Tom Murton facts for kids

Thomas O. Murton (born March 15, 1928 – died October 10, 1990) was a person who studied and worked to improve prisons. He is best known for his time as a warden at prison farms in Arkansas. In 1969, he wrote about the serious problems he found there. This caused a big national discussion. His story was later made into a famous movie called Brubaker.

Who Was Tom Murton?

Early Life and Family

Tom Murton was born in 1928. His parents were E.T. Murton and Bessie Glass Stevens. He was married to Margaret E. Conway. They had four children: Marquita, Teresa, Melanie, and Mark.

Tom Murton passed away from cancer when he was 62 years old. This happened on October 10, 1990, in Oklahoma City. His parents and all four of his children were still alive when he died.

Learning and Ideas About Prisons

Before working in prisons, Tom Murton studied different subjects. In 1950, he earned a degree in animal husbandry from Oklahoma State University. This means he learned about caring for farm animals. Later, he studied mathematics in Alaska.

In 1964, he went to the University of California, Berkeley. There, he earned a Master's degree in criminology. Criminology is the study of crime and how to prevent it. He also worked towards a higher degree called a doctorate. He finished his doctorate after he left the Arkansas prison system.

Tom Murton had strong beliefs about how prisons should work. He thought prisoners should be treated with respect. He believed in stopping physical punishment. He also wanted to make sure prisoners had better food. He worked to stop unfair deals and problems among the prisoners.

He did not believe in the death penalty. He also thought that giving someone a life sentence without any chance of leaving prison was wrong. He once said that if a person knows they will never get out, they will feel hopeless.

Murton's Career

In the 1960s, Tom Murton helped set up the prison system in the new state of Alaska.

Later, he was teaching at Southern Illinois University. In 1968, he was hired to fix the prison system in Arkansas. He wrote a book about his experiences there. The book was called Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal. It was published in 1969.

After writing the book, it became very hard for him to find work in the prison field. He believed he was being blocked from jobs because of what he revealed in Arkansas.

From 1971 to 1979, he taught at the University of Minnesota. In 1980, he stopped teaching full-time. He went back to farming on his mother's farm in Deer Creek, Oklahoma. He grew wheat and raised ducks.

He sometimes taught classes about prisons in the 1980s. He taught at San Jose State University and Chaminade University of Honolulu. In 1985, he was a professor of sociology at Oklahoma State University. He passed away in Deer Creek in 1990.

He wrote two more books about making prisons better. In 1976, he wrote The Dilemma of Prison Reform. In 1985, he published his third book, Crime and Punishment in Arkansas – Adventures in Wonderland.

The Story on Screen and in Song

Brubaker Film

The book Tom Murton wrote with Joe Hyams came out in 1969. In 1980, a movie based on his story was released. It was called Brubaker. The famous actor Robert Redford played the main character, "Warden Henry Brubaker." The movie was very popular and even got an Oscar nomination.

In the movie, the warden pretends to be a prisoner first. This helps him see the prison system from the inside. This part was made up for the movie. But many other dramatic parts of the film came directly from Murton's book.

"Long Line Rider" Song

In 1968, a popular singer named Bobby Darin wrote a song about the Arkansas prison events. The song was called "Long Line Rider." It was on his album Bobby Darin Born Walden Robert Cassotto.

Some of the song's lyrics talked about secrets hidden in the ground at a farm in Arkansas. It also mentioned that "This kind of thing can't happen here, especially not in election year." Bobby Darin was supposed to sing the song on a TV show. But when they told him to remove that line, he refused and left the show.

See also

• Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal