:angry: So, have you heard of the "Tucker Telephone?" I actually found out about it on ADC's website. They had a picture of it (which I've attached).

I found this in an article attached to an editorial cartoon. It compared the punishment in Abu Ghraib to the old days in Arkansas Prison Farms (i.e. Tucker and Cummins).

If you never heard of the "Tucker Telephone" it was an old magneto type telephone used to punish inmates. The unfortunate had electrodes attached (usually to the genitals) and the guard would give the magneto a crank or two. If you have ever grabbed a spark plug wire -- you get my drift. The prison farms in Arkansas were the worst place one could be incarcerated in the good old USA. It appears that good old Arkansas ingenuity has spread to the middle east making Abu Ghraib (and Gitmo) the worst places on earth.

The thing that "makes me go hmmmm" is you bet your buttons that we'd hear all about any bugs in the food and liberties taken during strip searches at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay but U.S. Citizens don't care how our citizens are treated. And we can't complain, when we do we're told "inmates lie" and "this aint the holiday inn" and we're lied to and then we and our men get pegged as trouble makers.

The other thing that "makes me go hmmm" is that, I'm new to Arkansas but it seems that Tucker and Cummins have quite the reputation for being really bad places, but outside of Arkansas no one's heard of them. The movie Brubaker brought some attention to it, but you had to know they were talking about cummins and tucker. I've found TONS of info on the web about how bad Cummins and Tucker "USED" to be.

Anyway, here's what Arkansas Department of Corrections website has to say about their nifty little device:
"Tucker Telephone" Used to torture inmates - practice ended in 1970's.

:shake: I was at the Arkansas Dept. Corrections website this morning looking for a telephone number to Cummins Unit to check on an older inmate and found that same picture. Was wondering what the deal was. Then came to Prisontalk and found your post. Very creepy scene. My friend has been at Cummins since 1972. He has said that there was a time during the seventies when he kept a knife with him 24/7, but that now things have gotten better. He's in a dorm now and feels fairly safe with both inmates and staff. He's been there so long. Do you know who one could contact at Cummins to make sure he isn't sick? They must have an inmate mental health counselor or social worker one could contact, dontcha think?

Not that's it's relevant to anything, but back when he was in a cell he once kept a flying squirrel as a pet for four years. Found it in its nest when out on a work crew felling timber, raised it on a dropper, and it never strayed. He said at one time the place was full of pets the inmates kept, but they stopped allowing it.:(

awww, that's cool about the squirrel. I also used to talk to one of the Jaycees there, he's doing life w/out parole. Yeah, "back in the day" there were a LOT of horror stories and thank God it IS better now! to me it's just scary that it could ever happen.

You can call Constituent Services at 870-267-6385.
That's your best bet. You may also want to try to call cummins and ask for the Chaplain's office.

For reasons I cannot go into, I am unable to tell you where I was incarcerated. (Legal mumbo jumbo) but I can tell you it was in the deep south (Not Arkansas) during the late 1960's and early 1970's (10 long years, believe me) And I was a young man, or just turned into a young man of sorts, anyway.

But yes, I have heard of the Tucker Telephone, but it was not at Tucker.

Fact is, I met with the Tucker Phone on a number of occasions which I am not sure if I should talk about, or not? :blah:

To maintain discipline, prisoners in my penal institution were beaten
with leather straps, blackjacks, hoses and otherwise horse whipped on
the bare buttocks. Needles were shoved under their fingernails, and
cigarettes were applied to their genitals.

But for the truly unregenerate like myself, there was still the "Tucker telephone" still in use, it was between 1968 and 1970.

You ask if anyone has heard of it, yes, I have heard of the Tucker Telephone?

Basically an old modified telephone attached to two dry cell batteries in sequence and attached to an undressed inmate who was firmly
secured to the treatment table in the "Telephone Room" of the prison.

The Tucker Telephone was basically just a form of electric-shock
torture. Like you say, touch a spark plug or connect some car batteries for a taste.

I was told to strip and turn around while my hands were cuffed behind
my back and led stark naked by the guard to the "telephone room" which
contained the sadistic device.

