{"id":610632,"date":"2024-02-28T23:07:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T20:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/3-mississippi-prisons-violated-constitution-with-violence-poor-conditions-doj\/"},"modified":"2024-02-28T23:07:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T20:07:33","slug":"3-mississippi-prisons-violated-constitution-with-violence-poor-conditions-doj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/3-mississippi-prisons-violated-constitution-with-violence-poor-conditions-doj\/","title":{"rendered":"#3 Mississippi prisons violated Constitution with violence, poor conditions: DOJ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/AP24059632115229-e1709149255956.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Justice Department (DOJ) found three prisons in Mississippi violated the Constitution, citing violence, poor conditions and staffing shortages, per a new report.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division and the Mississippi United States Attorney\u2019s Office released a\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/d9\/2024-02\/2024.02.26_ms_doc_findings_report_it_508_reviewed_0.pdf\">60-page report<\/a>\u00a0of an investigation into the\u00a0Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, South Mississippi Correctional Institution and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>The report found conditions at that the three prisons violate the 8th Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment, and the 14th Amendment, which requires incarcerated populations to be treated with equal protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur investigation uncovered chronic, systemic deficiencies that create and perpetuate violent and unsafe environments for people incarcerated at these three Mississippi facilities,\u201d Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> for the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe unconstitutional conditions in Mississippi\u2019s prisons have existed for far too long, and we hope that this announcement marks a turning point towards implementing sound, evidence-based solutions to these entrenched problems,\u201d Clarke wrote.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) has failed to protect its incarcerated population from rampant violence.<\/p>\n<p>Between September 2020 and June 2022, there were at least 325 assaults or fights between individuals at Central Mississippi. Twenty-three of the incidents resulted in injuries that required those involved to receive outside hospitalization, the report found.<\/p>\n<p>South Mississippi reported nearly 100 assaults or fights, 40 of which required outside hospitalization, between June 2020 and June 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>At Wilkinson, more than 150 assaults or fights were reported between November 2020 and June 2022. <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>roximately 20 percent of those incidents required outside hospitalization, according to the DOJ.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn light of the large number of documented assaults at Central Mississippi, South Mississippi, and Wilkinson, MDOC officials cannot claim ignorance of the substantial threat of violence at these facilities,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n<p>The report was able to use security video footage to back up its findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>In one incident at Central Mississippi, an incarcerated person died of blunt force trauma to the head following a fight. Camera footage showed an assailant attacking the victim at 3:41 a.m. CST. Several hours later, a different assailant attacked the victim. <\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until 8:45 a.m. CST that an officer learned about the victim and called for medical help. It took 20 minutes for such help to arrive, and the victim ended up dying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople living in prisons and jails have a constitutional right to safe and adequate living conditions,\u201d said Benjamin C. Mizer, acting associate attorney general. \u201cOur investigation uncovered that people in these three facilities were subjected to violent and unsafe conditions, in violation of the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>The violence has also been sexual, according to the findings.<\/p>\n<p>The Prison Rape Elimination Act Manager for Central Mississippi estimated receiving between 20-25 complaints per month. In one case, an individual was transferred to South Mississippi after alleging sexual assault at Central Mississippi.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Though the individual reported he had asked for protective custody because of his previous assaults, South Mississippi administrators denied his request. Administrators housed the victim in the general population with gang members and he was assaulted once again, per the report.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Gangs are a major issue in maintaining the safety of those incarcerated in the three prisons, the department found.<\/p>\n<p>As of May 2022, 20 percent of the population at Central Mississippi is affiliated with a gang. Between July 2020 and November 2021, verified gang members in the South Mississippi population ranged from a high of 40 percent of the monthly population to a low of 10 percent. At Wilkinson, gang affiliation is estimated to be between 35 percent and 65 percent of the population.<\/p>\n<p>The report attributes low staffing as part of the reason gangs have been able to subvert prison authority, and now they hold an \u201cimproper\u201d amount of control. There have been times when MDOC has incarcerated people provide supervision of small, low-occupancy units because there are not enough officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Central Mississippi and Wilkinson have also subjected individuals to prolonged restrictive housing, or solitary confinement. The unsanitary and low supervision of these cells placed the individuals at \u201csubstantial risk\u201d of serious physical and psychological harm, DOJ found.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are breeding grounds for suicide, self-inflicted injury, fires, and assaults,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2019, there have been five suicides at Central Mississippi and Wilkinson that occurred within restrictive housing. Both of the men who died at the facility had serious mental\u00a0illnesses that made confining them to restrictive housing particularly dangerous, the report found.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cEnsuring constitutional and humane conditions of confinement in our prisons is a key part of public safety,\u201d U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner, for the Northern District of Mississippi, said. \u201cBy 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>MDOC did not im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely respond to The Hill\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s findings follow an April 2022 report of conditions at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, which found the facility also violated the constitutional rights of the incarcerated by subjecting them to violence, failing to provide adequate care for serious mental health needs or adequate suicide prevention measures and using prolonged restrictive housing in a manner that poses a risk of serious harm.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ is now urging the facilities to engage in new hiring practices, such as establishing competitive base starting salaries and benefits packages for correctional officers as hiring incentives; banning the use of incarcerated people for security observations; and recommending that all staff who investigate sexual abuse allegations receive specialized training, which would include techniques for interviewing sexual abuse victims.<\/p>\n<p>They also recommended that incarcerated persons in restrictive housing have access to medical and mental health care \u2014 especially if a prisoner begins to show signs of decompensation in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee, for the Southern District of Mississippi, said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/race-politics\/4494985-3-mississippi-prisons-violated-constitution-with-poor-conditions-doj\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Justice Department (DOJ) found three prisons in Mississippi violated the Constitution, citing violence, poor conditions and staffing shortages, per a new report. The DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division and the Mississippi United States Attorney\u2019s Office released a\u00a060-page report\u00a0of an investigation into the\u00a0Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, South Mississippi Correctional Institution and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":610633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/AP24059632115229-e1709149255956.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134344,135369,117,148998,148999,149000,134353,134562,149001,74215,71525,143551,149002,76751,42873,149003],"class_list":["post-610632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-administration","tag-biden-administration","tag-business","tag-central-mississippi-correctional-facility","tag-civil-rights-division","tag-constitutional-rights","tag-court-battles","tag-doj","tag-mdoc","tag-mississippi","tag-national-security","tag-race-politics","tag-southern-mississippi-correctional-institution","tag-sustainability","tag-white-house","tag-wilkinson-county-correctional-facility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}