Misplaced Pages

#815184

52-464: The Department of Corrections was officially organized as a cabinet-level state agency in 2019, but traces history back to the first state penitentiary in 1838. Early efforts focused on convict leasing , though the program largely ended toward the end of the 19th century after abuses were exposed, and prisoners were housed in "The Walls" prison in Little Rock until 1933. Arkansas next transitioned to

104-595: A "parent unit" for their initial assignment. The male parent units are Cummins , East Arkansas , Grimes , Tucker , and Varner . The McPherson Unit is the female parent unit. The initial assignments last for at least 60 days. Inmates may be moved to other units based on behavior, institutional needs, job availability, and available space. The ADC operates the Willis H. Sargent Training Academy in England, Arkansas . In Arkansas's shared services model of state government,

156-495: A 2013 murder, the Arkansas Board of Corrections changed the conditions of parole, stating that any parolee accused of committing a felony must have his/her parole revoked, even if he/she has not yet been convicted of that felony. This caused the prison population to increase. Prisons include: The Division of Community Corrections ( DCC ) is the parole and community corrections state agency of Arkansas . ACC headquarters

208-614: A 92.41-acre (37.40 ha) tract outside of Little Rock in 1839, and the Third General Assembly allocated another $ 40,500 ($ 1,236,000 today) in 1840 to finish construction of the Arkansas State Penitentiary. It held 300 prisoners. It was destroyed in 1846 in a prisoner revolt. From 1849 to 1893 the State of Arkansas leased its convicted felons to private individuals. After abuses became publicized,

260-702: A form of convict leasing well before the Civil War. For example, the New York State prison at Auburn, Auburn Prison , began contracting out and leasing prison labor to companies in order to create a profit for the prison as early as 1823. As historian Robin Bernstein highlights about this northern prison's white entrepreneurs and founders, "They viewed a prison as a vehicle by which to soak up state funds, build banking, stimulate commerce, manufacture goods, and develop land and waterways. In short, they reimagined

312-503: A leather strap", and to allow access to medical care and legal resources without fear or reprisals. The case initiated a long legal saga that would eventually lead to major reforms in Arkansas prisons. Governor Orval Faubus ordered a study of conditions at Tucker, but suppressed the report when it found torture, violence, rape, corruption and graft widespread by both trusties and prison officials. The report also found "To make profits,

364-630: A new prison was built. Though officials agreed on the need to purchase a prison farm , widespread disagreement about the new prison's location stalled progress further. Governor Jeff Davis vetoed a plan to purchase the Sunnyside Plantation in February 1901. Further trying to make his case for more sweeping penal reform, Governor Davis toured the convict-leasing camp in England, Arkansas and revealed shocking allegations of inhumane treatment. The political battle consumed state politics for

416-502: A punishment for crime. The criminologist Thorsten Sellin , in his book Slavery and the Penal System (1976), wrote that the sole purpose of convict leasing "was financial profit to the lessees who exploited the labor of the prisoners to the fullest, and to the government which sold the convicts to the lessees". The practice became widespread and was used to supply labor to farming, railroad, mining and logging operations throughout

468-478: A state in 1836. The first Governor of Arkansas , James S. Conway , pushed the Arkansas General Assembly to allocate funds for a state penitentiary in their first meeting, but he met strong resistance with many of his proposals, and a penitentiary was not funded. The Second General Assembly in 1838 allocated $ 20,000 ($ 572,000 today) to a state penitentiary in Little Rock. The state purchased

520-429: A variety of petty offenses. States began to lease convict labor to the plantations and other facilities seeking labor, as the freed men were trying to withdraw and work for themselves. This provided the states with a new source of revenue during years when their finances were largely depleted, and lessees profited by the use of forced labor at less than market rates. Northern states, such as New York, also participated in

572-583: Is located in North Little Rock. Facilities include: Arkansas Correctional School provides educational services to ADC prisoners and DCC facilities. Convict leasing Convict leasing was a system of forced penal labor that was practiced historically in the Southern United States before it was formally abolished during the 20th century. Under this system, private individuals and corporations could lease labor from

