In March of 1970, Jim Guy Tucker went undercover as a prisoner at Cummins Prison Farm. Disguised under the alias of James Gus Turner, with documents describing fictitious crimes, his physical features, and bearing inked copies of every fingerprint, 26 year-old Jim Guy Tucker became incarcerated.
He entered Cummins with roughly $75 dollars on his person under instruction by John Harvey Haley, Chairman of the State Board of Corrections, of bribing his way out of the notoriously corrupt prison. At the time Cummins was operated with an inmate-trustee system controlling much of the paperwork. The trusties approached him with a deal, he paid his money, and was released.
Cummins Prison received national attention. The prison inspired at least two books. The 1980 film Brubaker, starring Robert Redford, was based loosely on Thomas Murton’s 1969 nonfiction book Accomplices to the Crime.