Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter, Mario “Yo Gotti” Mims and Team ROC have obtained legal representation for over 150 inmates and have filed a second civil lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
The suit is asking for courts to order the Mississippi Department of Corrections to address the barbaric prison conditions at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and to create a plan to minimize health and safety risks within 90 days for the inmates.
The environment at Parchman is considered deadly due to their lack of clean water, adequate food, heat, availability of healthcare and more. Inmates have detailed the conditions in the lawsuit:
“Many times, the food is adulterated with rat feces, cockroaches, rocks, bird droppings, and other foreign matter.”
“The toilets routinely back up and flood the prison cells, which allows fecal matter, urine and water to cover the floors and drain out into the housing unit’s common space…the portable water system at Parchman is contaminated with human feces, presumably from the sewer system.”
“Prisoner-on-prisoner violence is rampant, and, at times, is facilitated by corrupt guards seeking to curry favor with inmates. Plaintiffs have witnessed instances where guards have provided cell keys to inmates so they could assault, and sometimes kill, other inmates.”
“[Inmates] insert their own catheters, treat their own stab wounds, vomit up blood, teeter on the verge of diabetic comas, and suffer through seizures without medical care. Even a broken neck can go without treatment at Parchman, with the inmate being left to suffer through his injury while sleeping on exposed, steel bedsprings with no mattress.
The inhumane conditions of the Parchman penitentiary can be seen below.
Internal riots have occurred at Parchman since December 29, 2019, that are sparked by the living conditions. In addition, there have been nine inmate deaths have occurred because of suicides, homicides and miscellaneous cases that have classified as “natural deaths.”
The filing follows a lawsuit from early-January on behalf of 29 inmates against the Mississippi Department of Corrections, which led an investigation into Parchman by the Department of Justice.
