Two hundred and twenty-six years ago, the Federalists were having trouble getting the states to ratify the new Constitution of the United States. The anti-Federalists, led by Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Patrick Henry, feared the proposed constitution did not adequately protect the individual rights of the common man.
As a result, James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights. The rest is history.
This history is playing out in real time as federal District Court Judge William Barbour must decide whether to order sweeping changes at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility just east of Meridian. The Eighth Amendment of the Bill of Rights bans “cruel and unusual” punishments. The question is whether the mentally ill prisoners at EMCF have been subject to cruel and unusual punishments.
Almost every day for the past five weeks, I attended portions of the trial, which was held in the beautiful Federal Building in downtown Jackson. The sparsely attended trial is now over, and we await the judge’s decision.
As a journalist, the trial offered a motherlode of insights into the Mississippi prison system, one of the biggest items in the state budget at $300 million a year, five percent of total general fund expenditures.
If you had asked me before the trial to rate Mississippi prisons on a scale of one to ten with one being barbaric and 10 being ideal, I would have said a five. Now I would say it’s closer to a one or two.
I listened to a dozen prisoners testify. The horror stories were sickening: rats, roaches, rapes, beatings, solitary confinement for weeks in total darkness, deathly ill patients denied medicines, inedible food, fires in cells to get attention, blood covered cells from suicidal cuttings, locks that are easily defeated allowing gangs to have the run of the prison. Drugs, shanks and other contraband are rife.
There have already been four deaths so far this year.
The prison is managed by a private company, Management and Training Corporation (MTC), which got the job in a no-bid contract signed by former Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) Commissioner Chris Epps.
This is the same company that hired Cecil McCrory, a former state legislator, as a consultant for $120,000 a year. McCrory kicked back over $100,000 to Epps. They are both now in jail for bribery while MTC still runs the prison. Attorney General Jim Hood is currently suing MTC over the affair.
By contract, MTC is supposed to have a certain number of guards staffing the prison. But internal reports presented at the trial show MTC only staffs about half the positions. As a result, MTC is supposed to refund millions of dollars to MDOC, but not a penny has been repaid to the state.
The MDOC contract compliance officer has reported on this non-compliance for years but the reports have been ignored by current MDOC Commissioner Pelicia Hall, according to her testimony.
Meanwhile, the EMCF compliance officer sent email after e-mail to officers at MDOC and MTC complaining that the prison was being run by gangs. Nobody did anything.
How do you explain this? The only logical explanation is gross incompetence or a continuation of the type of corruption that landed Epps and McCrory in jail.
Because states have done a terrible job running prisons, the federal courts have intervened over the last 50 years. Today, over half the nation’s prisoners reside in prisons that are under some type of federal court order.
Just last year, this same story played out in Alabama, where federal judge Myron Thompson issued an emergency decree to change prison practices.
Mississippi spends a 10th as much as other states per prisoner. The chance of the Republicans spending more is nil. If the courts intervene, then the Republicans have an out. They can claim they had no choice and keep their Americans for Prosperity super PAC money. It’s a good deal for everyone.
Locking up the mentally ill and throwing away the key is wrong. As a civilized society we must treat the mentally ill, not terrorize them with solitary confinement in a dark, rat infested cell.
With all due respect to non-believers and other religious groups, Mississippi is still a Christian state. As such, there is one ultimate authority for most of the voters in Mississippi. Jesus Christ was clear about prisoners. What we do to them, we do to him. It would be wise to obey the King of the Universe.
Wyatt Emmerich is president of Emmerich Newspapers, which owns The Columbian-Progress and about 25 other newspapers, mostly in Mississippi. Reach him at wyatt@northsidesun.com.
