The Justice Department issued a scathing report and statement on the Hinds County Detention Center at Raymond and Jackson that is posted below.
Note: Here is a video tour of the jail JJ posted in 2012. Go to 10:00 of video. See the ceiling? Its the same as the ceiling in a regular office. That is the regular ceiling in the pods. A metal ceiling was installed in Pod C during its renovation.
Justice Department Finds That Hinds County, Mississippi, Fails to Protect Prisoners from Harm and Detains Prisoners Beyond Court-Ordered Release Dates
Today, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced that it has completed its investigation of the Hinds County Adult Detention Center and the Jackson City Detention Center and issued a letter of findings that determined that Hinds County, Mississippi, violates prisoners’ constitutional rights at both jail facilities. The department found that the jail facilities fail to protect prisoners from violence by other prisoners and from improper use of force by staff. The department also found that the jail facilities detain prisoners beyond court-ordered release dates.
Systemic deficiencies contribute to serious harm and risk of harm at the jail facilities. In the past three years, at least three major riots occurred, resulting in one prisoner’s death and the closing of entire housing units. The department also documented rampant prisoner-on-prisoner violence, including an additional prisoner-on-prisoner homicide and a remarkable volume of contraband. The department found systemic deficiencies in staffing; policies and training; security and classification procedures; physical plant and maintenance; contraband control; and administrative review and other accountability measures to prevent, detect and investigate improper uses of force.
The department found that in an effort to address staffing and security concerns, Hinds County has locked down and otherwise improperly housed prisoners—severely limiting or eliminating access to treatment, education, exercise and visitation. The department noted that juvenile prisoners and prisoners with mental illness are acutely harmed by the lockdowns. One prisoner, who could neither speak nor hear, had been living in a cramped, dark booking cell with a reeking toilet for nearly three years.
The department also found that inadequate staffing and training, a backlog in record filing, and a lack of centralized information have resulted in prisoners being held beyond court-ordered release dates. The delays, most of which were between one and ten days, arose in a variety of circumstances, including after judges ordered prisoners released for lack of probable cause, for lack of prosecution, after adjudication of a guilty plea, and after requisite contempt fines had been paid. The longest period of over-detention—70 days—was for a 13-year-old middle school student, who was held a total of 173 days at the jail facilities without an indictment. The department also voiced concern that delays in indicting prisoners, obtaining forensic mental health review, and bringing cases to trial may lead to unnecessary and prolonged incarceration, draining much-needed resources from the jail facilities.
“Hinds County Adult Detention Center and the Jackson City Detention Center are facilities in crisis,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “Making these facilities safe will require broad systemic reforms and a local commitment to improve staffing and operations. The jail facilities play an integral part in the county’s criminal justice system, and it will take cooperation between everyone involved to make the changes needed. The Civil Rights Division looks forward to working with county officials to bring these facilities into compliance with constitutional standards.”
“The Hinds County detention facilities have an obligation to provide conditions of confinement that do not offend the Constitution,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis of the Southern District of Mississippi. “This office will work with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to address and remedy the violations revealed by the investigation.”
The department’s investigation involved in-depth review and analysis of documents, including policies and procedures, incident reports, grievances, legal complaints and grand jury inspection reports. The department also interviewed jail administrators, staff, prisoners, county officials and various criminal justice stakeholders.
The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) authorizes the department to seek a remedy for a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the constitutional rights of persons confined in a jail, prison or other correctional facility. The Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit pursuant to CRIPA forty-nine days after issuance of the findings letter to correct deficiencies identified in the letter if county officials have not satisfactorily addressed the concerns.
The department commends county officials and jail facilities staff for their cooperation and receptivity to the department’s concerns and looks forward to continuing to work with them in a collaborative manner to resolve the department’s findings expeditiously and under mutually agreeable terms.
Kingfish note: Who can forget this escape artist?
19 comments:
After reading through the 29 page report, it is remarkable that there have not been more fatalities. Anyone that is detained in Hinds County is at risk of loosing their life. A misdemeanor charge could result in death or injury. The jail is primarily the Sheriff's responsibility. It is time for a new sheriff.
Kind of funny that Mac ran this jail for over 20 years without all of these problems, escapes, riots, and building destruction. This jail was designed to be a supervised facility by qualified people with a lick of sense. Also, JD McAdory and Mac ran the downtown jail for over 30 years without a bit of trouble and none of the windows being knocked out. Yeah, must be the building, can't be the personnel.
"Kind of funny that Mac ran this jail for over 20 years without all of these problems, escapes, riots, and building destruction."
