Concerns mount for inmate civil rights

The families of some of the inmates in Mississippi prisons continue to demand answers from the federal government about civil right violations and living conditions for inmates.

Yesterday, demonstrators rallied for prisoner rights outside the state capitol in Jackson.

Concerns continue to mount after five inmates died in state prisons last week and an inmate escaped from Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

A concerned inmate’s wife and Gulfport resident reached out to us about her growing concern for her husband’s civil rights, but overall his life. “What they’ve done to them is, they’ve come in and they strip searched them and made them lay on the ground for two hours then stand up and hold your hands on top of your head for two hours and then they are tearing up their property. Tearing up the property and tore up the sink and so these guys, what they have left is getting torn up. This happened yesterday and today so they’ve cleaned up and they are coming back in and doing the same thing.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups say they believe the violence is ‘directly linked to acute understaffing’ and funding has declined.