East Mississippi prison called 'barbaric'

From [HERE] East Mississippi Correctional Facility, which houses many suffering from mental illness, is a "barbaric" private prison where inmates are beaten, exploited and mistreated by gangs and others, according to litigation filed Thursday.

"The prison is in chaos, with conditions so dangerous — violence, filth, callous denial of prisoners' serious medical and mental health needs — that the only meaningful remedy is an injunction to protect all prisoners," said Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU's National Prison Project.

Officials at the Utah-based Management & Training Corp. said they've made significant improvements since they took over the Meridian prison in July 2012.

"MTC is very concerned about the well-being of the inmates in our care as well as our staff and the community," said Issa Arnita, director of corporate communications. "We have worked hard to identify areas of improvement and we will continue to do so moving forward."

On Thursday, the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center asked the federal court to certify the class of prisoners for the private prison.

If a federal judge steps in, the lawsuit would follow in the steps of class-action litigation brought against the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility and the State Penitentiary's Death Row and Unit 32.

The case needs to go forward as class-action litigation, Winter said. "No single prisoner acting alone can address all the problems for everyone."

This past March and April, former Washington State Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail, an expert for the plaintiffs, inspected the private prison over a period of several days.

"East Mississippi Correctional Facility is an extraordinarily dangerous prison," he concluded in his report. "All prisoners confined there are subjected on a daily basis to significant risk of serious injury."

He visited where some prisoners are kept in segregation, calling their conditions "barbaric," especially to those suffering from mental illness (more than 70 percent of the 1,200 inmates), he wrote. "They are the worst I have ever seen in 35 years as a corrections professional."

He said he found defects in basic security, cell doors that wouldn't lock, a lack of staff training and worse.

"This is a prison awash in contraband and easily accessible weapons, where severely chaotic conditions of confinement and no rational, functional way for prisoners to get legitimate issues addressed, put all prisoners as well as staff at ongoing risk of serious harm," he wrote.

Asked about Vail's allegations, MTC officials responded they have only been "operating the facility for a little over two years, and have made significant improvements in overall safety and security and offender care. It's important to note that the individual who conducted this report is the plaintiff's witness in a lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center against the Mississippi Department of Corrections."

In his report, Vail described "deep and systemic problems" known "at the highest levels of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for a considerable period of time. Those problems were identified and described over two years ago in a letter from the ACLU to Defendant Christopher Epps. MDOC has failed to take reasonable remedial measures and to put in place effective monitoring mechanisms to end the degrading, dangerous, and abusive practices at the facility."

Corrections officials said Thursday they don't respond to matters involving litigation.

Jody Owens, managing attorney for the SPLC's Mississippi office, said he's been horrified by what he's seen.

Two of his attorneys toured the facility, finding such things as blood still standing on the floor of cells. A number of mentally ill inmates there cut themselves.

"No one should be forced to endure the dangerous — and even deadly — conditions found at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility," he told The Clarion-Ledger.

Through this lawsuit, as they have in the past litigation, "we are demanding that the Mississippi Department of Corrections fulfill its legal obligation to end abuse behind prison walls, especially in private prisons," he said.

In his visit, Vail said he found atrocious conditions inside the cells — lights that didn't work, exposed wiring in cells, dysfunctional water faucets and toilets that would not flush.

"One man told me he had not had water in his sink for three weeks," he said. "Another said he had been without water for four or five days. Another told me his toilet had not functioned for two weeks."

A previous complaint against the prison alleged some prisoners captured rats and sold them to others.

Vail said one inmate showed him how he blocked a hole in the wall so rats could not get out, others showed how they blocked the bottom of their cells to keep the rats from getting in and another talked of feeding the rats.

According to the litigation, corruption among staff members is widespread with them involved with gangs, extortion and contraband, smuggling in drugs and weapons in return for payment from prisoners.

The ligitation talks of widespread sex among officers and inmates, a "buddy" system where officers covered up the beatings of inmates by other officers, the corruption of investigators and the rehiring of former employees for excessive use of force.

In November 2012, the president of MTC toured the institution and was quoted as saying "the living conditions were awful."

In his report, Vail wrote, "The corporate president was correct. Conditions in segregation are still awful today. It is tragic that nearly a year and a half later, those units and the showers are still in that condition."

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.

Allegations by ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center

• Blood on the floor, lights that didn't work, exposed wiring in cells, dysfunctional water faucets and toilets that would not flush.

• "A prison awash in contraband and easily accessible weapons."

• Widespread sex among officers and inmates, a "buddy" system where officers covered up the beatings of inmates by other officers, the corruption of investigators and the rehiring of former employees for excessive use of force.