Caging Borders and Carceral States by Chase Robert T.;

Author:Chase, Robert T.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press

Whatever Happened to the Southern Chain Gang?

Reinventing the Road Prison in Sunbelt Florida

VIVIEN MILLER

Prologue: The 1967 Jay Road Prison Fire

Florida’s Department of Corrections Road Prison (DCRP) at Jay, Santa Rosa County, near the Alabama state line, normally held around fifty-five “colored” male prisoners in the summer months of 1967. As part of the state prison system’s desegregation schedule, eighteen transferred to other facilities to free up space for incoming white prisoners in early July. Ten white men arrived on Tuesday July 11 and five more on Thursday July 13.1 State Road Department (SRD) personnel reported no immediate problems and no unusual incidents following the changeover. African American and white prisoners played softball and took part in other recreational activities on Saturday July 15. Nine prisoners attended church services the following morning. The afternoon visiting hours were also uneventful, but it was later reported that white prisoner David F. Cole had told his father that something was about to kick off.2 During early evening dormitory security checks on Sunday July 16, guards removed two “pornographic” books from the bunk of white prisoner Thomas Eugene Ard. In response, Ard apparently plotted with another white prisoner, Earl Frank Hoffman, and black prisoner Joseph Wynder “to create a riot for the purpose of putting the institution out of operation.”3

When the dormitory was secured at 5:30 P.M., there were three officers on duty: the wicket officer, A. O. Lovett; and two roving officers, R. E. Cobb and D. C. Nelson. At 9 P.M., “Lovett blew the whistle for the prisoners to return to their bunks for the ‘lights-out’ bed check and flesh count,” and all fifty-one men were accounted for.4 As Cobb and Nelson left the compound, they “heard a lot of noise and commotion coming from within the dormitory.” Lovett later testified that he saw Wynder “jump upon a bunk” and “with what appeared to be a broom handle began smashing the fluorescent light tubes.” Other prisoners allegedly broke the television set, commodes, wash basins, and bunks. Cobb and Nelson returned immediately to assist Lovett. Believing that a major riot had broken out, Cobb unlocked the weapon store as Nelson telephoned for assistance. Meanwhile, two fires had started in different parts of the dormitory. One was quickly extinguished, but the other spread rapidly from the northwest corner when flames were agitated by an exhaust fan. The wooden dormitory building then ignited like a “tinderbox.” Survivors recalled a wall of flames rolling across the ceiling. This was at approximately 9 P.M.. A Timex chrome watch, whose hands had stopped at 9:08, was among the items subsequently recovered from the shower area.5

Nine prisoners were pulled to safety through the chute (a barred metal entrance to the dormitory) after frantic efforts to unlock it, and seven prisoners escaped through a hole in the dormitory wall, which Lovett made with an axe. Nevertheless, “the fire became so intense and heat and smoke so great that the [guard and prisoner] rescuers were driven back.”6 Nearby residents alerted the Jay Fire Department, which in turn summoned help from colleagues within a thirty-mile radius.

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