A week of violence in Mississippi prisons has left five inmates dead and many others injured in what authorities are calling “major disturbances”.
In a statement sent to TIME, the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) confirmed that three inmates have been killed at Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm. Another man was killed in Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility in Houston, Miss. and a fifth in South Mississippi Correctional Institute in Leakesville, Miss.
According to the Associated Press the latest victim, 36-year-old Dennoris Howell was stabbed to death at Parchman Farm on Friday morning.
“We are continuing to be vigilant and mindful of the situation,” MDOC Commissioner Pelicia E. Hall said in the statement. “These are trying times for the Mississippi Department of Corrections. It is never a good feeling for a commissioner to receive a call that a life has been lost, especially over senseless acts of violence.”
All prisons across the state are on lockdown, and have been since Sunday. Many inmates at Parchman Farm have been moved to more secure housing units to prevent more violence, according to the MDOC.
The lockdown means that inmates can only move in emergency situations, and that there will not be any visitation this weekend.
Though the MDOC has not provided any further details, Sunflower County Sheriff James Haywood says that the violence is connected to gang disputes in the prisons, according to the AP. (When reached for comment, the Sunflower County Sheriff’s department referred TIME to the MDOC.)
Sunflower County coroner Heather Burton also told The Clarion Ledger that her understanding is that the violence at Parchman Farm is due to “gang related riots.” The situation is “unprecedented,” she added, and “kind of surreal at this point.”
The first murder occurred on Dec. 29 at the South Mississippi Correctional Institute when an inmate, Terradance Dobbins, 40, was killed. Two other inmates were also injured in the incident, the AP said. This death prompted the original lockdown on Sunday.
On New Year’s Eve, Walter Gates, 25, was killed at Parchman Farm in a prison fight that also left other inmates injured. Gates reportedly suffered multiple stab wounds. Then on Jan. 2, a second inmate was killed at Parchman. This inmate has not been identified; he also suffered stab wounds according to the AP.
Also on Jan. 2, Gregory Emary, 26, was killed at Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility. Despite the fatality, Chickasaw County Sheriff Jim Meyers told the AP that they had the situation under control in “three minutes.”
Howell’s death on Jan. 3 brought the week’s grim total to 5.
According to the MDOC, the first four deaths were part of a “major disturbance”. Howell’s death however is apparently unrelated.
The fifth death comes just a few days after Commissioner Hall announced that she will be resigning from her position in mid-January to work in the private sector. According to the Jackson Free Press, Hall will be advocating for “criminal justice reform and to support better wages and working conditions” in her new role.
The Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says prisons in the state have been dealing with deaths for years. This is partly due to the system being understaffed. The Mississippi ACLU is also critical of the way the prison system is run in the state.
“Mississippi has a mass incarceration problem. Dramatic increases in imprisonment over the last 40 years have brought prisons and jails across the state to the breaking point,” Joshua Tom, former Interim Director of the ACLU of Mississippi said in a 2019 press statement.
In the midst of the prison violence this week across the state, a U.S. District judge announced that a private prison in Mississippi is not violating inmates’ rights.
Judge William Barbour ruled against a lawsuit, originally filed in 2013, that alleged the East Mississippi Correctional Facility was violating the rights of prisoners by not providing healthcare, leaving them in solitary confinement for long periods of time and placing them at risk of violence from guards.
“While Plaintiffs and their expert witnesses argue that the environment and healthcare services at the prison could and should be better, those arguments do not establish that the conditions under which they are currently housed, as a class, are cruel and unusual,” Judge Barbour said in his ruling.
