What was the Trusty System?
Q: What was the Trusty System?
A: The Trusty System was a system used by Mississippi State Penitentiary and other prisons to control prisoners, in which some inmates were given more power than others and acted as guards for the other prisoners.
Q: How did the trusties maintain control over the other prisoners?
A: The trusties kept the other prisoners under control through physical abuse, torture, fear and humiliation.
Q: When did a federal court rule that the trusty system violated the United States Constitution?
A: In 1974, a federal court ruled that the trusty system violated the United States Constitution by giving out cruel and unusual punishments, ordering it to be shut down.
