(AllHipHop News) Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Mario “Yo Gotti” Mims are not letting up on pressuring officials at Mississippi State Penitentiary (aka Parchman Farms). The two Roc Nation emcees already helped expose the inhumane conditions at the facility.
Jay, Gotti, and Team Roc attorneys also got the Centene healthcare company to terminate its partnership with Parchman and the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Now efforts are being made to force better COVID-19 medical treatment for the people in the prison.
https://twitter.com/teamroc/status/1221985264014446593
With the backing of Yo Gotti and Jay-Z, Team Roc’s lawyers submitted a legal filing that asked the Mississippi courts to compel Parchman prison to adhere to strict COVID-19 testing and compliance guidelines. Apparently, Parchman staff does not verbally screen attorney visitors and does not screen staff at the entrance to the facility.
According to Team Roc, only 132 of the 2,034 individuals incarcerated at Parchman had been tested for COVID-19. Thirty-three percent of that total tested positive, and one person reportedly died from coronavirus over the weekend.
Mississippi has the 2nd HIGHEST incarceration rate in the country. Prisons are cramped, underfunded, and unsafe for everyone who lives and works there. Together, we can fix this.
Tell MS lawmakers to pass #SB2123: https://t.co/WQRgFTleq2 #MSPrisonREFORM pic.twitter.com/ejDz6c9rR2
— REFORM Alliance (@REFORM) August 1, 2020
“It’s a travesty that Parchman continues to neglect the lives of the people in their prisons and expose them to the deadly COVID-19 virus,” says Team ROC attorney Marcy Croft. “Not only are they failing to comply with the basic COVID-19 prevention and testing protocols, but they’re recklessly spreading the virus within the prison by housing infected people with healthy ones.”
Croft continues, “We even have concerns that our attorneys may have been exposed while visiting Parchman, which is why we’re calling for immediate transparency and stricter compliance.”