Thanks to Sis. Jamie Scott for organizing this list of prison issues at Central MissisissippiCorrectional Facility, where she and her sister, Gladys, are imprisoned. This list is a work inprogress and will be updated. Even those familiar with the prison industrial complex may beunaware that some of these policies / practices exist.================"We send convicts to prison

punishment not for more punishment...."-- a judicial official2009

Parole Board Practices

* No advocacy between potential parolees and parole board.* No statements are ever solicited nor are used by MDOC supervisors or staff.* The very people we see and report to every day are not allowed to express their opinion asto the potential success we might exhibit outside of a prison setting.* Entire prison record is not reviewed.* There are parolees who have left recently with violent RVR* offenses in the last year.* Community opposition provides the sole basis as to whether or not an offender is releasedfrom custody.

Meals and Food Services

* Three starches are routinely provided at every meal.* Salads are rarely served.* Fruits are rarely served.* Offenders on special diets are not given the proper foods. (i.e.: How can a diabetic be giventhree carbohydrates?)* Offenders on special diets are not given their snack bags or their milk. These items aresold or stolen by kitchen employees and sold in the building.* Kitchen workers are not disciplined, terminated, nor receive RVR's for stealing food on a

routine basis from the kitchen.* Our own food is sold to us by kitchen workers.* Seconds are never provided.* Kitchen workers are abusive to offenders.

State Issue, Canteen, and Inmate Accounts

* Inmates at CMCF are not provided with tennis shoes or fans. These items, donated byprivate companies or budgeted by MDOC or inmates, are sold to inmates at inflated,excessive prices. It is our understanding that this practice is fraud.* The canteen items sold at CMCF are three to four times the prices listed in private satellitesor even in Wal-Mart. Not only are these prices not competitive; the contracted canteenprovider is under no legal obligation to inform us of a price change. Shouldn't the very peopleusing the canteen be able to choose their service provider?* Account statements are no longer provided to any offender.

Phone Service

* Phone numbers may only be added every six months.* Phone calls are expensive and oddly disproportionate to the long distance services or tollcalls provided by local carriers or an average South Central Bell customer.* These phone calls and the price gouging are an insufferable hardship on our families. Ourfamilies are not in prison.* Many of the phones in each building do not work properly and have remained in disrepairfor years.

Visitation

* Our families and friends are now drug tested at this facility.* The "sweat test" a notoriously unreliable and cheap test is being used and hasembarrassed many, even clergy members who have come to visit inmates.

* We are only allowed to update our visitation list every six months.* If we cannot, for some reason, get in to see the case manager to update our list, ourfamilies, who have driven five hundred miles or more to see us (and have previously beenapproved) are turned away.

Offender Labor Pool

* There is no liaison between MDOC and their free labor pool.* Offenders should have the same workers' compensation rights as any state employee.* Offenders have no consensus and cannot meet in groups in order to effect any changes inthe workplace environment.* Offenders are routinely asked to do illegal and unsafe disposals (MMPIC) of hazardous(HAZMAT) products. (i.e. offenders have been disposing of monitors without properprotection or guidelines.)* State offenders are not paid even small wages for their labors. (Those working for MMPICare paid a small sum; these are the only inmates that receive a wage.)* Our wages accumulated in the community programs are not used to pay victims or for anyrestitution whatsoever.

Health Care

* Routine pap smears and mammograms are not available to women.* Requests for such services go ignored.* No preventative health care is utilized.* No outside consultations for chronic care problems are utilized.* No outside care for offenders has been negotiated by MDOC and its health care provider.* Psychiatric medications are outdated, expired, or administered without any psychiatricsupervision; our assessments for psychiatric medications are routinely five minutes, not muchmore.* Anti-psychotic medications are administered routinely to offenders are not psychotic.