Ellington

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Lawyers suing the state over conditions at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian have asked a federal judge to certify them to represent all inmates there.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center already represent a number of individual inmates at the prison, operated on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Corrections by Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah.

Legal papers filed Thursday lay out additional evidence that the roughly 1,200 prisoners at East Mississippi are in danger of being harmed by fellow inmates and guards as well as suffering from inadequate health care and mental health care. The suit also alleges that the prison is dark and filthy, especially in solitary confinement, and that MTC doesn't even provide adequate food.