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. It is located on 18,000 acres (73 km²) in Parchman, Mississippi, and was built in 1901. It has beds for 4,840 inmates. Inmates work on the prison farm (formerly plantation) and in manufacturing workshops. It holds male offenders classified at all custody levels — A and B custody (minimum and medium security) and C and D custody (maximum security). It also houses death row — all male offenders sentenced to death in Mississippi are held here.^[1]

Parchman does not house female offenders - Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, also the location of the female death row, is the only state prison in Mississippi to do so.^[2]

History

In 1895-1906 the prison was transformed to fit the state's penal plantation system.

Vernon Presley, father of Elvis Presley, was convicted of forgery when Elvis was three and received a three-year sentence at Parchman.^[3] The first photo of Elvis was taken at the prison in 1938 when, as a 3-year-old, he and his mother Gladys Presley came to visit his father. The photo shows Vernon, Elvis, and Gladys together against a wall inside the prison.

In the spring of 1961, Freedom Riders (civil rights activists) came to the American South to test the desegregation of public facilities. By the end of June, 163 Freedom Riders had been convicted in Jackson, Mississippi and many were jailed in Parchman.

In 1970 the civil rights lawyer Roy Haber began taking statements from inmates, which eventually ran to fifty pages of details of murders, rapes, beatings and other abuses suffered by the inmates in Parchman from 1969 to 1971. Four Parchman inmates brought a suit against the prison superintendent in federal district court in 1972, alleging their civil rights under the United States Constitution were being violated by the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment.^[4] In the case, Gates v. Collier, federal judge William C. Keady found that Parchman Farm violated the Constitution and was an affront to 'modern standards of decency'. Among other reforms, the accommodation was made fit for human habitation and the trusty system (where lifers were armed with rifles and set to guard other inmates) was abolished.^[5][6]

The 1987 BBC Television landmark documentary Fourteen Days in May, which followed the last two weeks of the life of Edward Earl Johnson up until just a few minutes before his execution in the prison's gas chamber, was filmed here.

In culture

The prison is the subject of a number of blues songs, most notably "Parchman Farm" by Bukka White, which was later covered by Blue Cheer on their Debut album Vincebus Eruptum. It also served as a major source of material for folklorists, like Alan Lomax and John Lomax, who visited there numerous times to record work songs, field hollers, blues, and interviews with prisoners. The Lomaxes in part focused on Parchman at that time because it offered a particular closed society shut off from the outside world.

The Coen brothers' film, Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, makes reference to Parchman, both directly and by including a song recorded at Parchman in 1959 by Alan Lomax on the soundtrack to the film.

In William Faulkner's book Old Man, which was also published as part of the book The Wild Palms, the Tall and Fat Convicts were sent from Parchman to rescue folks from the 1927 flood.

In Faulkner's The Mansion, Mink Snopes was imprisoned in Parchman.

In August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, the characters Boy Willie, Lymon, Doaker, and Wining Boy all served time at Parchman.

The Chamber, a best-selling novel by John Grisham, is set at Parchman.^[7] Many of Grisham's other novels make reference to Parchman.

The Chamber, a movie based on the novel of the same name, was filmed at and is set in the penitentiary.^[8][9] The movie stars Gene Hackman and Chris O'Donnell. Bo Jackson has a cameo as a prison guard.^[10]

In John Grisham's latest book Ford County the short story "Fetching Raymond" takes place in large part at Parchman.

Quotation

Oh listen you men, I don't mean no harm

If you wanna do good, you better stay off old Parchman Farm

We got to work in the mornin', just at dawn of day

Just at the settin' of the sun, that's when the work is done

Bukka White, "Parchman Farm Blues"

See also

• Parchman, Mississippi
• Trusty system

References

• Hopper, Columbus B. (September 1962). "The Conjugal Visit at Mississippi State Penitentiary". The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 53 (3): 340–343. doi:10.2307/1141470. 
• Oshinsky, David M.: Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. Free Press, 1997.

Footnotes

External links

• Mississippi State Penitentiary The second entry refers to the Mississippi State Penitentiary and lists its statistics as well as programs.
• History of capital punishment in Mississippi including pictures of how capital punishment took and takes place; it also lists references.
• Chain gang songs from Parchman Farm
• Worse Than Slavery": Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice
• Penitentiary Farm Pays and Makes Money

• Mississippi State Penitentiary is at coordinates 33°55′46″N 90°33′10″W / 33.929403°N 90.55275°W / 33.929403; -90.55275 (Mississippi State Penitentiary)Coordinates: 33°55′46″N 90°33′10″W / 33.929403°N 90.55275°W / 33.929403; -90.55275 (Mississippi State Penitentiary)