David Oshinsky, author of "Worse than Slavery", said that the statements regarding the preservation of marriages were "likely" to be correct and the statements regarding the prison sexuality were "probably" not true. Penologists stated that factors that may have contributed to the development of the system were the strength of family ties in rural areas. Parchman was "primarily an agricultural plantation that is a self-contained, sociocultural system functioning much as a culture in and of itself", the emphasis placed on agricultural production, and the small sizes of the camps. The guards in the camps knew the prisoners personally. Because of the lack of records, it was not possible to tell if the conjugal visit program reduced prison sexuality or recidivism.