So far I have avoided being arrested or thrown in jail. However I did have the opportunity to visit a prison farm with a dark history. It happened over Thanksgiving in 1968. At that time I was attending Avionics training at the Naval Air Station in Millington, TN.

I had made plans to take leave for Christmas but spend Thanksgiving on the base. A friend offered an invitation for Thanksgiving dinner at this home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It was a trip that was under 250 miles which was the travel limit for my rating at that time. I didn’t have a car until my final year in the Navy so I welcomed the invite.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner. His family was really hospitable. I learned that his father was a cook at the Cummins State Prison. When they asked if I would like to visit, I eagerly accepted.

The first thing that I found odd about the prison was seeing that it seemed to run by the inmates, the “trustees”. Apparently this was done because so little money was available to hire correction officers. It was a dreary place. I had my camera with me, but even as a naive 22 year old I knew enough not to be clicking photos of prisoners and the chow hall.

I decided to take a photo of a prison bus. I’ve never seen one and never rode in one and it seemed like a good subject.

An Awkward Encounter

As I was clicking photos of the bus I got a visit from some officials who were not very happy with this Yankee kid clicking photos. They explained that they had some problems with some reporters just recently. Somehow I talked myself out of what was becoming an uncomfortable situation. However I did get at least this photo.

Torture and Murder

Fifty years ago, on Jan. 29, 1968, Arkansas prison superintendent Tom Murton, with members of the press on hand, unearthed three skeletons buried at Cummins prison farm, located along the Arkansas River in Lincoln County. Murton, who had heard rumors of men buried near the levee, believed the decayed bones were those of prisoners murdered and dumped on the prison’s 16,000-acre grounds.

Colin Woodward, reporter for the Arkansas Times

This was only 11 months before I visited. Maybe that is why they so sensitive. On September 8, 2018 Mother Jones magazine published an essay about Cummins Prison Farm featuring photographs taken by Bruce Jackson.