August 28 MISSISSIPPI: ACLU lawyers to inspect Parchman conditionsACLU attorneys to tour Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman The American Civil Liberties Union, which earlier won court-ordered changes on how Mississippi takes care of death-row inmates, is sending its attorneys to the state penitentiary next week to inspect living conditions for nearly 1,000 prisoners. "In death row and throughout Unit 32, we're looking specifically at the issues that were addressed at the district-court level," Gouri Bhat, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project said Thursday. "... We hope to find that MDOC is planning improvements to the prison that will comply with the judge's order." The ACLU sued the Mississippi Department of Corrections last year over conditions on death row. The lawsuit claimed that excessive heat, human excrement, biting insects and the rants of psychotic prisoners had become a detrimental way of life for inmates on death row. U.S. Magistrate Jerry A. Davis, in a ruling last year, agreed that the conditions violated prisoners' Eighth Amendment rights and ordered the state to make improvements. In an appeal, prison officials claimed the conditions cited in the lawsuit were not the source of any inmate's illnesses or physical harm. But on June 28, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a requirement that MDOC improve mental health care for inmates. Bhat said improvements that were ordered included lightning, ventilation and "plumbing problems involving the infamous Ping-Pong toilets where if you flush a toilet in one cell the waste matter comes up in the next cell." MDOC was also ordered to provide the inmates on death row with ice water and daily showers when the heat index tops 90 degrees, Bhat said. "Everything that the court ordered that we had to do, has been done," Leonard Vincent, general counsel for the MDOC, said. "They've got new screens on the windows, they've got all new lighting put in, we're giving them ice three times a day, they put fans in everybody's cell on death row (and) the mental health people have been separated." ACLU staff has not toured the sprawling prison at Parchman since the Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling, Bhat said. Bhat told The Associated Press there are about 60 prisoners on death row but the prison tour on Tuesday will assess the conditions of all of Unit 32. Vincent, however, said the court only ordered that changes be made on death row. "The ACLU had asked that the entire Unit 32 have the exact same things but the 5th Circuit said the rest of 32 wasn't part of this lawsuit," he said. Vincent said new screens and lighting had been installed throughout unit 32 but he said other improvements will not be made unless a court orders it. "It's a punishment unit, they go there because they can't live anywhere else in the Department of Corrections," Vincent said. "They've assaulted somebody or done something that makes them so dangerous they couldn't live with other people... so we think rewarding them with ice on demand and individual fans would not be a correct thing to do." Vincent said MDOC Commissioner Chris Epps had estimated the cost of improvements on death row to be upward of $300,000 while making he same improvements throughout unit 32 would be "astronomical." The ACLU will tour the prison Tuesday afternoon. (source: Associated Press)
