Unlike Alabama, Mississippi still has time to get its prison system compliant with federal law before a lawsuit and a potential takeover could happen.
The bill for Alabama taxpayers is already up to $1.3 billion to fix its prison system.
The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1997 requires that prison officials nationwide protect prisoners from death, physical violence and sexual abuse by inmates. It also allows the U.S. Attorney General to initiate a civil action against any state or local government that isn't protecting its inmates.
A local example is the Hinds County's jail, which is still under a federal consent decree after the DOJ filed suit in 2016. One of the conditions of the settlement agreement was a court-appointed monitor that makes periodic reports to the court about whether the Hinds County Sheriff's Office is compliant with the order. That compliance is now in doubt after the monitor filed a report detailing the six deaths that have occurred at the jail this year.
Monitor says six deaths this year at Hinds County jail represent a 'serious lack of compliance' with federal court order
The U.S. Department of Justice starts the process with an investigation and, once that is completed, attempts to negotiate a settlement that would correct the unlawful conditions. If those negotiations fail, the DOJ can sue in federal court to get a court order to compel the state to fix the issues.
The DOJ commenced an investigation in Alabama in 2016 that found that the state's prisons for men were overcrowded and correctional officers frequently used excessive force on prisoners. Since the findings were released in 2019, there have been 34 homicides in Alabama prisons.
In the spring of 2019, the DOJ said in its lawsuit against the state of Alabama that had it tried and failed in multiple rounds of negotiations to reach a settlement with state officials. It also said the risk for death, physical violence and sexual abuse from other prisoners increased since the investigation started.
On December 9, 2020, the DOJ filed suit against Alabama. In response, the Alabama Legislature has passed a bill that was later signed into law by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on October 1 that would spend $1.3 billion on building new prisons in Elmore and Escambia counties that could incarcerate up to 4,000 inmates. According to the Montgomery Advertiser, the state will borrow $785 million for the project, utilize $400 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds for state and local government use and transfer $145 million from the state’s general fund.
The new spending is designed to prevent Alabama’s prisons from going into a federal takeover, which last happened in the Yellowhammer State from 1976 to 1988. The state is already under a 2015 consent order for the Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka.
Mississippi is under federal investigation that commenced in February 2020 for inhumane conditions at three of its prisons: Mississippi State Penitentiary (better known as Parchman), Southern Mississippi Correctional Institute, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.
According to the Associated Press, at least 106 inmates in MDOC custody died from late 2019 until the end of 2020.
The federal investigation is ongoing. Corrections Commissioner Nathan “Burl” Cain told the Legislature’s joint budget committee in September that while a possible federal consent decree is still looming, hiring more corrections officers would help possibly prevent that, as consultants have told the department.
The MDOC is requesting $410 million from lawmakers, up from $372 million last year. Most of the increase, $51 million, would be allocated toward salaries, wages and benefits for new corrections officers.
Alabama will spend more than $542 million on its Department of Corrections in fiscal 2022.
