Feb. 28 (UPI) — Three Mississippi prisons, housing 7,200 people, are failing to protect inmates from widespread physical violence, in violation of their 8th and 14th Amendments, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
“People living in prisons and jails have a constitutional right to safe and adequate living conditions,” said Acting Associate General Benjamin Mizer. “Our investigation uncovered that people in these three facilities were subjected to violent and unsafe conditions, in violation of the Constitution.”
In a 60-page report, released Wednesday, the department found the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, South Mississippi Correctional Institution and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility lacked adequate living conditions and failed to supervise the inmates, investigate incidents of serious harm and control the flow of contraband.
“Every state is constitutionally obligated to protect the people it incarcerates from known, pervasive and deliberately unchecked violence, and to house people in conditions that do not pose a serious risk of physical and psychological harm,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Our work makes clear that people do not abandon their civil and constitutional rights at the jailhouse door,” Clarke added.
Wednesday’s announcement follows the department’s April 2022 report that found the Mississippi State Penitentiary, also called Parchment, provided insufficient access to mental health treatment for severe conditions, neglected anti-suicide protections and failed to prevent inmate-on-inmate violence.
The department began investigating Mississippi prisons after a series of violent incidents in 2019 and 2020 that left nine inmates dead.
“By allowing physical violence, illegal gang activity and contraband to run rampant, Mississippi not only violates the rights of people incarcerated at these facilities, but also compromises the legitimacy of law enforcement efforts to protect our communities,” U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner for the Northern District of Mississippi said in response to Wednesday’s report.
According to the Justice Department, violence and poor living conditions at the Mississippi prisons are a violation of inmates’ Constitutional rights, including the 8th Amendment — which guarantees against cruel and unusual punishments — and the 14th Amendment — which guarantees the equal protection of laws.
“The minimum remedial measures outlined in this report create the framework for what the state must do to reasonably protect people in these facilities from violence and prevent deprivation of fundamental physical and psychological needs,” said U.S. Attorney Todd Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi.
“While this report makes clear that there is much work for the state to do, we are committed to working with state officials to ensure that Mississippi abides by its constitutional obligations.”
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