It must be pretty bad:  a group of ministers toured East Mississippi Correctional Facility and were stunned with the deprivation and filth and insects and terrible health of the people inside.  It’s a privately run prison.  The state of Mississippi is no front-runner for prison reform, but apparently even that state can do better than the private, for-profit company.

Management and Training Corporation, is not being sued by ACLU and SPLC.

“The lawsuit describes a facility where prisoners were often locked in filthy cells and ignored even when they were suffering from serious medical issues,” according to a statement from SPLC. “Many cells lacked light and working toilets, forcing prisoners to use trays or plastic bags that are tossed through slots in their cell doors. Rats often climbed over prisoners’ beds. Some prisoners even captured the rats, put them on makeshift leashes and sold them as pets to other prisoners.”

Gray said the incentive behind for-profit groups has to be examined carefully.

“The incentive for a for-profit prison is to house as many persons as possible,” Gray said. “The state has an incentive to use the private prisons. The incentive of the state is to reduce costs and the incentive for the private, for-profit is to increase profit. It becomes kind of a perfect storm.”

http://www.correctionsone.com/corrections/articles/7665645-Clergy-ask-gov-to-take-prison-from-private-company/