[1][2][3] He was renowned for barbarity and corruption including the use of prison labor for his personal benefit.

[1] Martin, a Republican, was friends with Samuel Fleischman who consulted with him before being murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.

[5] Malachi was put in charge of Florida's first state prison in 1871.

He used prisoners to build houses for his profit and to tend his vineyards.

The book The American Siberia; or, Fourteen years' experience in a southern convict camp (1891) by J. C. Powell described the abuse he carried out.