so a chapel could be built there. In 1972 Arkansas's first prison rodeo was held at the Cummins Unit. In 1974 death row inmates, previously at the Tucker Unit, were moved to the Cummins Unit. In 1976 female inmates were moved from the Cummins Unit to the Pine Bluff Unit. In 1978 a new execution chamber opened at Cummins Unit. In 1983 the Cummins Modular Unit opened. In 1986 death row inmates were moved to the Maximum Security Unit. In 1991 the vocational technology program moved from the Cummins Unit to the Varner Unit. In 2000 Arkansas's first lethal electrified fence, built with inmate labor, opened at the Cummins Unit. A tornado affected the Cummins Unit facility in May 2011. It damaged the dairy facility, the chicken and swine houses, and the employee housing in the Free Line area. The tornado destroyed the prison's three green houses. It also turned over a center pivot irrigation system. In 2020 the prison was affected in the COVID-19 pandemic in Arkansas. According to correctional staff, the administration initially did not wish for correctional staff to wear masks to avoid frightening prisoners. As of April 25, 2020, 33 correctional employees and 800 prisoners had COVID-19. 11 Cummins prisoners had died from COVID-19. Torture In 1968, Tom Murton alleged that three human skeletons found on the farm were the remains of inmates who had been subjected to torture, prompting a publicized investigation which found "a prison hospital served as torture chamber and a doctor as chief tormentor." The revelations included allegations of electrical devices connected to the genitalia of inmates. The Arkansas State Penitentiary System at that time had already been found to have held inmates at the Cummins Unit under conditions rising to the level of unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, in cases tried by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, among others. Composition It is located partially in Auburn Township, and partially in Choctaw Township. Cummins has about of land. Prisoners working the fields are part of the Hoe Squad, and prisoners who refuse work are taken to solitary confinement. A white building is and has been referred to the past as the prison's "barracks". The "telephone-pole" style structure serves as a housing unit for prisoners. The building had eight units. In the past, one was reserved for white trustees, one for black trustees, and others for other prisoners.