Trusty system
Encyclopedia
The "trusty system" was a strict system of discipline and security in the US made compulsory under Mississippi
state law (but also used in other states, such as Arkansas
, Alabama
, Louisiana
and Texas
) 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 in Mississippi. Other states using the trusty system were also forced to give it up under this ruling.
. 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 labor. This was harmful to normal businesses, which had to bear the normal cost of labor. The prison
warden was in complete control 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
.
The prison had approximately 16000 acres (64.7 km²) of farmland
and grew such cash crop
s 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.
Highest in the prison inmate hierarchy were the inmates armed with rifle
s, 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 janitor
ial, 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.
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 were supervised by one white sergeant, while under him the black inmate "trusty shooters", serving sentences for murder
, carried rifles and enforced discipline.
(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. 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.
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. 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 for
long periods of time, ... and forcing inmates to stand, sit or
lie on crates, stumps, or otherwise maintain awkward
positions for prolonged periods.”
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.
Other states utilizing the trusty system, such as Arkansas
, Alabama
, Louisiana
and Texas
were also forced to abolish it under the Gates v. Collier
rulings. However, some states, such as Texas
nonetheless continued their use of 'trusty' systems (known as "building tenders") until the 1980s when Federal Judge William Wayne Justice, in the case of Ruiz v. Estelle
, 503 F. Supp. 1265 (S.D. Tex. 1980), compelled Texas to replace its trusty system with the strictly regulated "Support Service Inmate" (SSI) system.
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
state law (but also used in other states, such as Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
) as the method of controlling and working inmates at Mississippi State Penitentiary
Mississippi State Penitentiary
Mississippi State Penitentiary , also known as Parchman Farm, is the oldest prison and the only maximum security prison for men in the state of Mississippi, USA....
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
Gates v. Collier, 501 F.2d 1291 , was a landmark case decided in U.S. federal court that brought an end to the Trusty system and the flagrant inmate abuse that accompanied it at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi...
(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 in Mississippi. Other states using the trusty system were also forced to give it up under this ruling.
Description
Parchman Farm, as the prison was originally called, was built in 1903 on the rich soil of the Mississippi DeltaMississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...
. By Mississippi law, the prison was required to pay for itself and even make a profit
Profit (accounting)
In accounting, profit can be considered to be the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.-Definition:There are...
for the state. This essentially meant the State was entering into business, using no-cost labor. This was harmful to normal businesses, which had to bear the normal cost of labor. The prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
warden was in complete control of the prison, without outside interference. Its operations essentially remained much the same from 1903 until the Gates v. Collier
Gates v. Collier
Gates v. Collier, 501 F.2d 1291 , was a landmark case decided in U.S. federal court that brought an end to the Trusty system and the flagrant inmate abuse that accompanied it at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi...
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
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
.
The prison had approximately 16000 acres (64.7 km²) of farmland
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
and grew such cash crop
Cash crop
In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...
s as cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
as well as engaged in livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
production. Although the population of the prison was around 1,900 inmates (two thirds of whom were black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
and in segregated
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
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.
Highest in the prison inmate hierarchy were the inmates armed with rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s, 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 janitor
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
ial, 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.
According to attorney Roy Haber who handled the series of litigation cases brought by the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
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 were supervised by one white sergeant, while under him the black inmate "trusty shooters", serving sentences for murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, carried rifles and enforced discipline.
Abolition
The case of Gates v. CollierGates v. Collier
Gates v. Collier, 501 F.2d 1291 , was a landmark case decided in U.S. federal court that brought an end to the Trusty system and the flagrant inmate abuse that accompanied it at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi...
(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. 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.
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. It also found some types of
corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
were a violation of an inmate's Eighth Amendment
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
rights,
including “handcuffing inmates to the fence and to cells for
long periods of time, ... and forcing inmates to stand, sit or
lie on crates, stumps, or otherwise maintain awkward
positions for prolonged periods.”
In Hope v. Pelzer
Hope v. Pelzer
In Hope v. Pelzer, , the United States Supreme Court ruled that the defense of qualified immunity, under which government actors may not be sued for actions they take in connection with their offices, did not apply to a suit challenging the Alabama Department of Corrections's use of the "hitching...
, 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.
Other states utilizing the trusty system, such as Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
were also forced to abolish it under the Gates v. Collier
Gates v. Collier
Gates v. Collier, 501 F.2d 1291 , was a landmark case decided in U.S. federal court that brought an end to the Trusty system and the flagrant inmate abuse that accompanied it at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi...
rulings. However, some states, such as Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
nonetheless continued their use of 'trusty' systems (known as "building tenders") until the 1980s when Federal Judge William Wayne Justice, in the case of Ruiz v. Estelle
Ruiz v. Estelle
Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F. Supp. 1265 , filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, eventually became the most far-reaching lawsuit on the conditions of prison incarceration in American history...
, 503 F. Supp. 1265 (S.D. Tex. 1980), compelled Texas to replace its trusty system with the strictly regulated "Support Service Inmate" (SSI) system.
See also
- Parchman Farm (song)Parchman Farm (song)"Parchman Farm" is the title of a number of songs about Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as Parchman Farm, a hard time prison because of the Trusty system which was later outlawed....
- Louisiana State PenitentiaryLouisiana State PenitentiaryThe Louisiana State Penitentiary is a prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is the largest maximum security prison in the United States with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff...
- Convict leaseConvict leaseConvict leasing was a system of penal labor practiced in the Southern United States, beginning with the emancipation of slaves at the end of the American Civil War in 1865, peaking around 1880, and ending in the last state, Alabama, in 1928....
External links
- Trusty system in New Jersey
- Black Annie' at Parchman Prison Farm, Mississippi
- Parchman Prison to be Featured in History Channel's "Big House" Series
- History of Angola (Louisiana State Penitentary)
- Forced Labor in the 19th century South: The Story of Parchman Farm
- Down on Parchman Farm – The Great Prison in the Mississippi Delta – Review