{"id":804644,"date":"2020-02-26T15:19:49","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T22:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=958550"},"modified":"2020-02-26T15:19:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T22:19:49","slug":"jay-z-yo-gotti-file-second-lawsuit-against-mississippi-corrections-officials-over-prison-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/jay-z-yo-gotti-file-second-lawsuit-against-mississippi-corrections-officials-over-prison-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay-Z, Yo Gotti File Second Lawsuit Against Mississippi Corrections Officials Over Prison Conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/JAYZYGOTTI.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/jay-z\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jay-z\" data-tag=\"jay-z\">Jay-Z<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/yo-gotti\/\" id=\"auto-tag_yo-gotti\" data-tag=\"yo-gotti\">Yo Gotti<\/a> and Team ROC, the philanthropic wing of Roc Nation, have filed a second civil lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections on behalf of 152 more inmates allegedly suffering from inhumane conditions at Parchman prison. The new suit follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/yo-gotti-jay-z-sue-mississippi-officials-prison-conditions-937891\/\">similar one filed in January<\/a> on behalf of 29 inmates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The suit is packed with an array of harrowing allegations and claims that a lack of staffing and funding over the years has caused \u201cprisoners to endure abhorrent conditions, abuse and constant violence, inadequate health care and mental health care, and overuse of isolation.\u201d It continues: \u201cThe conditions of confinement at Parchman are so barbaric, the deprivation of health and mental health care so extreme, and the defects in security so severe, that the people confined at Parchman live a miserable and hopeless existence confronted daily by imminent risk of substantial harm in violation of their rights under the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Along with filing the new suit, Roc Nation released a chilling 20-minute documentary that includes disturbing, never-before-seen footage from inside Parchman, as well as commentary from the families of inmates alongside activists and politicians.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hD7NlQ_AtEY?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The suit claims staff shortages, incompetency and corruption are at the core of many of the problems at Parchman. The suit states there\u2019s one guard (who\u2019s often female) for every 160 inmates, which allows prisoner-on-prisoner violence to flourish, and notes that nine inmates have died at Parchman this year, putting Parchman well on \u201cpace to break its morbidly shameful record of annual inmate deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On top of the violence, the living conditions at Parchman are reportedly \u201cabhorrent\u201d and \u201cmedieval.\u201d The suit states that cells often lack power and water, and they frequently flood from both rainwater and broken toilets, filling spaces with sewage that further leaks out into common spaces. Additionally, the potable water system at Parchman is allegedly contaminated with feces and the food is often dried, spoiled or \u201cadulterated with rat feces, cockroaches, rocks, bird droppings, and other foreign matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Inmates seeking health services, the suit claims, are rarely able to obtain any help. The process to see a doctor requires filling out a \u201csick call\u201d request form, which isn\u2019t readily available, and can only be submitted by guards, nurses, or floor walkers. If a request form is submitted, it can then take weeks for an inmate to receive a response. And if they are able to see a doctor, the suit notes that a visit to the medical clinic costs $40, \u201cfar more than the average insurance copay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the suit claims that inmates will \u201cinsert their own catheters, treat their own stab wounds, vomit up blood, teeter on the verge of diabetic comas, and suffer through seizures without medical care. Even a broken neck can go without treatment at Parchman, with the inmate being left to suffer through his injury while sleeping on exposed, steel bedsprings with no mattress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Mental health care at Parchman, the suit alleges, \u201cis virtually nonexistent.\u201d There\u2019s \u201cno legitimate mental health screening program for inmates\u201d or treatment options for previously-diagnosed inmates. Suicidal inmates are allegedly ignored, and the suit claims that one inmate who died this year, Thomas Lee, hung himself after \u201cpleading with a guard to help him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Per a statement from Roc Nation, the first suit that Jay-Z, Yo Gotti and Team ROC filed helped pave the way for a Department of Justice investigation into the conditions at Parchman. The DOJ did not immediately return <i>Rolling Stone<\/i>\u2019s request for comment about the status of the investigation. A rep for the Mississippi DOC declined <i>Rolling Stone<\/i>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/jay-z-yo-gotti-team-roc-mississippi-prison-conditions-lawsuit-958550\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jay-Z, Yo Gotti and Team ROC, the philanthropic wing of Roc Nation, have filed a second civil lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections on behalf of 152 more inmates allegedly suffering from inhumane conditions at Parchman prison. The new suit follows a similar one filed in January on behalf of 29 inmates. The suit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-21 14:21:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}