Cummins Unit - Composition

Composition

Cummins has about 16,500 acres (6,700 ha) of land.

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. The housing units were racially segregated.

The prison includes the "Free Line," the prison residences for free world employees, including the warden, several prison officials, and their families, prisoners work as house servants in the Free Line. Children living on the prison property are zoned to the Dumas School District.

In the past the main entrance to the prison was at the terminus of a road off of the main highway. The main gate consisted of a wooden structure behind a chicken wire fence, which had barbed wire on top. A trusty shooter manned the main entrance. In past eras, the prison housed a commissary and did not house educational facilities, prison factories, or medical and dental clinics.

The Cummins Unit has an electric fence.

The Cummins/Varner Volunteer Fire Department provides fire services to the Cummins Unit property. The station is inside the Cummins Unit property, along Arkansas Highway 388. In the financial year 2010 the Arkansas Department of Correction spent $81,691 on the fire station.