[harpsichord music] - [Man] Let me go, before I fall off!

- Yeah... keep it up, Washington.

But you got a while to go yet.

- Why don't-- why don't you let me help the mayor with the league, Ossimo?

I'm gonna fall off from here!

[yelling outside continues] - Man, give me a cigarette.

Say man, how long they been out there?

- He's been out there ten, eleven hours.

[yelling continues] Man, that dude's too old to be standing on that crate.

- Get me off, or I'm gonna fall off.

Oh God.

- Stay put, man.

- If you don't let me off, I'm gonna fall off.

- Washington, catch that box.

Catch that box, Washington.

I said, catch that damn box!

[gunshot] Washington!

[man sobs]   [gunshot] - What's going on out there?

[blues guitar playing] - Hey man, you are done talking to that lawyer.

- You mean you ain't gonna?

- You crazy.

You talk and ain't no lawyer nowhere going to be able to help you.

- Water break.

- Bring that water bucket over here, boy.

[unintellibible conversations] - I don't care.

I ain't gonna let them get away with it, especially after they shot Old Washington.

- You, you really liked that old man, huh?

- Yeah.

He shut them out in the shower one day.

- Man, I relly hate this chopping cotton.

- What you mean?

You're learning a trade.

Learning how to make it on the outside.

Mister, you're being rehabilitated here.

- And we're still just like slaves on the plantation.

- You ain't got no call to complain.

You won't stand up like a man and tell it like it is.

- Listen, man, I'm serving my own time.

- Yeah, and you gonna let them do you just like they wanna.

Things they ain't got no right to do.

- No no!

They're going to do it anyway.

- Man, this place done book you.

- I'm serving my own time and getting out of this place.

You, you're looking for trouble.

- What you think you got right now?

[keys clacking]   [door opens, closes] - Deadlines 8:00 p.m., Sam.

This Parchman story is taking longer than I thought.

- Lawsuit really got them all stirred up over there, huh?

- Into a veritable frenzy.

Something may really come of it.

- Like what?

- Like total integration.

Like doing away with the armed trustee system.

- And who's going to guard the prisoners?

- Civilian guards like any other prison.

- And who's going to give the money to pay the guards?

The Legislature?

Parchman isn't going to change.

And you ain't going to get the politics out of it.

Nothing's going to change.

- I hope you're wrong.

You ever been up there?

- No.

- You don't want to go.

You don't want to think that people live like that.

- It's that bad?

- Yeah, I think it's that bad, at least according to the depositions.

Seems that everything Parchman's been the last 70 years is coming out finally.

It's like a history.

- Well one good thing about Parchman... it's always news.

- [VO] March 13, 1971, special   to the Delta Press Tribune   by Sam Osborn.

Evidence continues to mount   in the massive prison reform   suit Gates vs Collier   as inmates   come forward to testify.

- Please be seated.

- Mr. Washington, you understand that you're not being tried.

The information you give us in this deposition will be used later when the case comes to trial.

- Yes, sir.

- Would you state your name, please?

- John Wesley Washington.

- And how long have you been a prisoner at Parchman?

- Well, the third of this month it'd be 18 years.

- [VO] The Mississippi Attorney   General's Office represented   the defendants in the case.

Superintendent of Parchman,   the penitentiary board   and the governor   of Mississippi.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The attorney from the   U.S. Department of Justice,   which filed motion   to enter the suit   against the defendants.

- Mr. Washington, you state that you've been permanently injured due to your incarceration at Parchman.

- Well, I can't walk good.

- And what happened that caused you not to be able to walk well?

- Sergeant... he made me stand on a box.

- Excuse me?

- It's a-- it's a balancing act.

You have to stand on a Coca-Cola b-- box.

- You were shot by a trustee?

- Yes, sir.

- And a trustee is an inmate armed by the Parchman administration for the purpose of guarding other inmates?

- Yes, sir.

- May we see where you were shot?

- Right here in the leg.

See?

- Mr. Washington, why were you been punished?

- Well, they said I stole something from somebody here in the camp.

- Mr. Washington, have you ever been imprisoned in solitary confinement, in the dark hole?

- Yes, sir.

