‘Plasma was called liquid gold’: the true story of the UK infected blood scandal

Documents examined by inquiry show officials knew people were being given infected blood products, but sanctioned their use

• Read more: government was warned of infected blood risks in 1970s

On a former slave owner’s cotton plantation in Arkansas, the sprawling Cummins state farm prison covers 6,700 hectares (16,500 acres) and can house nearly 1,900 inmates.

It is a working farm with vegetable crops, a dairy and livestock, but for more than two decades its most lucrative product was the blood plasma harvested from the convicts.