The "
trusty system" (sometimes
homophonically though perhaps incorrectly called "trustee system") was a strict system of discipline and security in the
United States made compulsory under
Mississippi state law (but also used in other states, such as
Arkansas,
Alabama, Louisiana and
Texas) as the method of controlling and working inmates at
Mississippi State Penitentiary at
Parchman, Mississippi's only prison. It was designed to replace
convict leasing. Under this system, designated inmates were used by staff to control and administer physical punishment to other inmates according to a strict prison-determined inmate hierarchy of power. The case of
Gates v. Collier (Gates v. Collier Prison Reform Case, 1970–1971) ended the flagrant abuse of inmates under the trusty system and other prison abuses which had continued essentially unchanged since the building of the prison in 1903 in Mississippi. Other states using the trusty system were also forced to give it up under this ruling.