- And what was the longest time you spent in the dark hole?

- Couple of days.

- Days?

- Days.

- Mr. Washington.

I would like you to look at some photos I have here marked Exhibit A.

Would like you to describe them for us.

- That's the hole.

- Would you describe the hole?

- Well, it's about.

six foot square.

- No windows?

- No- no- nothing, no windows, no lights, no sink, no nothing.

- What clothing did you wear when you were kept in the dark hole?

- I didn't wear no clothes.

I didn't wear none.

- You were placed in the dark hole naked?

- Naked.

- [VO] In addition to inmates,   Parchman officials   from the superintendent   down to camp sergeants   are being called   to give depositions.

- And how long have you been an official at Parchman?

- Seven years... little longer than seven years.

- All right, would you explain the trustee system as it's practiced at Parchman?

- This is the security system we operate under by state law.

We have the sergeant select their trustees from among the inmates in their camps.

Then these trustees guard and oversee the inmates in the fields.

- So basically, it's a case of prisoners guarding prisoners.

- That's right.

- Would a conviction of murder, preclude an inmate from being named trustee?

- No.

- Would a conviction of armed robbery?

- No.

- [VO] In 1971, the Mississippi   Legislature issued a report   detailing the inadequacies   at Parchman and directed   the penitentiary board   to eliminate   armed trustees by 1974.

- Yes.

- All right, how would you describe the general condition of the camps and sanitary facilities?

- I'd have to say poor.

- Well which conditions are poor?

- The building, the water.

The sewage is poor.

The bathroom facilities are poor.

[unheard conversation]   - [VO] Four days before the   trial was scheduled to begin,   the penitentiary   in effect conceded the case.

The evidence   was overwhelming.

Judge William Keady   met with attorneys,   federal officials   and Governor William Waller   to make the last   minute settlement.

- We are in effect, your honor, admitting the constitutional provisions have been violated.

[country music playing   over speakers] - Hey Sam.

- Hey John.

Hold... "Parchman to be model Prison"?

- That's what I wrote.

- Not one word in your story about the conditions at Parchman.

Not one word about the state throwing in the towel.

Just "Parchman to be model prison".

- That's what the whole thing's about.

- Hi, what can I get you today?

- Hi, Joanne.

Chicken salad sandwich, please and coffee.

- You need anything else?

- No thank you.

I'm glad there's more than one paper in the Delta, What it's all about is the way people have to live at Parchman, Judge Keady is still going to rule on the evidence getting out of the trial is not going to get Parchman out of the suit.

- They're just foregoing the trial so they can get some federal money to work on the place.

Parchman is not admitting anything.

- Cutting their losses.

They're beat and they know it.

They must have had some case against him.

- If you give any credence to a bunch of convicts.

- The governor said, to Judge Keady, "We are, your honor, admitting unconstitutional practices."

- I have known every superintendent at Parchman for the last 20 years.

They're good Christian men.

They're doing a damn good job considering their budget.

Don't have any riots.

Only prison in the country where a man can be alone with his wife.

And picking a little cotton never hurt anybody.

- The point is-- - People seem to forget that these are criminals we're talking about.

They're not tthere for singing too loud in church.

- We're talking about Constitutional rights.

- Osborne, those guys don't have any rights.

They lost their right to rights.

- You really think that?

- They knew the penalty when they broke the law.

I have no sympathy for them.

- Even with all they've been through up there?

They're still human beings.

- What else now?

- That's all, thank you.

- It’s not as bad as you think.

Have you been up there?

- Yeah, I've been there.

I’ve seen the way they live.

If you don't think it’s bad, you're crazy or you don't have your facts straight.

- Listen, Sam, they’ve got those people locked up to protect us, the victims.

That's what prisons are for.

- I agree, but Parchman is-- - All Parchman needs is time and money, not lawsuits.

Lots of things up there could stand some work.

Tell your friends in the Legislature they could use a realistic budget to do it with.

They're working on it.

- Yeah, but don't you understand?

Only with a lawsuit breathing down their collective necks.

That's what it took, apparently.

- What do you want?

A Holiday Inn for a bunch of murderers?

