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.

prominent,[clarification needed] the Arkansas inmate population surged, and ADC built new prisons across the state.

[11] 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 General Assembly decided to purchase the Cummins Farm over the objection of Governor Davis, who preferred a location in Altheimer.

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[14] By the 1960s, Arkansas was infamous for operating one of the most corrupt and dangerous prison systems in the nation.

[15] 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.

In 1965, Federal Judge J. Smith Henley ruled in favor of Cummins inmates in Talley v. Stephens,[Notes 1] who sued claiming they were unconstitutionally subjected to cruel and unusual punishments and denied access to the courts and medical care.

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.

[18] The report also found "To make profits, the prisoners were driven remorselessly from dawn to dusk in the fields, especially at harvest time".

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.

[19][20][21] Winthrop Rockefeller, running on a good government platform, released the previously suppressed report publicly upon election to the Governor's office 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.

[24][25] 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".

[23] Murton had attracted nationwide media attention and contempt for Arkansas,[22] as news of Bodiesburg, as it was called, spread.

[23] 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.

The following year, Henley found the entire prison system operated by the ADC unconstitutional, as issues restricting inmates' access to court and cruel and unusual punishment remained in violation of his previous ruling.

[citation needed] T. Don Hutto had been hired by Governor Dale Bumpers in 1971 as the head of the Arkansas Department of Correction,[27] with a mandate of "humanizing" the "convict farms".

[37] In Arkansas's shared services model of state government, the cabinet-level agencies assist boards and commissions who have an overlapping scope.