Trusty system (prison)

The "trusty system" (sometimes homophonically though perhaps incorrectly called "trustee system") was a strict system of discipline and security in the United States made compulsory under Mississippi state law (but also used in other states, such as Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, New York 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.

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 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.

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