Yo Gotti is a man of his word, following through with a lawsuit on behalf of nearly 30 Mississippi state prisoners enduring nightmarish, sometimes deadly conditions.
TMZ broke the story, Gotti enlisted Team Roc — the philanthropic arm of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation — and its high-powered attorney, Alex Spiro, to rep the prisoners after a spike in deadly violence at several MS state prisons.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, says the max-security prison, Parchman, is a powder keg after 3 deaths in the first week of 2020. All 3 inmates were stabbed to death.
According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, the MS prison system is “chronically understaffed” and also dramatically underfunded … as in reduced by tens of millions each year. Those numbers — combined with allegedly deplorable conditions — have brought the prison to a boiling point
To make matters worse, Parchman doesn’t have enough mattresses for the inmates, cells are covered in black mold and raw sewage is spilling out on the floors … according to the suit.
The prison allegedly has a serious water problem too, similar to Flint. In the suit, Team Roc claims the drinking water for inmates repeatedly fails to meet federal safety standards.
According to the suit, inmates are exposed to serious harm and left unprotected because there just aren’t enough prison guards.
As we first reported, Gotti, who’s from nearby Memphis, was outraged by what’s happening inside the walls of Parchman — and asked Team Roc to fight for the prisoners’ civil rights. They demanded MS Gov. Phil Bryant make changes or face a lawsuit, so … here it is.
The suit seeks damages for the inmates, and an order forcing Mississippi’s Dept. of Corrections to lay out a plan to address all the issues … especially increasing staff and cleaning up the sewage.
Gotti tells TMZ, “The Lives of countless individuals in Mississippi prisons are at stake and we will not stop until this is fixed
This is dope on their part.