Or was nobody looking?
the construction of the jail has been an issue from day one....thank benny thompson and his friends for that...no matter the sheriff, the jail is a hell hole
Don't worry, Deputy Dan Aykrod will fix it.
Minority built and minority run; this is what DOJ wanted and made happen.
Elect a more competent Sheriif , this administration has the Obama blame game syndrome. That man had an excuse for everything. Get new supes to address this and work with the new admin and hopefully be DA.
@9:06 pm that is the whole problem
That any of you think that the jail hasn't had problems until recently either didn't read the report or can't understand what you read.
If you want to attach blame you start at the beginning when the proposal has to be for well designed jail. Every detail of construction including the quality of materials to be used has to be included. The architect has to be competent and able to design a functioning jail meeting those requirements. Who determined the requirements and who hired the architect?
The contractor isn't going to build anything other than what is minimally required of them in the contract.
Who decided initially what the funding would be to run the jail and the qualifications/training of those hired to run the jail?
The Sheriff at the time, should, first of all, known in detail what a first rate jail needed to look like or find out! If, going forward, others refused to meet those requirement or hire those who could not implement those requirements, the Sheriff should have been screaming to high heaven in the media!
So then you have to hire and retain competent people to manage an unmanageable jail. Ain't going to happen as those managing prisoners find themselves at risk.
Now let's get to funding all of this.
How many of you " I don't want to pay any taxes but I want government to run efficiently" have some responsibility?
You all seem to want a new Lexus for the cost of a beat up used Ford! And, you certainly don't want to be bothered with learning the details of any issue or proposal that you pay for with your tax dollars! You're going to vote for a personable guy like Mac without any notion of whether or not he can or will do his homework in all areas of his responsibility, not just trying to " catch the thugs".
And, NOW, you are outraged?
Your horses left the barn because you forgot it needed a door that could be closed and good fencing around it!
Is the same Shearuff who appears elsewhere on this blogsite in a paid political add, wearing a fedora, posing with Dan Akroyd. All that's missing is a gold tooth and the hood ornament of a Mercedes in the background.
If I'm unfortunate enough in my behavior and unwise enough in my choices....that I get thrown in the overnight pokey, please take me to Madison County so that I may live to see a jury.
This DOJ report is very clear the horrific problems at our jails began three years ago.
Kingfish, in January 2012 you reported how incoming Sheriff Tyrone Lewis immediately threw out former Sheriff McMillin's jail management policies and created this whole sickening disaster:
"One observation I made yesterday was Sheriff Lewis "broke out" the corrections division. It now has its own policy and personnel manuals and is a separate division. The Sheriff said corrections is "governed in a totally different manner" and will be under a different set of rules. Sheriff Lewis said an audit of the entire department was initiated yesterday." - Jackson Jambalaya, January 4, 2012
9:06, you are so wrong. I sat through a lot of the litigation after the jail was built. Major contracting companies from here in Jackson built the jail, but they used residential materials. That's right, the same material that was used to build your house was also used to build the jail in Raymond. Also, McMillian changed the plans from the original blueprint numerous times at great expense to the county and without authorization from the county. Although, I do agree that the jail is being improperly run (the sheriff fired the people who knew how to run it), the blame for the building does not fall into the hands of the now sheriff.
10:06; Nobody claimed the current high sheriff built the jail. But, he and Robert Graham ARE responsible for maintenance, oversight, correction of problems and improvements. Will you deny that?
This is a sad position for Hinds County, The Sheriff's Office and the citizens. In essence, the Federal Government has a set of rules you go by to run a jail. Those were in place and working at HCSO prior to the Lewis administration. The building was a lemon but jail management was functioning and inmates were not killing each other. Lewis doesn't have a clue what he is doing. His term in office will be cited in many textbooks in the future as "what not to do when you are a sheriff". Who would have ever thought that the first sheriff of color would be cited for violating civil rights?
I firmly believe that Lewis thought if he let the inmates tear up the jail a good jail fairy would come build a new one.
10:30, you are absolutely correct and unfortunately, there are some county supervisors that believe the same thing.
I remember of inmates getting killed while Mc was Sheriff. I also remember the county having to pay millions on one inmate who had his back broken and can no longer walk. if I remember right the doors were blamed on this incident and that was in 2010.
The downtown Jackson Detention Center operated for about 30 years with no problems until the great Tyrone took over. Now we've got all of the windows busted out and escapes every week. Guess it was built wrong too.
Holy shit.
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