More than 150 inmates are suing the Mississippi Department of Corrections, citing “barbaric” and horrific conditions at the state’s prisons.
Specifically, rappers Yo Gotti and Jay-Z have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 152 individuals, with the focus being on the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary, commonly known as the Parchman prison, where at least 10 individuals have died since the start of the new year.
CNN obtained a copy of the press release from Team Roc, the philanthropic arm of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, which accuses the state of housing men under unfathomable and grotesque circumstances. This includes food contaminated with rat feces; jails infested with cockroaches; overcrowded institutions; lack of medical care; deadly violence; chronically understaffed prisons; and toilets that seep overflowing raw sewage onto the floors where some inmates must sleep.
The Team Roc release adds that “words cannot adequately describe the degree of filth and dilapidation the men at Parchman live in, and lie in, every day.”
“Were these conditions in existence at an animal shelter, media would swarm, arrests would be made, and those in charge would be on their way to jail as a result of public outrage over this criminal conduct.”
This represents the second lawsuit filed by Team Roc, spearheaded by Gotti, who is from nearby Memphis, and under the auspices of Jay-Z.
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