SECTION 10

#1732790346816

624-581: The New York World newspaper in 1924 earned it the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service . Governor Cary A. Hardee ended convict leasing in 1923, due in part to the Tabert case and the resulting publicity. North Carolina, while without a system comparable to the other states, did not prohibit the practice until 1933. Alabama was the last to end the practice of official convict leasing in 1928 by

676-923: The Ouchita River Correctional Unit in Malvern , and women go to the McPherson Unit in Newport . Male death row inmates are housed at the Varner Super Max Unit while women with death sentences are received at McPherson. The death chamber is located at the Cummins Unit. Previously the Diagnostic Unit in Pine Bluff was the intake unit for male prisoners. After the intake process, most inmates go to

728-560: The Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad , also in north Georgia . Georgia ended the convict lease system in 1908. In Tennessee, the convict leasing system was ended on January 1, 1894 because of the attention brought by the " Coal Creek War " of 1891, an armed labor action lasting more than a year. At the time, both free and convict labor were used in mines, although the two types of workers were kept separated. Free coal miners attacked and burned prison stockades, and freed hundreds of black convicts;

780-709: The Tucker Unit , were moved to the Cummins Unit. In 1986 male death row inmates were moved to the Maximum Security Unit . On Friday August 22, 2003, all 39 Arkansas death row inmates, all of them male, were moved to the Supermax at the Varner Unit. As of June 3, 2015 the ADC has 18,681 prisoners. This is an increase from 1977, when it had 2,519 prisoners. After a parole violator was accused of committing

832-637: The prison farm system, establishing the Cummins State Farm and Tucker Farm in South Arkansas . Underfunded and mostly operated by so-called 'trusties' (inmates); corrupt and dangerous conditions plagued Arkansas prisons for decades, culminating in several reform efforts throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of the first modern incarnation of the ADC in 1967. As the War on drugs and law and order politics became prominent,

884-517: The 1960s, Arkansas was infamous for operating one of the most corrupt and dangerous prison systems in the nation. Both Cummins and Tucker relied on the trusty system , which created a hierarchy of prisoners, with some designated as 'trusties' who the guards trusted with many of the day-to-day duties. The Tucker Telephone was a torture device designed using parts from an old-fashioned crank telephone used to apply an electric shock to an uncooperative prisoner's genitals at Tucker. Atrocious conditions in

936-558: The ADC unconstitutional, as issues restricting inmates' access to court and cruel and unusual punishment remained in violation of his previous ruling. A 1969 case challenging many aspects of the ADC prison system lasted almost a decade, resulting in the Supreme Court landmark case Hutto v. Finney 437 U.S. 678 ( 437 U.S. 678 (1978)). The case also clarified prison system's unacceptable punitive measures. T. Don Hutto had been hired by Governor Dale Bumpers in 1971 as

988-607: The Arkansas inmate population surged, and ADC built new prisons across the state. Prison conditions slowly improved and scandals became more infrequent. In 1993, Arkansas created the Department of Community Punishment (DCP), which would evolve into the DCC. Arkansas briefly contracted with a private prison between 1998 and 2001, but inmate conditions were unsafe and unsanitary and United States Department of Justice ruled Arkansas' private prison unconstitutional in 2003. Arkansas became

1040-455: The North within the next fifteen years. Bernstein makes clear that this was not just a Southern enterprise, as the system took root in places like Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and even Upper Canada, and that it began well before the Civil War. As the system expanded and proved profitable by exploiting prison labor, and disproportionately Black prisoners, states across

1092-536: The South and West also adopted it in places like Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. The criminal justice system allegedly colluded with private planters and other business owners to entrap, convict and lease black people as prison laborers. The constitutional basis for convict leasing is that the 1865 Thirteenth Amendment , while abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude generally, permits it as