It seems like you and people like you are more concerned about those criminals than you are about decent people who somehow managed to live according to the law.

- You wait till Judge Keady rules and then we'll see what the law says about Parchman.

- [Man] Conditions in Parchman are philosophically, psychologically, physically, racially, and morally intolerable.

Housing units at Parchman are unfit for human habitation under any modern concept of decency.

Penitentiary records indicate that many of the armed trustees have been convicted of violent crimes.

Although many inmates possess knives or other handmade weapons, there is no established requirement or procedure for conducting shakedowns to discover such weapons.

There is no way that anyone can guard the safety of an inmate in the Parchman situation.

- [indistinct chatter] - Bogard.

Bogard!

Didn’t I tell you to stop throwing that ball on this table?

- I’ll throw it man, man.

- Bogard, you better watch it, young man.

- I'm watching it, man.

- I’ll pop you off between the ears.

[unintelligible conversations] - Hey.

Just don’t take your eyes off our last man.

All our players to you.

- I want to be free in the fact that.

- No, he went back home back to the farm.

- No, no, no!

- Hey man!

Hey brother!

- Call the doctor!

Call the doctor!

[shouting and yelling]   - [VO] In September   of 1974 in Greenville,   Mississippi, a former   Parchman inmate sued   penitentiary officials,   claiming they were   responsible for conditions   at Parchman which   led to his stabbing.

Defendants included former   Parchman Superintendents   Tom Cook and John Collier,   and former Parchman physician   Dr. Hernando Abril.

- At this point, I’m going to ask the party if they'll make an opening statement.

- [VO] Judge Ohmer Smith, United   States District Court judge.

- The plaintiff in this action is William Harden Bogard.

Mr. Bogard is paralyzed from the waist down.

- [VO] Lawrence Zelle, one of   three attorneys   representing Bogard.

- The evidence will show that this man was injured seriously and severely because of deprivation of his constitutional rights and because of cruel and unusual treatment while at Parchman.

And it was not Mr. Bogard alone.

He wasn’t just singled out.

But he is the man sitting in the wheelchair.

The evidence will show that these individuals who had the statutory responsibility to run and administer Parchman didn't do a very good job, notwithstanding that they may have had limited funds to work with and notwithstanding that it was a bad prison to begin with.

The evidence will show that the living conditions in these camps, particularly the black camps, were subhuman.

You'll hear about the insecurity of life at Parchman and how it was, from day to day, a question of survival.

That is where Mr. Bogard went.

The evidence will show clearly that Parchman was a disgrace and a shame to the state of Mississippi.

- Ladies, if I heard Mr. Zelle correctly, if I heard the entire tenor of his presentation, he might as well have been asking you to take Mr. Cook and Mr. Collier, these men who went up to the penitentiary in complete good faith and tried to do the best they could, to take them out and string them up.

- [VO] James   Robertson of Greenville,   one of four attorneys   for the defense.

He represented the United States   Fidelity and Guaranty Company,   which had bonded superintendents   Cooke and Collier.

- But it is obvious that the plaintiff wants to put on trial the Mississippi State Penitentiary, and for that purpose, they have got the wrong defendants.

Where is the Legislature of the state of Mississippi which, by statute, authorized and directed the administration to use this trustee system?

Where is the Legislature of the state of Mississippi that, by statute, said use this dark hole?

What about the Governor of Mississippi who appoints the superintendents?

And what about the people of Mississippi who scream about taxes constantly and the Legislature hears that and appropriates a pittance for the operation of the penitentiary?

They have got the wrong man!

- Hey John Wesley!

- Hey Richard!

- I ain’t seen you in a while.

- I've been in disability camp.

Get transferred to there when I got shot for falling off one of those damn crates.

- You testifying, too?

- Oh yeah.

- Hey John Wesley, what you think they’re going to ask us about at the trial?

- Gonna ask about what it's like in Parchman, how bad it is.

- What you gonna tell them?

- How bad it is!

It's like I told them three years ago when they asked me the same thing.

- Do you think that testifying before really did us any good?

- I ‘spect so.

Some good, anyway.

Least wise, those damn trusses ain't got no guns no more.

- They going to ask you about Bogard?

