American Rappers, Jay-Z and Yo Gotti, are suing two Mississippi prison officials on behalf of 29 inmates over claims they have done nothing nothing to stop violence that has killed five prisoners earlier this month.
On Tuesday, Jay-Z‘s lawyer Alex Spiro filed the lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in Greenville, Mississippi. The lawsuit says: “These deaths are a direct result of Mississippi‘s utter disregard for the people it has incarcerated and their constitutional rights.”
Spiro, on behalf of Jay-Z and hip-hop artist Yo Gotti, wrote a letter to Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and DOC Commissoner Pelicia Hall dated January 9 saying that they were “prepared to pursue all potential avenues to obtain relief for the people living in Mississippi’s prisons and their families.”
The letter added that the deaths were as a result of years of severe under staffing and neglect at Mississippi’s prisons, according to NBC News.
The lawyer’s statement continued: “As Mississippi has incarcerated increasing numbers of people, it has dramatically reduced its funding of prisons. As a result, prison conditions fail to meet even the most basic human rights.”
According to TMZ, the lawsuit, filed against the head of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the warden of the state penitentiary in Parchman, seeks damages for the prisoners and an order forcing the department to address the issues, mainly by increasing staff and cleaning up sewage.
The lawsuit also names three prisoners who were killed earlier this year at the state penitentiary in Parchman.
“Walter Gates, an inmate of Unit 29E at Parchman was stabbed multiple times the night of New Year’s Eve and pronounced dead just after midnight,” the suit states.
” Roosevelt Holliman was stabbed to death in a fight the next day. And Denorris Howell, an inmate of Unit 291 at Parchman was stabbed multiple times and pronounced dead the day after that.”
The five prisoners killed in January were identified as Howell, 36; Terrandance Dobbins, 40; Gates, 25; Gregory Emary, 26; and Holliman, 32.