SECTION 20

#1732790346816

1144-626: The South. In Georgia convict leasing began in April 1868, when Union General and newly appointed provisional governor Thomas H. Ruger issued a convict lease for prisoners to William Fort for work on the Georgia and Alabama Railroad . The contract specified "one hundred able bodied and healthy Negro convicts" in return for a fee to the state of $ 2,500. In May, the state entered into a second agreement with Fort and his business partner Joseph Printup for another 100 convicts, this time for $ 1,000, to work on

1196-948: The South. In Georgia, prison populations increased tenfold during the four-decade period (1868–1908) when it used convict leasing; in North Carolina, the prison population increased from 121 in 1870 to 1,302 in 1890; in Florida, the population increased from 125 in 1881 to 1,071 in 1904; in Mississippi, the population quadrupled between 1871 and 1879; in Alabama, it increased from 374 in 1869 to 1,878 in 1903 and then to 2,453 in 1919. In Florida, convicts, most of whom were African American males, were sent to work in phosphate mines, turpentine camps, and lumber camps , although from 1910 onward all Florida state prisoners labored in turpentine and lumber camps. The convict labor system in Florida

1248-597: The bidding of white masters through the regular application of extraordinary physical coercion. Convict leasing in the United States was widespread in the South during the Reconstruction Period (1865–1877) after the end of the Civil War, when many Southern legislatures were ruled by majority coalitions of African Americans and Radical Republicans , and Union generals acted as military governors. Farmers and businessmen needed to find replacements for

1300-580: The cabinet level Department of Corrections (DOC) as the umbrella department for several corrections-related state agencies. DOC oversees administrative functions for these several units, including the Division of Community Corrections (DCC), Arkansas Parole Board (APB), Arkansas Sentencing Commission (ASC), Arkansas Criminal Detention Facility Review Committee, and the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision. The primary duties of

1352-527: The cabinet-level agencies assist boards and commissions who have an overlapping scope. DOC supports: Male death row inmates are located at the Varner Unit 's Supermax , while the executions are performed at the Cummins Unit , adjacent to Varner. The female death row is located at the McPherson Unit . In 1999 the female death row was newly inaugurated. In 1974 male death row inmates, previously at

1404-475: The disadvantages. While some believe the demise of the system can be attributed to exposure of the inhumane treatment suffered by the convicts, others indicate causes ranging from comprehensive legislative reforms to political retribution. Though the convict lease system, as such, disappeared, other types of convict labor continued (and still exist presently). These other systems include plantations, industrial prisons and chain gangs . The convict lease system

1456-501: The establishment of a permanent execution chamber in the state prison system. In 1916 the state purchased the land which became the Tucker Unit . In 1933 Junius Marion Futrell , then the governor, closed the penitentiary in Little Rock and transferred the prisoners to Cummins and Tucker, and the execution chamber was moved to Tucker. In 1943 the state established the State Penitentiary Board through Act 1. In 1951

1508-738: The fine, plus $ 25 for Tabert to return home to North Dakota, the money disappeared while Tabert was held in the Leon County Jail. Tabert was then leased to the Putnam Lumber Company in Clara , a town in the Florida Panhandle approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of Tallahassee in Dixie County . There, he was flogged to death by the whipping boss, Thomas Walter Higginbotham. Coverage of Tabert's killing by

1560-739: The first professional penologist , Tom Murton , as prison superintendent in 1967. On January 29, 1968, Murton invited the media to witness the unearthing of three decayed skeletal remains in a remote part of the 16,000-acre grounds of the Cummins prison farm. They believed the skeletons were those of prisoners murdered at Cummins, although this was never proven. Fired after less than a year, Murton's aggressive approach to uncovering Arkansas' prison scandal with its decades-long systemic corruption, embarrassed Rockefeller and "infuriated conservative politicians". Murton had attracted nationwide media attention and contempt for Arkansas, as news of Bodiesburg , as it

1612-542: The head of the Arkansas Department of Correction, with a mandate of "humanizing" the "convict farms". In 1974, Hutto resigned and moved to Virginia to become deputy director of the Virginia Department of Corrections . In 2014 the state made a call for cities to submit bids to host a new maximum security prison. Following state government reorganization in 2019, the State of Arkansas created

