Parchman State Penitentiary: One of the Oldest Detention Institutions in the United States
The Parchman State Penitentiary is considered to be one of the oldest detention institutions in the US. It indeed the first prison to be built in the Mississippi state back in the early 20th century. However, despite the traditional role it has played in the overall institutional system it is not, in its turn, deprived of controversy, which in the end builds up to one important issue that splits the American society: the rightfulness of the death penalty. As a result of its longtime activity, the Parchman State Penitentiary has become and it is viewed nowadays as a symbol of the conflict surrounding the sensitive issue of the morality of the death row. Its history is quite log, but, despite it all it is rather poor in missing details. In the early 1900's the Mississippi State Legislature purchased a considerable amount of land, 8,000 acres of land in the Sunflower County, whereas today it has a surface of around 18,000 acres. In the beginning, it was called the Parchman Farm, as the benefices and profit were made at the expense of those placed in the service of the state to carry on their sentence. The name came is in fact that of the first warden to take charge of the business of the prison, J.M. "Jim" Parchman. (Cabana, 2004)
Nonetheless, this option too was not without flaws, and in the late 50's this practice gave way to the use of gas chambers as the ultimate solution for those sentenced to death by the court. An important argument underlined by those in support of this sand is that, above all, inmates are humans and they should be granted the basic human rights in order to keen their dignity and life. Notwithstanding the controversy, there are still numerous and important states which make full use of their autonomy in deciding over the role of the death penalty in the criminal court system. The International Citizens for HumaneIncarceration at Parchman reacted to the unfortunate conditions which the detainees had to face, including a lack of basic hygiene, medical assistance; most importantly, inmates were deprived of any physical exercises and movement, sometimes for periods longer than one year. Nonetheless, the solution proved rather unproductive, as the death of the one condemned was indeed a rather painful one and there was a rather big chance of failure. Although they do have certain similarities, the Parchman prison is the only maximum security institution ", housing some 4,500 inmates in eight (8) different housing units, ranging in size from fifty-four beds at Unit 42 (hospital) to 1,568 beds at Unit 29 (the primary farming support unit)" (Kelly, 2003) It has a very precise organizational scheme which enables the management to oversee and best control the different types of inmates; therefore, the prison is divided onto three areas, and four custody levels, in order to manage both the degenerative behaviors of the inmates and to protect the others from such outbursts. This is true whether the indifference is manifested by prison doctors in their response to the prisoner's needs or by prison guards in intentionally denying or delaying access to medical care or intentionally interfering with the treatment once prescribed". The convicts were often put to work the fields in order to raise cotton and even vegetables and different sorts of fruits. The institution in itself represented a symbol of its time. The legal decision of the US Supreme Court Decision of 1976 in Estelle v. Therefore, the historical background permitted the maintenance of the death penalty, in its different forms, in the Parchman State Penitentiary. According to the general opinion of the time, rapes, beatings and all sorts of criminal actions occurred in the 60's and 70's. In this respect, strict measures have been taken, such as removing all outlets from the cells. These protest come as a result of increased concern over the conditions which the inmates must support and through extrapolation to the right of a person, be it a judge or even president of state, to decide upon the life or death of another human being.
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