Inside a unit without air conditioning at Mississippi’s largest prison, inmates hang wet sheets from their cell ceilings to dampen the air and lay drenched towels across their bodies. A temporary reprieve comes from scoops of ice handed out twice a day. As punishing heat spreads across the Deep South this summer, inmates in Unit 29 at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman say they are sweltering inside cells where temperatures can easily climb into the triple digits, reports NBC News. The issue drew the scrutiny of the U.S. Justice Department four years ago. Despite efforts to upgrade the only maximum-security prison for men in the state, inmates say the situation has not improved. “It’s hotter inside the cell,” one inmate in his 30s said by phone. “I’d rather be outside on the pavement and no shade. At least you can get a breeze. The heat inside is just stationary.”
Another inmate in his 40s said the showers he’s allowed to take 10 times a month are equally unrelenting.
“They are too hot,” he said. “They will literally scald you.” Before parts of Unit 29 were closed after inmate deaths and rioting in 2020, it held up to 1,500 prisoners, including death row inmates; the entire prison houses about 2,500 inmates. After the deaths and rioting, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division began investigating Parchman and three other prisons in Mississippi to determine whether inmates’ constitutional rights were being violated. Rappers Jay-Z and Yo Gotti helped file lawsuits in support of inmates, alleging “inhumane and dangerous conditions of confinement.” Phone interviews with a correctional officer, a former chaplain and a half-dozen inmates in Unit 29 indicate conditions remain unsanitary and potentially dangerous. “The only thing they did was come in and paint over the mold and the mildew,” said the inmate who complained about the showers. He has been in and out of Parchman over the last decade. MS A report released by the Justice Department in 2022 found constitutional violations at Parchman, including failing to provide adequate mental health treatment and protections against violence.
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