Two more inmates killed at troubled Mississippi prison
Two more inmates were beaten to death inside the troubled Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as Parchman Farm, authorities said Tuesday. The deaths come after a recent spike in violence at prisons across the state.
The victims, identified as 35-year-old Timothy Hudspeth and 36-year-old James Talley, appeared to have died from "blunt force beating injuries," Heather Burton, the Sunflower County coroner said in a statement.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections originally said the men died Monday night but Burton later clarified that the deaths occurred early Tuesday. The department called the incidents were "isolated" and not a "continuation of the recent retaliatory killings."
Five inmates were killed and an undisclosed number of others were injured amid a wave of violence between December 29 and January 3, officials said. Three of those inmates were killed in three days at Parchman. Another inmate was found hanging in his cell on January 18.
Governor Tate Reeves on Tuesday responded to the latest killings, saying he has been working around the clock with the department of corrections and department of public safety to "prevent this going forward."
"There is much more to be done here. We have asked them to provide as much information to the public as possible as quickly as possible. Transparency is the first step," he tweeted.
Rapper Yo Gotti and Team Roc, the philanthropy arm of Jay-Z's company Roc Nation, have provided lawyers for more than two dozen inmates who are suing the state. The federal lawsuit claims the inmates' lives are in danger inside the prison.
In an interview with CBSN, Yo Gotti condemned the squalid conditions inside the prison. "We just can't have people sleeping on the floors, not getting food, not getting water. It's supposed to be a rehabilitation program, not where people lose their lives."