Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has ordered the closing of a “notorious” cellblock at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman where nine inmates have died since December, saying “I've seen enough ... There is no excuse. We can do better.”
In recent weeks, multiple violent deaths and suicides have plagued the lockup where more than two dozen inmates have filed a federal lawsuit against the state, claiming the prison is unsafe, dangerously understaffed and forces inmates to live in unsanitary conditions.
The Parchman cellblock being shuttered is known as Unit 29.
Prison officials have described it as an area of the prison where the most violent inmates are held.
In his 2020 State of the State address on Monday, the newly sworn-in governor called it “the most notorious unit.”
Last week, Reeves toured the facility, which is about 90 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, and holds about 3,600 of the state’s 19,000 inmates. “The problems were infuriating,” he said.
Credit: Rogelio V. Solis
Credit: Rogelio V. Solis
“I have instructed the Mississippi Department of Corrections to begin the necessary work to start closing Parchman’s most notorious unit, Unit 29,” Reeves said. “I've seen enough. We have to turn the page. This is the first step, and I have asked the department to begin the preparations to make it happen safely, justly and quickly.”
Just a day before Reeves' address, the Mississippi Department of Corrections announced the death of yet another Parchman inmate.
Joshua Norman, 26, was found in his cell Sunday in Unit 29, where at least two other inmates have also reportedly been found dead.
In one of those incidents, guards found 49-year-old Thomas Lee in his cell the morning of Jan. 22.
Violent deaths, riots
A few days before Lee’s death, two other Parchman inmates were reportedly beaten to death in separate incidents, according to officials.
The slayings appeared to be “an isolated incident — not a continuation of the recent retaliatory killings,” prison officials said in a statement Tuesday.
A statewide prison lockdown was ordered Dec. 29 after a brawl at South Mississippi Correctional Institution left one inmate dead and two others injured. By Jan. 3, four additional inmates had been killed and several others injured as outbreaks of violence continued at the Parchman facility, according to reports.
FOX13 News in Memphis reported the riots may have started as a turf war between factions of the Vice Lords and the Gangster Disciples, two notorious street gangs.
There were also two other deaths unrelated to the violence, according to prison officials.
In one of those cases, an inmate reportedly died of natural causes, and another was found in his cell on or about Jan. 18, according to Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton. The names of the slaying victims have not been released.
Federal lawsuit filed
On Jan. 14, more than two dozen inmates at Parchman filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Mississippi, claiming the prison was dangerously understaffed and plagued by violence.
The suit, filed on the same day as Reeves’ inauguration, was backed by hip-hop heavyweights Jay-Z and Yo Gotti, who also wrote a letter to then-Gov. Phil Bryant and Mississippi prison officials protesting the conditions at the prison and demanding change.
The lawsuit alleges Parchman forces inmates to live in squalor and deplorable conditions.
The inmates claim the facility is vexed by rats, flooding, sewage and black mold, and that their jail cells go without running water and electricity for days.
According to CNN, the state Department of Health environmental administrator Rayford Horton issued a report last June about the conditions at Parchman and highlighted several serious issues within Unit 29.
The unit's kitchen, for instance, had a missing soap dispenser, stopped-up garbage disposal, milk and food with no expiration dates, a fly trap "covered with flies," a ceiling leaking above a dishwasher and food that needed to be removed from a moldy, 75-degree cooler.
A mass protest was held last Friday in front of the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson to call attention to conditions at the prison.
Credit: Rogelio V. Solis
Credit: Rogelio V. Solis
Federal authorities in Mississippi said they were aware of the problems and said possible civil rights violations or criminal activity should be reported as their investigation continues.
On Monday, Reeves also announced that a team of experts is searching for the next leader of the corrections department after last month's resignation of Pelicia E. Hall, the department's former commissioner.
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