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Mississippi prisons have been plagued by rampant violence.

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

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Mississippi prisons have been plagued by rampant violence. The Justice Department is finally investigating the 'death trap' conditions.'

Following a string of deaths and prison riots, the Justice Department announced Wednesday that it would investigate some of Mississippi's most notorious correctional facilities.

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Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.

2/7/20
Walking ankle-deep in open sewage, sleeping alongside mice and rats both dead and alive, and living in fear of prison violence that has left at least 15 people dead, inmates at Mississippi state correctional facilities have referred to the prisons as "death traps". As the death toll rises at the state's correctional facilities due to violence and suicide, the Justice Department's civil rights division announced it would step in to investigate the conditions at four state prisons on Wednesday, including the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The federal department will examine whether the Mississippi Department of Corrections adequately protects prisoners from physical harm and whether there is adequate suicide prevention at the Parchman prison, Southern Mississippi Correctional Institute, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, and the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility according to a statement from the Justice Department. The Mississippi state prison system, which has one of the nation's highest incarceration rates, has had recurring problems with violence for years. Low pay and long hours have made it difficult to hire prison guards, leaving many of the correctional facilities understaffed and unequipped to handle the brutality within the prison walls.

In total, at least 15 people have died across the Mississippi state prison system since December 29. Images inside the Parchman correctional facility from the state health department and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting show holes behind toilets and water fountains, roaches and garbage in pipes, and open sewage overflowing into prison cells and bathrooms. Lisa Graybill, the deputy legal director of Southern Poverty Law Center, said the federal government's involvement is long overdue. "Mississippi's prisons have a brutal history rooted in slavery and convict leasing, and it is time for the federal government to step in and do what the Mississippi Department of Corrections has failed to: end the violence and ensure humane living conditions," Graybill said in a statement. Mississipi Governor Tate Reeves publicly called the situation a "catastrophe" and asked the Mississippi Department of Investigations to investigate the Parchman conditions. While the Mississippi Department of Corrections did not announce how long an investigation would take, interim commissioner Tommy Taylor announced it was working with the governor to improve conditions in the meantime.
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It's actually been no secret. Conditions in Mississippi prisons have been horrid at least since the beginning of Reconstruction.

During the mid 20th century, Parchman was infamous for its hundreds of acres of cotton and sugar-cane fields. The state would then profit from the commodities grown and harvested by prison slave labor.
 
Thing is, many Americans have been trained to think that if you end up in prison you deserve all of this, regardless of the offense severity and politicians or people that want to improve the prison system are thought of as being soft on crime and criminals.

The harshness of the American penal system actually is a multiplier effect for crime I believe and it’s counter intuitive.
 
Mississippi is the poorest state in the union.
 
If I have to work to pay for my food and lodging, why doesn't an inmate have to? If the institutions were allowed to charge each inmate (and supply the job to work it off), this problem could be fixed.
Mississippi is so poor, that prisons are going to be badly underfunded and there aren't going to be enough prison guards. This is the type of problem that can only be solved by an infusion of money.
 
Rogue Valley said:
During the mid 20th century, Parchman was infamous for its hundreds of acres of cotton and sugar-cane fields. The state would then profit from the commodities grown and harvested by prison slave labor.
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We need more of this... sent to prison, put them to work. The harder you work and the better your therapy the better your conditions and chances for release.
 
Bodhisattva said:
We need more of this... sent to prison, put them to work. The harder you work and the better your therapy the better your conditions and chances for release.
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Didn't work that way with Mississippi blacks. The more blacks the state incarcerated, the more money it made from free black convict labor (Neoslavery).

Parchman prison (20,000 acres) also leased out convict labor to nearby cotton and sugar-cane plantations. State law allowed whips to be used in the fields.

So there was an economic incentive for imprisoning as many blacks as possible, usually accompanied with falsified charges of breaking prison rules which added to their sentence.

Even you should be able to grasp the inescapable loop of convict labor profiteering.

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer (Winnfield Prison, Louisiana)

Parchman by R. Kim Rushing

Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice by David M. Oshinsky

Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South by Talitha L. LeFlouria
 
Bodhisattva said:
We need more of this... sent to prison, put them to work. The harder you work and the better your therapy the better your conditions and chances for release.
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It was a huge shameful ****up the first time around.
But this time we'll get it right!
 
Rogue Valley said:
Didn't work that way with Mississippi blacks. The more blacks the state incarcerated, the more money it made from free black convict labor (Neoslavery).

Parchman prison (20,000 acres) also leased out convict labor to nearby cotton and sugar-cane plantations. State law allowed whips to be used in the fields.

So there was an economic incentive for imprisoning as many blacks as possible, usually accompanied with falsified charges of breaking prison rules which added to their sentence.

Even you should be able to grasp the inescapable loop of convict labor profiteering.

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer (Winnfield Prison, Louisiana)

Parchman by R. Kim Rushing

Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice by David M. Oshinsky

Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South by Talitha L. LeFlouria
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If the system was set up correctly, with oversight and with consequences for official abuse, the system could work effectively and fairly... you stating how it failed once does not mean that another system would not be a success.
 
Simon W. Moon said:
It was a huge shameful ****up the first time around.
But this time we'll get it right!
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Why not?

The first governments were abusive and totalitarian ... some worked on it and got it right. With your mindset we would still be living under oppression.
 
Bodhisattva said:
Why not?
The first governments were abusive and totalitarian ... some worked on it and got it right. With your mindset we would still be living under oppression.
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We'd be living under oppression because no one ever bothered to form a govt or something?
w/e
Let's put aside your imaginary hypothetical world where people didn't bother to make a govt because govt sucked that one time.
 
Simon W. Moon said:
We'd be living under oppression because no one ever bothered to form a govt or something?
w/e
Let's put aside your imaginary hypothetical world where people didn't bother to make a govt because govt sucked that one time.
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It was an analogy that showed the error of your thinking... all good though. Never mind.
 
Simon W. Moon said:
It was a huge shameful ****up the first time around.
But this time we'll get it right!
Click to expand...

It's nigh impossible to get around the obtuseness of some individuals.
 
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