February 29, 1968

The State Penitentiary Board banned the use of the strap as a form of corporal punishment at the Cummins and Tucker state prison farms. Throughout the twentieth century, politicians had called for reform of Arkansas’s prison system, but positive changes happened slowly. New governor Winthrop Rockefeller had vowed to improve Arkansas’s prisons, and several improvements were enacted during his term of office, including medical care for prisoners, educational programs, and guards hired from outside the prison replacing “trusties,” who were guards recruited from among the prisoners.