Feds find ‘severe, systemic’ problems in Mississippi prison
JACKSON, Miss. – A Mississippi prison violated inmates’ constitutional rights by failing to protect them from violence, to meet their mental health needs, to take adequate steps for suicide prevention and by relying too much on prolonged solitary confinement, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday.
DOJ released findings of its two-year investigation of Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The probe started after an outburst of violence in late 2019 and early 2020.
“The problems at Parchman are severe, systemic, and exacerbated by serious deficiencies in staffing and supervision,” DOJ said in its report.
It said the Mississippi Department of Corrections “has been on notice of these deficiencies for years and failed to take reasonable measures to address the violations, due in part to non-functional accountability or quality assurance measures.”
“Years of MDOC’S deliberate indifference has resulted in serious harm and a substantial risk of serious harm to persons confined at Parchman,” DOJ said.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s
civil rights division, said 10 homicides and 12 suicides have occurred among inmates at Parchman since 2019.
DOJ said it found “gross understaffing,” “uncontrolled gang activity” and insufficient security that gave inmates “unfettered access to contraband.”
Clarke said Mississippi officials cooperated with the investigation, and DOJ and the state will work to resolve the problems.
“This marks the first time the Justice Department has concluded that a prison’s use of solitary confinement violates the constitutional rights of people without serious mental illness,” Clarke said.
DOJ has investigated prison conditions in recent years in other states, including Alabama, Texas, South Carolina and Georgia.
It is continuing to investigate conditions at three other Mississippi prisons – South Mississippi Correctional Institution, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.
Violence has been a longstanding problem in Mississippi prisons, where many jobs for guards are unfilled. State Department of Corrections officials say it is hard to fill guard jobs due to low pay, long hours and dangerous conditions. Pay has increased in the past two years.