- I expect yeah.

- Did you see it when they stabbed him?

- Yeah.

- I don't care nothing about Bogard.

You know that.

Man can’t move his legs.

- Yeah.

- Can't move nothing from the waist down.

Can’t never have another woman again.

- Yeah.

- That old slicker, just walked up to him and stuck him.

If I had been there, it could have been me just as easy.

You never know.

Never know when somebody’s gonna stick you, or a crack you over the head.

- That's right.

That’s right.

- [VO] Bogard's attorney called   several Parchman inmates   to testify about   Parchman conditions,   the first aspect   of Bogard's suit.

Although many of the inmates   who testified were black,   violence at Parchman   crossed racial lines   and was prevalent among   white inmates as well.

Testimony was limited to events   and conditions up to July 1972   and did not refer,   necessarily, to conditions   at the time of   the trial in 1974.

- but the truth, so help you God?

- I do.

- [VO] David Lippmann of the   Mississippi Prisoners Defense   Committee, Bogard's   principal attorney.

- For the record, would you state your name?

- Richard Johnson.

- Where do you currently reside?

- Parchman Prison.

- What crime were you convicted of?

- Burglary.

- You remember Johnson in Gates?

- He testified in Gates, too?

He likes to testify.

The Testifying Burglar.

I bet he's a Muslim.

- He’s a pretty articulate guy.

- It's very easy to make romantic oppressed heroes of these guys and forget the simple fact that they're up there in the first place for killing or raping or robbing somebody.

- You ought to read his Gates deposition.

- I don't have to.

They're trying Gates right now.

- [VO[ The second aspect of   the suit dealt with the personal   injuries Bogard sustained   while an inmate at Parchman.

First of these was an incident   in which he was shot in the foot   by an inmate trustees.

But the major damages were   being sought for the stabbing.

- State your full name.

- James B. Davis.

- Where do you presently reside, Mr. Davis?

- At Parchman Penitentiary.

- How long have you been in Parchman?

- Five years.

- You admitted on a charge of armed robbery?

- Right.

- And you've since been convicted of assault with intent to kill?

- Right.

- Involving the assault and stabbing of William Harding Bogard?

- Correct.

- Do you see Mr. Bogard in the courtroom?

- I do.

- Do you recognize him as the man whom you stabbed on July 7th, 1972?

- I do.

- Your rule for living in Parchman: anybody who is a threat to you, you're going to kill them before they kill you?

- If they threaten my life, yes.

- Remember the sewing machine incident?

- Yes, I do.

- That was the day of the stabbing, wasn’t it?

- Correct.

- You had this sewing machine in the cage.

- Right.

- Bogard told you that it shouldn't be there.

- Right.

- He told you to get it out.

- He did.

- Didn't do it, did you?

- No, I didn't.

It didn't concern Bogard.

- Did Bogard tell Sergeant Peeks?

- Yes, he did.

- Peeks come and tell you to get the sewing machine out?

- Yes, he did.

- You still didn't do it.

- No, I didn't.

- You didn't like it, that Bogard told him about it.

- No, I didn't.

- You were going to get it, weren't you?

- Yes, I was.

- And you were going to get Peeks, too, weren't you?

- Yes, I was.

- And anybody else that was around.

- Right.

- You went and got a knife, didn't you?

- Correct.

- You didn't have any trouble getting it, did you?

- No, I didn't.

- It was in the cage.

- Right.

- It was your knife?

- No, it wasn’t my knife.

It was the state's knife.

- Started out that way.

You borrowed it for a while.

- Right.

- Started off in the slaughterhouse, didn't it?

- Right.

- And on July 7th,1972, you decided to use it to kill someone.

Is that right?

Did you not?

- I did.

- Do you know how to kill a man with a knife?

- I do.

- What was your intention when you approached Bogard?

- Through the heart.

- Tell us what you did.

- A single thrust.

[discordant music] - There was no question, you were trying to kill him, was there?

- I was.

- If you wanted to kill someone at the Penitentiary today, could you do it?

- Just a moment.

- I object your honor.

The question being irrelevant and immaterial.

- The objection is overruled.

- The possibilities are great.

