Mississippi: The Reformer

Fred Jones, 65, of Sunflower County, Miss., is a man of several parts: he is a prosperous Delta cotton planter, onetime director of the state's segregationist White Citizens' Council, and a reform-minded penologist. Several years ago, as a member of the Mississippi Senate and chairman of its penitentiary committee, he became dedicated to trying to make over the state prison at Parchman, a grim, swampy place noted for its liberal use of the lash. "I had a lot of ideas about prison reform," says Jones, "but they were either killed or watered down next to nothing in the legislature....

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