Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal

This book is the story of that year during which Tom Murton tried to bring true prison reform to Arkansas. he was not just interested in cleaning up the dirt and weeding out the corruption; Murton wanted a system where inmates could begin to look at each other, and at civilians, as human beings; where they could learn responsibility, not how to survive whippings and the goon squad; where they could learn to read and write and eventually learn a skill that would make them employable when they got out. It was a year of hope and progress, of disappointment and frustration as Murton came to realize that "reforming the prisons in Arkansas meant shaking up the whole rotten system . . ." His narrative transcends the narrow boundaries of Arkansas, as it documents one man's fight for true reform and justice.