DISCOVER

UPDATE: JAY-Z And Yo Gotti Sue Mississippi Officials over Prison Conditions

By MyReligionIsRapAdmin

Posted on January 15, 2020

My Religion Is Rap was one of the first media outlets to break the story of the 5 inmates who have been killed in Mississippi state prisons over the past few weeks. In that article we highlight the horrendous conditions which exist for inmates but also we touch on the lousy work conditions in place for correctional officers. We also touched on the 2012 case of correctional officer, Catlin Hugh Carithers, 24, who was employed at Adams County Correctional Center near Natchez and was beaten to death after inmates rebelled against how they were being treated and their basic living conditions. Other prison guards were held hostage during the ordeal. Noteworthy, Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield initially told the media that the riot involved a power struggle between two different factions (i.e., gangs) of prisoners. However, an affidavit filed in federal court by an FBI agent in August 2012 stated the riot was a protest by prisoners against poor food, inadequate medical care and alleged mistreatment by staff at the facility. In other words, the real conditions of the prison were being covered up. Adams County Correctional Center is a privately owned prison operated by the Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Read more about that here.

Five inmates have been killed at several prison facilities starting on 12/29/2019 with the death of Terrandance Dobbins, 40, in South Mississippi. Since then, Walter Gates, 25, was killed at Parchman. Gregory Emary, 26, was killed at the Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility. 32-year-old Roosevelt Holliman was also killed at Parchman and Denorris Howell, 36, was killed from a stabbing wound at South Mississippi Correctional Institute in Leakesville yesterday (1/3).

Now, Jay-Z and Yo Gotti and Team Roc are suing Mississippi officials on behalf of 29 inmates over the ongoing inhumane conditions prevalents in these prisons, according to the Clarion-Ledger. The lawsuit alleges that the inmates are being kept in inhumane conditions and are subjected to violence.

The lawsuit reads, in part:

“Individuals held in Mississippi’s prisons are dying because Mississippi has failed to fund its prisons, resulting in prisons where violence reigns because prisons are understaffed. In the past two weeks alone, five men incarcerated in Mississippi have died as the result of prison violence. These deaths are a direct result of Mississippi’s utter disregard for the people it has incarcerated and their constitutional rights.”

Yo Gotti explained to Complex last week,

“The conditions in the prisons operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections are absolutely inhumane and unconstitutional…To see this happen so close to my hometown of Memphis is truly devastating. That’s why we’re calling on Mississippi state leaders to take immediate action and rectify this issue. If they don’t right this wrong, we’re prepared to take legal action to provide relief for those that are incarcerated and their families.”

Catch pictures of the horrendous jail conditions found in Mississippi prisons below.