Bloody clashes that brought Mississippi’s prison system under federal scrutiny last year were part of a dramatic increase in reported cases of violence behind bars.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections logged 853 incidents of inmate-on-inmate assaults during the 2020 state budget year, which ended June 30. That was a 29% increase from the previous year.
The statistics are in a new report published Friday by PEER, the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review.