- And if someone wanted to kill you at the Penitentiary, given enough time, couldn’t they do it?

- They could.

- Now, you have stated that you have been in several other penal institutions or penitentiaries.

- Right.

- Have you also stated that the inmates had weapons in these institutions?

- I have.

- Did they conduct shakedowns at these other institutions?

- Yes, they did.

Not on a regular basis.

No more regular than at Parchman.

- In the shakedowns, did they get your weapons?

- Well, I carried a weapon more at other penitentiaries than I did at Parchman.

- What type of weapon did you carry in the other institutions?

- Well, at Leavenworth, I had a stainless steel rod with a leather handle.

It reached approximately to my knee.

It was made into a very keen point to be driven completely through a person if necessary.

And if there was any wooden obstacles around like a table, or a wall, I tried to pin them to it like a butterfly.

- Call your next witness.

- We would like to have the plaintiff, William Harden Bogard, to take the stand.

- All right, come around.

- Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

- I do.

- State your full name, please.

- William Harden Bogard, Jr. - Now, Mr. Bogard, I'm going to ask you, if you will, try to describe to the court and the jury what your average day is like as a paraplegic.

- I am just like a dope addict.

I have a sack of pills over there to take every day, all day long.

First of all, I have to carry myself and defend myself.

I have to hold my legs together because if I don't, it is just like being in a fistfight.

They can throw you out of the chair if you don't control them right.

- You call it a muscle spasm.

- They can throw you out of the wheelchair very easily.

I'm in an awful lot of pain right now.

24 hours.

May seem to you that I'm sitting here and not suffering at all.

But I am in pain right now.

I have been ever since I was stabbed.

For two years, I've been hurting every day.

My body is not normal anymore.

Nothing can take the place of my legs.

Nothing.

- How do you care for yourself?

Or do you have people to help you?

-No, I have to have people to help me.

- What do they help you do?

- They have to lift me where I can't lift myself.

They have to sit me on a toilet.

They have to sit me in a bathtub.

Most of the time, I am confined.

Might as well be back at Parchman because I am confined.

When I’m in my home, I am confined.

- He would still be in Parchman if they hadn’t pardoned him after the stabbing.

Let him go back to Chicago.

- Let what's left of him go back.

- That completes direct examination of the witness, your honor.

- All right, you may take the witness on cross-examination.

- Every prisoner who’s testified is black.

Why weren’t there any white inmates involved?

- It was all segregated.

Blacks and whites didn't have a chance to kill each other.

If you'd been up there, you'd know.

- [VO] Pascol Townsend, co   -counsel for the defendant.

- Now, did you ever have any personal instance that involved Mr. Cook?

- No, I didn't.

- Now I'll ask you the same thing now in regard to Mr. Collier that I asked in regard to Mr. Cook.

Was he ever present at any time or involved in any way in any incident that you have testified about?

- No.

- Sir would you state your name for the record, please?

- Arnold Juliau.

- And where are you employed?

- Well, I am working in the Parchman, the Assistant President in the hospital in Parchman.

- What was your immediate superior on July 7th, 1972?

- Well, the Chief of the medical staff was Dr. Hernando Abril.

- Now I would like to direct your attention to July 7th, 1972.

What did you do when Mr. Bogard was brought into the hospital?

- Well, I passed the patient on to the X-ray room.

I ordered the test.

The film was ready.

I make all my examinations.

No feeling at all from the feet to the navel to the waist.

And then in comes to my boss, and he says to me, “What happened?” Well, the man was stabbed and the wound was so deep it cut the spinal cord.

We have no equipment.

This man needs to go to Jackson for treatment.

Well, my boss tells me, he says, “Pass this man on to the operating room to see what we can do for him."

- Okay, what did Dr. Abril do?

- Well, he cleaned the back of Mr. Bogard.

He wraps up Mr. Bogard.

And just to say all, all of these standard procedures, when you going to make an operation.

And then he began to look for something, some instrument to pull out the knife.

He pulled with one.

Is nothing.

He pull with with another.

Nothing.

- You say he pulled with what?

- Probe.

Probe test.

He, he don't know how to do.

He probed with one and slip, slip, slip.

- What was slipping off?