Once in the phone room I was strapped naked to a "treatment" table.
Electrode wires leading from the telephone device were attached to one of my big toes and then to my privates. One wire attached to my big toe, one wire each then to my testicles and two wires firmly wrapped around the head of my penis.

The crank was spun and my body contracted violently, felt like I was having convulsions, my reflexes forced my butt high off the table and I jerked violently waving my genitals along with the electrode wires attached like a bucking horse.

One night I was shocked by the Tucker Telephone for five minute intervals every half hour for over 6 hours. Thank God these practices eventually stopped, but only after the Supreme Court of the United States stepped in.

[quote=juliwaits]:angry: So, have you heard of the "Tucker Telephone?" I actually found out about it on ADC's website. They had a picture of it (which I've attached).

If you never heard of the "Tucker Telephone" it was an old magneto type telephone used to punish inmates. The unfortunate had electrodes attached (usually to the genitals) and the guard would give the magneto a crank or two. If you have ever grabbed a spark plug wire -- you get my drift. The prison farms in Arkansas were the worst place one could be incarcerated in the good old USA. It appears that good old Arkansas ingenuity has spread to the middle east making Abu Ghraib (and Gitmo) the worst places on earth.

Anyone know why I can't view the jpg of the Tucker Phone?

A punishment device to punish inmates, YES. But more than that, it was a real instrument of torture. "electrodes attached (usually to the genitals) and the guard would give the magneto a crank" Ohhhhhh, well . . . you know I never knew the electrodes to be attached anywhere else, really? And the magneto a crank or two? How about 3 to 5 minutes of cranking or more? :angry::angry::angry::angry::angry:

Sorry, just venting. Something you never forget . . . any other old guys out there?

QUOTE:

If you never heard of the "Tucker Telephone" it was an old magneto type telephone used to punish inmates. The unfortunate had electrodes attached (usually to the genitals) and the guard would give the magneto a crank or two. If you have ever grabbed a spark plug wire -- you get my drift. The prison farms in Arkansas were the worst place one could be incarcerated in the good old USA. It appears that good old Arkansas ingenuity has spread to the middle east making Abu Ghraib (and Gitmo) the worst places on earth.

I was just reading about this the other day! Omg! I can't believe something like this was ever allowed.

Depends on the definition of allowed. Actually not many people new about it until the news media started talking about it and then it ended. We can be very thankful to the media for helping to bring an end to this practice.

I was just reading about this the other day! Omg! I can't believe something like this was ever allowed.

If many of these things are reported, they deny all accusations and then the prisoner is punished for making a "false" accusation. On the few occasions that I tried to report abuse all the guards involved flatly denied what had happened and I was severely punished.

The officer who has immediate control over the prisoner has good opportunity to abuse a prisoner he may dislike. As in the above case of my report of abuses, the superior disliked me and doubled my punishment time.

Another mode of punishment not widely publicized forced the obstinate prisoner to be stripped naked and tied to a post. The hose which is connected to the water works is turned upon his naked body. Not only is this water ice cold, but the water pressure is sixty pounds per square inch. As this wicked ice water strikes his naked body the pain and suffering is very intense.

Again, the few prisoners who suffered this did so for making "false" accusations.

You should see the 1980 movie (Brubaker) staring Robert Redford.
Based on the real-life efforts of former prison administrator Thomas O. Murton to reform Tucker and Cummins Prison Farms in Arkansas in 1967-68.

It is really gruesome.

Oh my God. I am so sorry for anyone having gone through anything like this. I saw Murder in the First and Shawshank Redemption. Read The Innocent Man. That's enough to tell me that unspeakable atrocities are committed and yeah - who is going to be believed? The inmate or the fine upstanding prison staff?

I'd shoot myself in the head before being a party to this. That's all I kept thinking during Murder in the First.

That movie tears at my very soul. It literally takes me days to recover each time I watch it.

How horrific. And America has always touted itself as the Champion of Human Rights.

While some of these torture devices may no longer may be in use, there is still other forms of torture going on inside our prisons. In Florida they are trying to get the prison menu down from 1200 calories per day to 900. Even Hitler allowed the concentration camps to give 1000 calories per day. He said it was just the right amount to keep the prisoner's strong enough to work for 6 months before dying, but not too much to give them the energy to fight back.