The lawsuit claims that the prison meant for inmates suffering from severe mental illnesses is infested with rats and rats are sold by inmates to each other as pets. The prisoners live without working lights or toilets and have to defecate on Styrofoam trays or trash bags.
The 83-page complaint mentioned that the prison, which is privately run by Utah-based Management & Training Corporation, witnesses regular rapes, robbery and riots, while inmates are refused access to psychiatric care and medication.
The lawsuit mentions an incident of some prisoners setting fires to themselves in a desperate attempt to get medical attention, and observes the prison "is an extremely dangerous facility operating in a perpetual state of crisis."
Gabriel B. Eber, staff counsel for the ACLU's National Prison Project, said, "I've been in prisons all around the country, and this is the worst I've ever seen."
Conditions are so dismal that rats are used as currency among the inmates.
The East Mississippi Correctional Facility houses 1,500 mentally ill inmates under control of the Utah-based private contractor running the facility. However, according to the lawsuit, the private contractor had taken over management of the prison only last year, while the conditions have prevailed for years with state officials being fully aware of the situation.
The private contractor, which has recently started work, was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit by the civil rights group which held state officials and the state system accountable. The spokesman of the private contractor, Issa Arnita said the contractor has been "working very hard to improve the conditions and made a lot of progress over these past 10 months."