- Like a clamp, you know?

We have no instrument.

We have at that time, also, at this time, we have no proper instrument.

- Was Dr. Abril successful at all at that time in pulling out the knife?

- You know, he failed.

He asked, he says, “Who is the strongest man in Parchman?” - What happened then?

- Well, some person I don't know, I don't remember who the strongest man, yes, he says.

He calls out, he snaps his finger.

He said, “Stapleton.

Call to Stapleton.” - Who told them to call to Stapleton?

Dr. Abril, he requested to call Stapleton.

- That is Boss Stapleton?

- Si, yes.

Boss Stapleton.

- Is Boss Stapleton an inmate?

- Yes, sir.

- Then tell us what happened.

- We, we, we hold the body.

And Stapleton grab a hold of the stuff and was grasping, grasping the knife trying to pull out, pull out.

And we hold the body of Bogard.

Stapleton, he's still holding on to the instrument because he, he has this the strongest grasp.

And he, he, he try, try.

At first, he cannot do it.

And then after he take a short break.

And he began to to push.

Push.

Push up, push up, and he release, release out out the piece of knife.

- Boss Stapleton finally pulled the knife out?

- Yes.

- “Boss Stappelle”?

- Stapleton.

Juliao's testimony was pretty damning.

You think Bogard's gonna win?

- Well, that jury sure doesn't hurt his chances.

Five blacks out of six jurors.

- If he does win, it could really set some legal precedents, like making a superintendent responsible for what goes on in his prison.

- I can't see it.

You lock a bunch of criminals up together and what do you expect?

Sunday School Picnic?

- Somebody's got to be responsible for what goes on up there.

- Prisons are violent places.

No one can do anything about it.

Not Cook.

Not Collier.

- Somebody's got to take the responsibility.

- Ladies of the jury, the plaintiff has now rested and the defendants will begin introducing their testimony.

- Dr Abril, the plaintiff alleges or charges you with gross negligence and medical malpractice in not providing the plaintiff with immediate surgery.

I would like to ask you whether or not, in your opinion, the plaintiff should have been provided with immediate surgery.

- I don't think so.

I don't think he needed, immediately, surgery because the spinal cord had been, as I said before, severed since the beginning.

I don't think that nobody could have done anything to repair that injury.

- Is there anything else that could have been done had immediate surgery been performed on Mr. Bogard?

- No, sir.

- Doctor, is it correct that between the time you were hired in October of 1970 until the time you obtained your institutional license in 1971 that the only full-time physician at Parchman was an unlicensed doctor and was a doctor who was not licensed to practice medicine in any state of the Union?

- Yes, sir.

- How many inmates were at the Parchman Institution when you first took the job?

- I don't know, probably 1800 or something like that.

- And were you also responsible for giving medical aid to dependents of the guards and staff?

- The employees?

Yes, sir.

- About how many of those were there?

- Guessing I think it was 500.

- So we're talking about a total possible population of about 2400 people.

- Right.

- For which there was one unlicensed physician full-time and two licensed practical nurses and one part-time physician?

- Two part-time physicians.

- Two part-time physicians.

Is that all?

- Right.

- And no registered nurses?

- At the time, no.

- Physical therapists?

- No.

- Any other medical specialty?

- No.

- Do you know whether or not the hospital at Parchman has any accreditation as a hospital or a license?

- It was not accredited.

- [VO] Tom Cook,   Parchman Superintendent,   1968 to 1972.

- in what condition did you find the hospital in when you arrived?

- It was run down in a bad state of repair.

Much of the equipment was worn out.

That was pretty much the state of the hospital as well as everything else.

- Mr. Cook, what did you find relative to the job of hiring a full-time doctor at the state penitentiary?

- It was just about an impossible task to get a doctor to come to the state penitentiary.

We didn't have anything that would entice a doctor to come to the state prison to live.

- Mr. Cook, I would like for you to describe the physical plant at the time you arrived at state penitentiary.

- Yes, sir.

I found that I had some 15 units where the inmates were housed.

- Describe the condition that you found those quarters in.

- The inmate housing, of course, was probably built in the early 1900s.

