In yet another example of the harmful consequences of the War on Drugs, violence in Mississippi\u2019s Parchman state prison has left 13 people dead in the last month. And it\u2019s gotten so bad that rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z has brought a lawsuit against Mississippi authorities over their failure to respect the rights of the state\u2019s prisoners.<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn-born rap star is suing the head of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the warden of the state penitentiary at Parchman. The litigation was brought on behalf of 29 prisoners who say the officials have done nothing to stop the violence at the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese deaths are a direct result of Mississippi\u2019s utter disregard for the people it has incarcerated and their constitutional rights,\u201d charges the suit, which was filed on Jan. 14 by Jay-Z\u2019s attorney Alex Spiro at the U.S.\u00a0District Court in Greenville, Mississippi.<\/p>\n
The suit follows a letter dated Jan. 9 that Spiro sent to Hall and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on behalf of Jay-Z (born Shawn Corey Carter) and fellow rapper Yo Gotti (Mario Mims), protesting the \u201cinhumane conditions in prisons operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis unthinkable spate of deaths is the culmination of years of severe understaffing and neglect at Mississippi\u2019s prisons,\u201d the letter stated. \u201cAs Mississippi has incarcerated increasing numbers of people, it has dramatically reduced its funding of prisons. As a result, prison conditions fail to meet even the most basic human rights\u2026 People are forced to live in squalor, with rats that crawl over them as they sleep on the floor, having been denied even a mattress for a cot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jay-Z\u2019s suit names three penitentiary inmates who have been killed this year: Walter Gates, Roosevelt Holliman and Denorris Howell.<\/p>\n
Thirteen incarcerated people have been killed at Parchman and other facilities in the state since Dec. 29, including Terrandance Dobbins at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville and Gregory Emary at Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility. In these facilities, as at Parchman,\u00a0officials admit<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cgangs are at war,\u201d and the situation is out of control.<\/p>\n Although none of the thirteen people killed were doing time on cannabis charges, Holliman was serving a sentence for a cocaine sale among other convictions. However, it is clear that cannabis is a major factor in the crisis of the state\u2019s prisons. Many of the inmates at Parchman are serving time for pot \u2014 including some of those whose families are speaking up for accountability in the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Angela Riley Liggins, whose son Travonta Riley, a 28-year-old father of four, is serving a five-year term for cannabis possession at Parchman, spoke to local\u00a0WLBT<\/a>\u00a0about her concerns for his safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n Liggins said she received a panicked phone call from her son early on the morning of Jan. 3, as the facility was descending into deadly violence. \u201cI have been trying to call back since to see or to check to make sure he\u2019s OK,\u201d said Liggins. \u201cNo one is answering the phone.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Liggins described the harsh conditions at the facility. \u201cIt\u2019s horrible. No one should be treated that way regardless of why they are there, what happened. They are not animals. They are human. They are human beings and no one should be treated as if they are the scum of the earth,\u201d she said. \u201cI fear for my child\u2019s safety there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mississippi has\u00a0some the harshest cannabis laws<\/a>\u00a0in the country. A third conviction for simple possession can land you in jail for up to six months. Selling up to 30 grams (about an ounce) is a felony punishable by up to three years imprisonment, as well as a $3,000 fine. At even simple possession of five kilograms, a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence kicks in.<\/p>\n The situation is exacerbated by Mississippi\u2019s \u201chabitual offender\u201d laws \u2014 the state\u2019s version of the \u201cthree strikes\u201d law that was\u00a0overturned by popular referendum<\/a>\u00a0in California in 2012, where nonviolent offenses are concerned. Under Mississippi law, any of the three strikes can be a cannabis conviction, with absurd sentences of up to 60 years hitting in \u2014 virtual life imprisonment.<\/p>\n A recent investigation by the\u00a0Jackson Free Press<\/a>\u00a0found: \u201cBlack people accounted for 77.5% of those serving habitual sentences for non-violent offenses. The bulk of those serving extreme sentences in Mississippi are behind bars for drug-related charges, including simple marijuana possession.\u201d<\/p>\n In early January, a medical marijuana measure\u00a0officially qualified<\/a>\u00a0for the ballot in Mississippi, which means that the state\u2019s residents will be able to vote in November on whether or not to allow people with qualifying medical conditions to access cannabis. The measure is led by\u00a0Mississippians for Compassionate Care<\/a>\u00a0and does not appear to have any stipulation around releasing pot prisoners or expunging records.<\/p>\n Fortunately, some politicians have started taking note of the crisis in Mississippi\u2019s prisons. On Jan. 7, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson joined with local clergy and advocacy groups including the\u00a0Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0calling upon<\/a>\u00a0the federal Department of Justice to open an immediate investigation into the conditions in Mississippi\u2019s prisons.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a\u00a023-page letter<\/a>\u00a0addressed to Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the DoJ\u00a0Civil Rights Division<\/a>, Thompson and his co-signatories accused\u00a0the state government of abdicating its responsibility to keep prisoners safe from the substantial risk of serious harm. The letter called this a violation of the\u00a0Eighth Amendment<\/a>\u00a0to the U.S. Constitution, which bars \u201ccruel and unusual punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n After a visit to Parchman on Jan. 10, a group of Mississippi state representatives\u00a0issued their own urgent statement<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a 17,000-acre facility at Parchman for 3,400 people. We have people with low-level drug crimes who should be released and getting their lives back together, but instead are locked up,\u201d read the statement from the Mississippi House Democratic Caucus. \u201cLast year, we underfunded the Department of Corrections by $980,000\u2026 This is not a smart answer to this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n The caucus recommended releasing the \u201cover 6,000 of 19,000 people incarcerated\u201d who are eligible for parole, but haven\u2019t been released because of mandatory minimums. It also recommended that the governor use his executive power \u201cto commute the sentences of people who are eligible for parole so we can reduce the overcrowding in our prisons. These are nonviolent offenders and people who are not a threat to the public.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2028TELL US,\u00a0<\/strong>do you think people should be in prison for pot?<\/p>\n The post Jay-Z Sues Mississippi Over Prison Violence Impacting Pot Prisoners<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In yet another example of the harmful consequences of the War on Drugs, violence in Mississippi\u2019s Parchman state prison has left 13 people dead in the last month. And it\u2019s gotten so bad that rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z has brought a lawsuit against Mississippi authorities over their failure to respectContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,120,11568,6350,81,97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40939,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40938\/revisions\/40939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Eighth Amendment Violations\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Jay-Z Sues Mississippi Over Prison Violence Impacting Pot Prisoners<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"