dq=trusty+mississippi+prison&source=web&ots=qZ2n7BkfCz&sig=8_UeYf40sLQ-u9go6LRrxJyo38U
title=Prisons and Prisoners: Historical Documents - The Trusty System
publisher=Haworth Press
pages=pp 160–163
accessdate=2007-12-05] Highest in the prison inmate hierarchy were the inmates armed with rifles, called the "trusty shooters". Their job was to act as prison guards and control other inmates on a day-to-day basis in the residential camps or out on the field work crews. Next came the unarmed "trusties" who performed janitorial, clerical and other menial tasks for the prison's staff. Simple tasks, such as distributing medication, were carried out by other categories of inmates such as "hallboys". Inmate trusties enforced discipline within the prison inmate living quarters (16 different residential camps) and in the work camps and farms. In addition to punishment administered on site, inmate trusties could recommend further punishment in the special punishment area for disobedient or disruptive inmates.cite web
url=http://www.h-net.org/~law/reviews/oshinskyd.htm
title=Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice
publisher=
accessdate=2006-08-28]

According to attorney Roy Haber who handled the series of litigation cases brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Trusty system, inmates were whipped with leather straps for failing to pick their daily quota of cotton. The farm's camps of black inmates was supervised by one white sergeant, while under him the black inmate "trusty shooters", serving sentences for murder, carried rifles and enforced discipline. [cite web
author=Janine Robben
year=2007
month=
url=http://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/07jan/profiles.html
title=Lessons from Parchman Farm
publisher=Oregon State Bar
accessdate=2007-12-04]

Abolishment

The case of "Gates v. Collier" (Gates v. Collier Prison Reform Case, 1970-1971) ended the flagrant abuse of inmates under the Trusty system and other prison abuses which had continued essentially unchanged since the building of the prison in 1903. [cite web
author=
year=
month=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XyNr-yr_w9YC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=%22judge+william+c+keady%22&source=web&ots=RXIWv0yx5W&sig=t3rL3NOhTnWQNURswg70XFL40E4
title=Reform and Regret: The Story of Federal Judicial Involvement in the Alabama
publisher=Oxford University Press
pages= p. 43
accessdate=2007-12-08] [Taylor, p. 1] On October 20, 1972, federal judge William Keady ordered the end of racial segregation in prison residential quarters. He also required replacement of trusty shooters with civilian prison guards. [cite web
author=Christopher P. Lehman
year=
month=
url=http://mdah.state.ms.us/pubs/sovcom.pdf
title=Mississippi's Incredible Month: The Demise of the Sovereignty Commission and of Unprofessional Leadership at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, November 1973
publisher=
accessdate=2007-12-05] [cite web
author=Ted Giolia
year=
month=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bwGMXGbKKIwC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=%22judge+william+c+keady%22&source=web&ots=E6rKXXVknS&sig=-zqO9sWzXzIkVp4DDuyam1vdzyI
title=Work Songs
pages= p. 201
publisher=
accessdate=2007-12-08]

Any system where inmates were allowed to be in a position of authority and control other inmates, or use physical abuse or intimidation of other inmates was abolished. [cite web
author=Richard L. Abel
year=
month=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8uD_XvpmfWcC&pg=PA261&lpg=PA261&dq=gates+v+collier&source=web&ots=XDaxwKjCnx&sig=ixeZP4bG5RO4EXkPEaChw7Qb4F0
title=The Law and Society Reader
publisher=New York University Press
page=p. 261
accessdate=2007-11-29 ] [cite web
year=
month=
url=http://www.ourconvention.com/Segregation_in_the_United_States/encyclopedia.htm
title=Segregation in the United States - National Issues
publisher=
accessdate=2007-11-29 ] It also found some types of
corporal punishment were a violation of an inmate's Eighth Amendment rights,including “handcuffing inmates to the fence and to cells forlong periods of time, ... and forcing inmates to stand, sit orlie on crates, stumps, or otherwise maintain awkwardpositions for prolonged periods.” [cite web
year=2002
month=Fall
url=http://www.scoc.state.ny.us/pdfdocs/clr02-3.pdf
title=Correction Law Report
publisher=New York State Commission of Correction
accessdate=2007-11-29 ]

In "Hope v. Pelzer", a case in which a former inmate sued the prison superintendent for personal injury suffered under the Trusty system, its structure and abuses were detailed.cite web
year=
month=
url=http://www.dsl.psu.edu/civilrights/chapter1.html
title=Bogard v. Cook
publisher=American Civil Liberties Association
accessdate=2007-11-29 ]

Other states utilizing the trusty system, such as Arkansas, [cite web
author=
year=
month=
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942467-3,00.html
title=The Shame of the Prisons (Cumins Prison Farm - Arkansas)
publisher=Time Magazine
accessdate=2007-12-10] Alabama, Louisiana and Texas were also forced to abolish it under the "Gates v. Collier" rulings.

ee also

*Parchman Farm (song)
*Louisiana State Penitentiary
*Convict lease

Footnotes

References

cite book
last =Taylor
first =William Banks
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Down on Parchman Farm
publisher =Ohio State University Press
date =1999
location =
pages =255 pages
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0814250238

External links

* [http://www.capitalcentury.com/1930.html Trusty system in New Jersey]
* [http://www.corpun.com/usprr2.htm Black Annie' at Parchman Prison Farm, Mississippi]
* [http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/PressReleases/2001NewsReleases/History%20Channel.htm Parchman Prison to be Featured in History Channel's "Big House" Series]
* [http://www.doc.louisiana.gov/lsp/history.htm History of Angola (Louisiana State Penitentary)]
* [http://www.yale.edu/glc/events/cbss/Oshinsky.pdf Forced Labor in the 19th century South: The Story of Parchman Farm]
* [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.cgi?path=28119981054292 Down on Parchman Farm - The Great Prison in the Mississippi Delta - Review]