From the Editor - Prison Legal News

Mississippi Control Unit (cont.)
to the metal detector that guards must
pass through. An additional 50 security
cameras will be installed at the prison.
Approval has been granted to spend $1.8
million to add full metal doors to replace
the open bar doors on the cells. Guards
will be prohibited from bringing food or
drinks onto the unit.
Perhaps Epps should listen to former
Parchman warden Don Cabana, who
presided over the construction of Unit
32. “I think what we’re doing in supermax
is, we’re taking some bad folks and we’re
making them even worse. We’re making
them even meaner,” Cabana said. He
added that his “biggest regret was building
the supermax unit at Parchman.”
While there isn’t a happy end to this
story, there is at least a hopeful one. Muchneeded
improvements at Parchman began
in August 2007. The warden was replaced;
guards were fired; some restrictions on
prisoners were lifted; and more education,
treatment and religious programs were
instituted. Prisoners were allowed out of
their cells for longer periods of time, according
to Epps.
Four of the fired guards allegedly had
connections to street gangs, including a
lieutenant who was in charge on July 25
when Reed was killed. To boost employee
morale, the guards at Unit 32 received a 20
percent pay raise. By November 2007, use
of force incidents at the unit had dropped
by two-thirds. The number of prisoners
taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries
dropped by 75 percent.
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April 2008
These changes came a month before
a federal court hearing to determine
whether the MDOC was in violation of
the consent decree in the ACLU’s lawsuit.
Although no doubt spurred by the civil
rights litigation and the court’s oversight,
Epps denied that was the case. “It’s not
about the ACLU. It’s not required by the
consent decree. We’re doing it because
it’s working,” he stated, despite having
previously called the Unit 32 prisoners
“parasites.”
Even the ACLU admitted that Epps
had “shown a lot of leadership” in making
the recent improvements at Unit 32
– albeit under the threat of federal court
intervention. The federal judge over the
case hailed the reforms at Unit 32 as a
“model” for other state prison systems.
“I think we are looking at a situation
where this is not a case of foot-dragging
or grudging obedience to the letter of
the consent decree,” said ACLU attorney
Margaret Winter. “It’s not to say that it is
a paradise by any means ... but it’s impossible
not to feel very, very hopeful.”
On November 15, 2007, U.S. Magistrate
Judge Jerry Davis approved a
supplemental consent decree in the
ACLU’s class action lawsuit, which includes
directives to remove mentally ill
prisoners from supermax confinement, to
reduce the use of force by guards and to
improve the MDOC’s classification system
at Unit 32.
The consent decree prohibits the use
of supermax “for long-term housing of
prisoners with severe mental illness, other
than those on Death Row.” Long term was
defined as more than 14 days. As such,
non-death sentenced
p r i s o n e r s w i t h
24
schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder, mental
retardation or any
disorder characterized
by repetitive
self-harm can not
be subjected to long
term confinement at
Unit 32.
Prisoners with
such conditions will
be sent to the East
Mississippi Correctional
Facility or
another prison to
receive appropriate
care. Further, a
Mental Health Step-
Down Unit is to be
created at Unit 32. The Step-Down Unit will
be used to house mentally ill prisoners who
require an immediate level of psychiatric
care, which includes prisoners in suicidal or
other psychiatric crisis. Security staff in that
unit must complete 40 hours of training to
work with mentally ill prisoners.
In regard to use of force, Kenneth
McGinnis, a former head of Michigan’s
prison system, wrote in a report that Unit
32 guards used chemical sprays on prisoners
“as a method of enforcing orders
of any nature.” Under the terms of the
supplemental consent decree, physical
force – including chemical sprays – is not
to be used unless a prisoner’s actions “are
creating an immediate threat of serious
self-injury or of physical injury to another
person or of property damage causing a
threat to security and not unless reasonable
efforts to use verbal persuasion and
other non-physical methods of gaining
control have been attempted and failed.”
Audio-visual recording of all use of
force incidents must be instituted. Except
in emergency situations, force is to be
used only after the Shift Commander or
Warden has been notified and consented;
whenever possible, prison officials are to
visit the prisoner before authorizing use
of force.
One of the most significant changes
wrought by the consent decree relates to
how prisoners are classified for placement
in the supermax unit. Prisoners
may only be confined in Unit 32 if they
have behaved violently or aggressively
while imprisoned, are actively involved in
disruptive gang activity, have escaped or
attempted to escape, committed a felony
while on escape, or there are other factors
that meet specific criteria that the prisoner
poses a significant risk of physical harm
to others.
All Unit 32 prisoners who have
remained free of serious disciplinary
violations and completed recommended
rehabilitative programs will be released
to the prison’s general population within
two years unless they murdered another
prisoner, planned or participated in a
major riot, escaped, or are deemed a
significant risk of harm to others. See:
Presley v. Epps, USDC ND Miss., Case
No. 4:05cv148-JAD (Nov. 15, 2007). The
consent decree and complaint in the case
are available on PLN’s website.
Sources: National Public Radio, Clarion-
Ledger, badcopnews.com, Commercial
Appeal
Prison Legal News