Arkansas Department of Corrections - Misplaced Pages Continue

1664-471: The labor force once their slaves had been freed. After many African American politicians were forced out of state and local positions, many Southern legislatures passed Black Codes to restrict free movement of black people and force them into employment. For instance, several states made it illegal for a black man to change jobs without the approval of his employer. If convicted of vagrancy , black people could be imprisoned, and they also received sentences for

1716-577: The next year. The General Assembly decided to purchase the Cummins Farm over the objection of Governor Davis, who preferred a location in Altheimer . However, ending the convict-lease system would remain an issue in state politics for the next 10 years. A new prison was simultaneously constructed on a new 15-acre (6.1 ha) site southwest of Little Rock. Nicknamed "The Walls", the new prison opened in 1910. In 1913 act 55, signed into law, lead to

1768-807: The old ADC is now under the auspices of the Division of Corrections , with DCC becoming the Division of Community Corrections , with both reporting to the Secretary of Corrections, a cabinet-level position. The headquarters are in Pine Bluff . The ADC headquarters moved to the Pine Bluff Complex in 1979. Previously they were located in the State Office Building in Little Rock . For the diagnostic process, male inmates go to

1820-560: The previously suppressed report publicly upon election to the Governor's office in 1967. Rockefeller succeeded in reorganizing the penitentiary system into the Arkansas Department of Correction through Act 50 in the 66th Arkansas General Assembly . The ADC assumed control over the Tucker State Prison Farm for younger white prisoners, and the 1,300-inmate Cummins Farm for "white and black adult inmates". Rockefeller hired

1872-499: The prison as an infrastructure for capitalism." As Bernstein notes, the prison began manufacturing goods solely to be used within the prison like uniforms and buckets. This practiced changed, however, in 1821 when a prison warden, Elam Lynds , took over the prison and was adamant on using prison labor to produce goods to sell on the market. This system, coined the Auburn System , of using prison labor for profit expanded across

1924-542: The prison system had long been known about in Arkansas, but rose in prominence during the 1960s. In 1965, Federal Judge J. Smith Henley ruled in favor of Cummins inmates in Talley v. Stephens , who sued claiming they were unconstitutionally subjected to cruel and unusual punishments and denied access to the courts and medical care. Henley ordered the prison stop forcing prisoners to work beyond their physical ability, cease arbitrary use of corporal punishment by "blows with

1976-423: The prisoners were driven remorselessly from dawn to dusk in the fields, especially at harvest time". Both farms were operated to generate revenues to the state. A 1968 Time article entitled "Hell in Arkansas" found the two farms "averaged" profits of "about $ 1,400,000 over the years..." ($ 12.3 million today) using prisoners as forced labor. Winthrop Rockefeller , running on a good government platform, released

2028-624: The related publicity and outrage turned Governor John P. Buchanan out of office. The end of convict leasing did not mean the end of convict labor, however. The state sited its new penitentiary, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary , with the help of geologists. The prison built a working coal mine on the site, dependent on labor done by prisoners, and operated it at significant profit. These prison mines were closed in 1966. Texas began convict leasing by 1883 and abolished it officially in 1910. A cemetery containing what are believed to be

2080-466: The remains of 95 "slave convicts" has recently (2018) been discovered in Sugar Land , now a suburb of Houston. The Convict Lease System and Lynch Law are twin infamies which flourish hand in hand in many of the United States. They are the two great outgrowths and results of the class legislation under which our people suffer to-day. Alabama began convict leasing in 1846 and outlawed it in 1928. It

2132-600: The state assumed direct control of felons. The state continued to have prison labor be hired to contractors, manufacturers, and planters until 1913. In 1899, the penitentiary site was selected for the new Arkansas State Capitol , which supplanted the Old State House . In the interim, Arkansas leased many convicts to companies, including the Arkansas Brick Manufacturing Company, for as long as ten years in an effort to house them while

