As Blavity previously reported, Jay-Z and Yo Gotti sued several Mississippi DOC officials in January 2020 over the deaths of a number of inmates due to violent conditions in the state’s prisons. At the time, at least 12 inmates had died in Mississippi state prisons in a short period of time, including 9 deaths at Parchman within one month. Through Roc Nation, the two rap stars also helped 152 Mississippi inmates file their own lawsuit against the prison system in 2020. These lawsuits and statements by Yo Gotti brought national attention to the dire conditions at Parchman; in 2022, the federal Department of Justice declared that the prison’s conditions violated inmates’ constitutional rights.

Journalist Cheryl Thompson-Morton recently described the conditions at Parchman on social media, noting that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic “inmates were living in places that were flooded, infested, moldy and the food was often rotten”

Built on an old slave plantation, Parchman broke numerous statutes. Footage from inside the prison at the start of the coronavirus pandemic showed that inmates were living in places that were flooded, infested, moldy and the food was often rotten.https://t.co/D8tcFu677C

— Cheryl Thompson-Morton (@cthompsonmorton) January 25, 2023

In the time since the 2020 Roc Nation suit was filed, Mississippi has implemented a series of reforms at Parchman to address the allegations raised in the lawsuit and the DOJ investigation. The state improved the facility’s bathroom, air conditioning, ventilation and plumbing. Additional vehicles were added or replaced, including two ambulances and a prison van. And additional recreational opportunities for inmates have been implemented within Parchman. Based on these reforms, Roc Nation withdrew its lawsuit.

The lawsuit against the Mississippi DOC was just one way in which the state has come under scrutiny in recent years for its racist past and present and for declining standards of living amongst its population. Most notably, the state capital, Jackson, is undergoing a sustained water crisis, as decades of neglect of the predominantly Black city’s water infrastructure have left thousands of its citizens without basic access to safe drinking water. Additionally, several Black people have been killed by police in the state in recent years, including 15 year old Jaheim McMillan. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves was criticized for repeatedly celebrating April as Confederate Heritage Month even as he claims that systemic racism no longer exists in the United States.

These incidents demonstrate that Mississippi has a long way to go to achieve equality within the state and make life better for all of its citizens. The Roc Nation suit against the state was withdrawn without prejudice, which means that it could be resubmitted if Roc Nation later decides that the reforms are inadequate or short-lived. For now, though, Jay-Z and Yo Gotti seem satisfied that Mississippi is serious about reforms at Parchman,, one important step in improving the lives of all people within the state.