It was in a bad state of repair, and I found in making an estimate that it would require a great sum of money in order to bring the housing up to the desired standards that we needed at Parchman for the inmates.

- [VO] Cook described   improvements he instituted   at Parchman despite   his limited budget.

These included gas stoves   to replace the old   wood-burning stoves,   hot water heaters,   new mattresses   and new bathroom facilities.

- Now, Mr. Cook, will you tell us something about how and where you obtained your funds to operate and run the state penitentiary?

- All of the funds came through a budget through the general Legislature budget.

- Could you tell us when you first went to the penitentiary what the budget was to operate the state penitentiary per year?

- Less than $2 million a year.

- They've got a budget now of over $8 million!

- Now did you make any request to the Legislature or the building commission for any funds to do anything with the physical plant at the state penitentiary?

- Yes, I made requests for renovation and repair of all the camps.

- Were you successful in obtaining the necessary funds?

- No, I was not.

- All right, sir.

Now, Mr. Cook, what really was the determining factor in what you could do in the way of physical facilities for handling of the inmates and employees?

What was the single determining factor along that line?

- Money.

- And where did it have to come from?

- The State.

- Now Mr. Cook, we've heard your talk this morning about rehabilitation.

About sending men out as men with dignity.

Isn't that right?

- That's correct.

- That's what you were striving for.

- That's correct.

- I believe in your letter, defendant's exhibit number 137, you wrote - - I'm not quoting it.

I'm paraphrasing it.

Each inmate is a person, and is priceless in the sight of God.

Is that correct?

- That's right.

- You believe that?

- I do.

- Do you live by that philosophy?

- I do my best to.

- Then I'm sure you can explain to me how you can rehabilitate a man by having him stand on a Coke case for 48 hours.

- I didn't understand the question.

- I said, how can you rehabilitate a man when you have him stand on a Coke case for 48 hours?

- I think that discipline is very important toward rehabilitation.

You have got to have discipline before you can have a man at all.

And if this would aid in his rehabilitation, I see nothing wrong with it.

- Does the same thing apply to a man when he's chained to a fence?

Is that a proper form of discipline?

Does that add to the dignity of the human being under your care at Parchman, sir?

- There were times when this was important.

It was not my policy to tie a man to a fence or to to hang men from the fence.

I never saw it happen, but one time and at that time I put a stop to it.

When people were unruly, you had to do something to detain them.

I don't know what you're referring to.

- So it would be in violation of your sensibilities.

- Yes, it would.

- To chain a man to a fence for how long?

One hour or two hours?

- Well, two hours or an hour or three hours.

- How about taking a man to a bayou where there are lots of mosquitoes, a high mosquito population and leaving them there overnight, tied and handcuffed to a tree?

- I don't recall that having been done, sir.

- You don't recall that having been done?

- No.

- [VO] Champ Terney,   co-counsel for the defendant.

- John Allen Collier.

- Have you had occasion to be employed by the Mississippi State Penitentiary?

- Yes sir, I've had an occasion to.

- In what capacity?

- As superintendent.

- When was that Mr. Collier?

- ‘72.

- [VO] John Collier,   like his predecessor,   Tom Cook, described the   difficulties of running Parchman   on its appropriated budget.

- Did you make any changes in the physical facilities at these camps?

- Very limited.

- Why was that?

- Because there was no money.

- [VO] Collier, even though   he was superintendent   for only 10 months bore   the financial brunt of the suit   because Bogard was stabbed   during his administration.

- State your name for the record, please sir.

- Winston Moore.

- Where are you presently employed?

- I'm Executive Director of the Cook County Department of Corrections.

- Have you ever visited the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman?

- Yes, I have.

I was sent here by EAA and American Correctional Association to look at Parchman.

- State whether or not a pattern of behavior of inmates for violence was also found at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

- Yes, it was found there, but no more than any other penitentiary.

- State whether or not there is an observable pattern as to possession of weapons by inmates in prisons.

- Yes, there is.

Inmates have a tendency to get and to accumulate and to hide and to make weapons, preferably knives.

Just about anything that can be used as a weapon, they will use.

- In your experience, what's the only way a prison administrator can guarantee complete protection of an inmate?

