Trustee

History

One of the most notorious uses of inmate trustees occurred in the Texas prison system during the late 1960s and 1970s. The Texas “building tender” system, started by superintendent Dr. George Beto, relied extensively on inmate trustees to control other inmates. This strategy of governance effectively turned the operation of many prison buildings over to the supervision of deputized inmate trustees, especially at night. Selected inmates were even permitted to carry weapons and were rewarded for “keeping things quiet.” In one Texas prison, the weekend staff consisted of only a dozen correctional officers who supervised groups of trustees who made counts, searched cells, frisked other inmates, and administered discipline.

Other states, including Arkansas and Mississippi, emulated the Texas model throughout the 1960 and 1970s. Most of the guards in the Arkansas system were simply inmates who had been issued guns. Only two nonconvict guards kept watch over 1,000 Arkansas inmates at night. In Mississippi, 150 trustees armed with rifles maintained security over the rest of the prisoners. At least one state prisoner in Mississippi was shot by an armed trustee acting in a custodial capacity in 1971.

Despite some initial successes in reducing prisoner disorder in these three systems, a number of problems also resulted from their reliance on inmate trustees. Inmate trustees with supervisory duties were often accused of trading institutional privileges for personal favors. Their discipline was often arbitrary and brutal, and fair hearings were virtually nonexistent, given that wrongdoers were shielded by their coworkers and superiors. During the 1970s, Arkansas inmates who needed medical attention had to bribe the trustees in charge of sick call to see a nurse or doctor. Murders and rapes in Arkansas prisons escalated, and shakedowns of cells turned up hundreds of weapons and other contraband. In response, one federal court described the Arkansas prison system as “a dark and evil world completely alien to the free world” (Hutto v. Finney, 1970, p. 381).

The trustee systems in Texas, Arkansas, and other, mostly southern, states were effectively ended by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hutto v. Finney (1978) and lower federal court cases such as Ruiz v. Estelle (1982) and Guthrie v. Evans (1981). The Ruiz litigation in Texas ultimately cost the state of Texas more than a billion dollars in fines, attorney fees, and institutional reforms. Since this wave of cases, most prisons have decreased their reliance on trustees in security and custodial positions.

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