I am taking a few days off from blogging to work on some outstanding projects. Things will be slow through mid-August. I will, however, be writing next week about an important chapter of penal history: the scandals and horrors of Arkansas’ prison farms through the 1970s.

As a preview, I wanted to share the following parable from the Arkansas State Penitentiary which I think is a good illustration of how truly horrible that system was. Stay tuned next week for more…

The captain asked the preacher, “Preacher, you think you can pick me three hundred pounds of cotton?”

The preacher said, “Captain, if the Lord’s willing. I will get it for you.”

But the preacher didn’t get it, so that night the captain gave him ten hot ones across the back and asked, “Now preacher, you think you can pick me three hundred pounds of cotton tomorrow?”

And the preacher said, “Captain, I’m going to get it for you if the Lord is willing.”

But he didn’t get it on that day, so they whipped him again.

The next day when the captain asked the preacher if he could get three hundred pounds of cotton, the preacher said, “If the damn stuff’s in the field I’ll get it.”

The preacher had learned his lesson. The Lord had forsaken His children in the Arkansas pen.