- The only way that a prison administrator can guarantee absolute safety of an inmate, both from others and from himself, is to more or less lock them into a cell for 24 hours a day stripped naked.

- And what does this do to the inmates?

- That will make him an animal.

- Now, you testified under cross-examination that the committee you visited Parchman with in 1972 found a lack of basic standards at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, as far as physical facilities are concerned, I believe.

Now, to what do you and your committee attribute this condition to?

- To neglect by the State of Mississippi.

That is what we attributed to the Governor, the Legislature, and the people in Mississippi who were trying to run the prison at a profit.

- Jurors, I have your note in which you say you're ready to return the verdict.

- [VO] The jury found that   William Harden Bogard   had suffered damages in   the amount of $500,000.

But   in   1978,   the   U.S.   Court   of   Appeals   for the fifth District   held that Bogard   had proven his case   against Parchman itself,   but not against the   individual defendants,   and they could not be   held financially liable,   and the Gates case   goes on and on.

Judge William Keady has   continued to monitor Parchman   to ensure that his 1972 order   for improved conditions   is implemented.

The Mississippi State   Penitentiary is changing,   Parchman is integrated.

Inmates are now guarded by   trained security guards.

The new hospital will   be completed in 1979.

At the Parchman   Vocational School,   inmates continue to   learn various job skills.

New housing is   being constructed,   and to ease overcrowding, prison   population has been reduced.

Satellite prisons throughout the   state also reduce overcrowding   and allow inmates an opportunity   to work at regular jobs   as a transition step   toward return to society.

At the Pascagoula   Restitution Center,   selected inmates work a normal   workday and return at night   to supervised housing.

The offender pays back   the victim of his crime   with the money he earns.

The Mississippi Legislature   has appropriated funds   for three additional centers.

The 1978 Legislature increased   Parchman's appropriation   to $16 million,   and the Legislature,   evidencing its   increasing concern   with the state penitentiary,   created the Department   of Corrections,   which for the first time put   all aspects of adult corrections   under one agency.

The department sponsored a night   in prison for reporters   and legislators to give them   some concept of prison life.

- All right, get up!

Wake up!

Come on, get up.

Get out of there.

- Get up out the bed.

- [Reporters groaning] - Come on, get up over there, fella.

Let’s go here.

- Come on.

Get over here.

Be quiet, sir.

Be quiet!

This is a shakedown.

You people are going to have to get up off of your knives.

You're inmates, and there’s not going to be any knives in this camp.

You understand?

You understand?!

- Don’t even know what’s going on!

- Get back up over there.

You heard the man talking to you.

What’s wrong with you, fella?

You think you back on the outside?

- [VO] The reporter spent the night in one of the substandard camps, which are slowly being shut down to comply with Judge Keady’s ruling.

The next day, reporters visited new Inmate Housing First Offenders Camp, new Women's Camp, the new Temporary Units.

They talked with prisoners at the new Medium Security Unit, where the inmates live in single cells rather than dormitories.

- Are things any better?

Do they seem to be getting bettern than, say, five years ago, three years ago?

- Not really.

Things about the same to tell the truth.

- What do you mean?

You've got trained guards, new cells.

- We still locked up, ain’t we?

- Well what do you expect?

- What about the guards?

Do they treat you any better?

- Now that depends on the man.

Some of them treat you decent.

Treat you like a man.

But now some of them trying to take that from you.

Make you lose your pride.

You know, we still human beings, even if we are locked up in here.

We still men.

- How much longer do you have?

- Well, supposed to be getting out on parole.

A job is what you need to get out of this place.

- So here you are.

- And the days are long here, you know that?

- What are you in here for?

- Burglary.

You think you can help me get a job?

You know, I do a lot of writing.

I wrote a lot of poetry since I've been in here.

- I don't know.

I don't do the hiring.

I’ll see.

- Man, a job is what I need to get out of this place.

I've been in here a long, long time.

And after a while, you kind of lose hope.

You lose all hope.

- [VO] Over 98% of the people   who go to prison   eventually return to society.

Society will have to   deal with them again.

Society will have to deal with   the kind of people   they became in prison.

♪♪ - This program, funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.