by TChris

The abusive treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib is shocking, but it underscores the need to examine the abuse of prisoners within our borders. The ACLU of Mississippi hopes to do just that by starting a prison accountability project to improve inmates' living conditions. The need for improvement is clear.

[Margaret Floyd] said [her son] was handcuffed and beaten twice by guards at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The Corinth woman said she sent lawyers to the prison to check on her son, who's now 30, and found he had "a busted head" and bruises on his arms and had been kicked in the ribs.

A recent lawsuit resulted in the improvement of conditions for death row prisoners at Parchman, who were "subjected to excessive heat, human excrement, biting insects and the rants of psychotic prisoners."

Mississippi has the third highest per capita rate of incarceration, behind Louisiana and Texas.