Inside the sole unit without air conditioning at Mississippi’s largest prison, inmates hang wet sheets from their cell ceilings to dampen the air and lay drenched towels strategically across their bodies.
A temporary reprieve comes from scoops of ice handed out twice a day.
As punishing heat spreads across the Deep South this summer, inmates in Unit 29 at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman say they are sweltering inside cells where temperatures can easily climb into the triple digits.
The issue drew the scrutiny of the U.S. Justice Department four years ago, but despite efforts to upgrade the only maximum-security prison for men in the state, inmates say the situation has not improved.
“It’s hotter inside the cell,” one inmate in his 30s said by phone recently. “I’d rather be outside on the pavement and no shade. At least you can get a breeze. The heat inside is just stationary.”
Another inmate in his 40s said the showers he’s allowed to take about 10 times a month are equally unrelenting.
“They are too hot,” he said. “They will literally scald you.”
Before parts of Unit 29 were closed following a spate of inmate deaths and rioting in 2020, it held up to 1,500 prisoners, including death row inmates; the entire prison currently houses about 2,500 inmates.
After the deaths and rioting, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division began investigating Parchman and three other prisons in Mississippi to determine whether inmates’ constitutional rights were being violated. The investigation is ongoing.
Rappers Jay-Z and Yo Gotti helped to file lawsuits in support of inmates in the state prison system, alleging “inhumane and dangerous conditions of confinement.”
Phone interviews in recent weeks with a correctional officer, a former chaplain and a half-dozen inmates in Unit 29 indicate conditions remain unsanitary and potentially dangerous. The inmates and the correctional officer were granted anonymity because they feared retaliation.
“The only thing they did was come in and paint over the mold and the mildew,” said the inmate who complained about the showers. He has been in and out of Parchman over the last decade, including for the past two years.
A report released by the Justice Department in 2022 found constitutional violations at Parchman, including failing to provide adequate mental health treatment and protections against violence.
It also contained recommendations for the prison, such as conducting and documenting cell inspections, initiating a staffing study and providing mental health screenings for inmates.
Mississippi began installing air conditioning in some units at Parchman, but not all of them, including Unit 29, because funding ran out, said Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain. He estimated in 2022 that it would cost $650,000 to install air conditioning at Parchman alone.
While federal investigators said they did not focus on inmates’ allegations of “unlivable and unsanitary conditions throughout Parchman,” they noted “egregious environmental conditions” in solitary confinement that could affect inmates’ mental health, according to the report. That included leaking water, “pervasive” mold and inoperable exhaust fans contributing to “poor ventilation and extreme heat.”
“Documentation produced by MDOC confirms numerous reports from incarcerated individuals of extreme heat in Parchman’s restrictive housing units,” some of which are within Unit 29, investigators said in the Justice Department report.
Temperature logs from Unit 29 indicated “temperatures over 100 degrees every day during the timeframe of reported complaints,” the report stated, with the highest temperature recorded “at the dangerously hot 145.1 degrees.”
Neither the Mississippi Department of Corrections nor the Mississippi State Penitentiary superintendent responded to requests for comment. It remained unclear how severe the temperatures inside Unit 29 have been this summer.
Justice Department officials did not say whether the state is abiding by its recommendations, but indicated the investigation is ongoing.
The Department of Corrections said in July that it had no timetable for installing air conditioning in Unit 29, but that water, ice and industrial floor fans were being utilized, Mississippi Today reported.
Inmates who spoke with NBC News said ice availability can be irregular, water from their sinks has appeared discolored and fans and ventilation are covered in filth.
“It’s so thick with mold, you can snap it,” an inmate in his 30s said about the fans and ventilation.
He said the extreme heat has led to tension among prisoners in Unit 29 and can be frightening for those like himself with asthma and breathing issues. On top of the stifling temperatures, the inmate and others described receiving their meals on trays with black mold, corroded ceilings and walls, and enduring mice, mosquitoes and other insects year-round.
“If you want us to do better, you have to treat us better,” the inmate said. “If you want to treat us like animals, then we’re going to act like animals.”
A 2019 state health inspection report found hundreds of cells with violations at Mississippi State Penitentiary, ranging from inoperable toilets and sinks to missing pillows, mattresses and lighting.
After lawsuits were filed in 2020 on behalf of inmates at Parchman, some documented changes were made, including air conditioning and plumbing upgrades, providing recreational activities for inmates and two functioning ambulances for the prison’s medical center.
Given those improvements, Team Roc, the social justice arm of Jay-Z’s entertainment company, which helped inmates file the lawsuits, agreed in January 2023 to dismiss the claims against the state without prejudice, but warned that the suit could be refiled if conditions backslide. The plaintiffs’ lawyers, Jordan Siev of Reed Smith LLP in New York and Marcy Croft of MJ Legal in Mississippi, said last week that the issues with air conditioning “reinforce that more work is needed” and are supporting the Justice Department’s continued involvement.
One longtime correctional officer said workers and inmates in Unit 29 are still suffering, and while some employee salaries have increased in recent years, staffing shortages have led to a depletion in morale.
“It really hasn’t improved,” the correctional officer said. “It’s miserable going to work, and it feels like 200-something degrees.”
When Republican Gov. Tate Reeves took office in 2020, he promised to shut the unit and “make it happen safely, justly and quickly.”
About two-thirds of Unit 29 was kept open and renovated after the rioting.
A Democratic-sponsored bill this year proposed closing most of Parchman, which opened in 1901, over four years and moving prisoners to another facility. The bill failed to advance during the legislative session, and it was unclear whether it would be revived.
State Rep. Otis Anthony, a Democrat whose district includes Parchman, toured the prison in June with Cain, who pointed out improvements and new leadership. But they didn’t visit Unit 29.
“The facilities have improved from the units that we’ve seen,” Anthony said last week. “But if they need to have air conditioning, they ought to have air conditioning. These are human lives, regardless of what they’ve done.”
At least 13 states in the South and Midwest lack universal air conditioning in their prisons, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy nonprofit.
A hearing was held last week in federal court in Texas over an inmate’s lawsuit accusing the state of cruel and unusual punishment for not providing air conditioning and seeking to ensure its availability in all state prisons. Heat-related prison deaths in Texas rose from 2001 to 2019 and may be attributable to extreme heat days, according to researchers at Boston, Brown and Harvard universities.
Lawmakers in Texas and other states without universal air conditioning have balked at the cost of installing it. But experts say climate change will only make the problem worse as the U.S. faces more extreme weather and heat.
At Parchman, inmates said heat is but one factor that leaves them feeling forgotten.
Nicole Montagano, the founder of advocacy group Hope Dealers Prison Reform, said she regularly receives photos and videos showing the poor conditions inside Unit 29, and inmates often complain they are unable to access educational and treatment programs or are worried about their mental health and safety.
She said she spoke with an inmate who survived a suicide attempt in January, and he told her he never considered taking his own life until he was housed at Unit 29.
“The deplorable living conditions, lack of adequate medical and mental health care, and the inhumane treatment of incarcerated individuals represent a profound violation of basic human rights and dignity,” Montagano said. “The promised reforms remain largely unfulfilled.”
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