Arkansas Department of Corrections - Misplaced Pages Continue

2184-607: The state established the State Reformatory for Women through Act 351. The state moved the functions of the Arkansas State Training School for Girls to the state prison system. Discipline was routinely enforced by flogging, beating with clubs, inserting of needles under fingernails, crushing of testicles with pliers, and the last word in torture devices: the " Tucker telephone ," an instrument used to send an electric current through genitals By

2236-537: The state in the form of prisoners, nearly all of whom were black . The state of Louisiana leased out convicts as early as 1844. The system expanded throughout most of the South with the emancipation of enslaved people at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. The practice peaked about 1880 and persisted in various forms until it was abolished by President Franklin D. Roosevelt via Francis Biddle 's " Circular 3591 " of December 12, 1941. The system

2288-479: The system increased during the beginning of the 20th century, state politicians resisted its elimination. In states where the convict lease system was used, revenues from the program generated income nearly four times the cost (372%) of prison administration. The practice was extremely profitable for the governments, as well as for those business owners who used convict labor. However, other problems accompanied convict leasing, and employers became gradually more aware of

2340-483: The system: It was a form of bondage distinctly different from that of the antebellum South in that for most men, and the relatively few women drawn in, this slavery did not last a lifetime and did not automatically extend from one generation to the next. But it was nonetheless slavery – a system in which armies of free men, guilty of no crimes and entitled by law to freedom, were compelled to labor without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced to do

2392-535: The vast majority—though not all—of the convicts leased. While states of the Northern United States sometimes contracted for prison labor, the historian Alex Lichtenstein notes that "only in the South did the state entirely give up its control to the contractor; and only in the South did the physical "penitentiary" become virtually synonymous with the various private enterprises in which convicts labored". The writer Douglas A. Blackmon described

2444-520: Was called, spread. Murton's co-authored 1969 book, Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal was the basis for the fictionalized 1980 film Brubaker starring Robert Redford . In Holt v. Sarver , Judge Henley ruled several aspects of Arkansas's prison system unconstitutional and provided guidelines to get the system into compliance. The following year, Henley found the entire prison system operated by

2496-675: Was described as being "severe" in comparison to that in other states. Florida was one of the last states to end convict leasing. The state convict leasing program was ended by Chapter 7833 of the Legislature effective December 31, 1919. County convicts continued to be leased to private interests until 1923. Following the abolition of convict leasing in 1919, the number and proportion of white males sentenced to state prison increased quickly; many prisoners labored in public road construction while others were sent to Union Correctional Institution , then known as Raiford Prison. Although opposition to

2548-482: Was gradually phased out during the early 20th century due to negative publicity and other factors. A notable case of negative publicity for the system was the case of Martin Tabert , a young white man from Munich , North Dakota . Arrested in late 1921 in Tallahassee , Florida on a charge of vagrancy for being on a train without a ticket, Tabert was convicted and fined $ 25. Although his parents sent $ 25 for

2600-488: Was highly lucrative for both the lessees and state governments. For example, in 1898, 73% of Alabama's annual state revenue came from convict leasing. Corruption, lack of accountability, and violence resulted in "one of the harshest and most exploitative labor systems known in American history". African Americans, mostly adult males, due to "vigorous and selective enforcement of laws and discriminatory sentencing", comprised

2652-699: Was inaugurated, and this was finally achieved by the end of June 1928. This lucrative practice created incentives for states and counties to convict African Americans, and helped increase the prison population in the South to become predominantly African American after the Civil War. In Tennessee, African Americans represented 33 percent of the population at the main prison in Nashville as of October 1, 1865, but, by November 29, 1867, their percentage had increased to 58.3. By 1869, it had increased to 64 percent, and it reached an all-time high of 67 percent between 1877 and 1879. Prison populations also increased overall in

SECTION 50

#1732790346816

2704-405: Was the last state to formally outlaw it. The revenues derived from convict leasing were substantial, accounting for about 10% of total state revenues during 1883, surging to nearly 73% by 1898. Political campaigning against convict leasing in Alabama began in 1915. Bibb Graves , who became Alabama's governor in 1927, had promised during his election campaign to abolish convict leasing as soon as he

#815184