Mississippi must fix ‘foul-tasting, smelly’ water at Parchman, groups say. Corrections head responds: Water is ‘absent’ of bacteria.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Resources Defense Council are calling on the Mississippi Department of Corrections to remedy the foul-tasting, smell and possibly contaminated water at the State Penitentiary at Parchman. Photo courtesy of MDOC

By Jimmie E. Gates
Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting

Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman inmates drink foul-tasting, smelly, and potentially contaminated water, say the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Resources Defense Council.

“Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right. Yet for years, people incarcerated at Parchman have had no choice but to consume the foul-tasting, smelly, and potentially contaminated drinking water MDOC chooses to provide. The state has long been on notice for its violations of environmental laws, but it drags its feet,” Vidhi Bamzai, staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement. “As usual, the human beings in MDOC's custody suffer the indignity of these consequences and are forced to use water that no state official would ever sip. The state must act now to remedy this.” 

In a 22-page letter dated Sept. 3, the SPLC and Natural Resources Defense Council urged the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Mississippi State Department of Health and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to promptly investigate and fix the water problem at Parchman.  

Bamzai said Friday that there has been a lack of accountability. She told the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting she hopes state officials will do the right thing to correct the water problem. “It’s basic human right.”

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain says the last three drinking water reports from May, June and July showed the Parchman's drinking water is "absent" of bacteria. Photo courtesy of MDOC

Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said Friday, “I haven’t had an opportunity to review previous water quality testing, but the Mississippi Public Health Laboratory located in Cleveland, Mississippi, has been routinely collecting samples each month from random sites at Parchman that include Camp 30, Camp 29, MSP’s Fire House, the Administration Building, and the MSP’s Construction and Engineering Office.”

Cain said the last three drinking water reports are for May, June and July 2021. In all three months, samples showed Parchman’s water is “absent” of bacteria, he said.

“With respect to wastewater, we finished the first of two phases of MSP’s Water & Wastewater Improvements in July 2020 that replaced and repaired lift stations and pumps,” he said.  Cain said heavy rainfall has slowed private contractors from finishing the project but 55% have been completed so far.  State lawmakers appropriated almost $3.7 million for the project.

“The bottom line is current tests meet safe drinking water standards and there are ongoing improvements to the wastewater treatment system,” Cain said.

Senate Corrections Chairman Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, said Friday he was unaware of concerns about the water at the State Penitentiary. He said MDOC normally informs him of problems or when improvements have been made. He said he will contact Cain, who was appointed in 2020 by Gov. Tate Reeves to oversee the beleaguered state corrections system.

When asked, Barnett said Friday he believes Cain is doing a good job as commissioner. “I don’t receive calls complaining about (prison) conditions like I did before he came onboard,” Barnett said.

The letter stated that, since at least 2016, Parchman has failed for years to fix inoperable controls on its wells needed to ensure that water is appropriately chlorinated to protect against microbial contaminants, to monitor drinking water quality, and to provide people incarcerated at Parchman with notice of violations of federal water standards and required public education materials, the letter said.

A Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica report in 2020 detailed the prison’s drinking ‌water had violated the Safe Drinking Water Act dozens of times, and the Environmental Protection Agency had cited the prison’s sewage system for three years for violating the Clean Water Act, documents‌ ‌show.‌‌

SPLC says Parchman’s malfunctioning sewage treatment system and drinking water problems— a result of MDOC’s neglect and mismanagement—make Parchman’s horrid conditions all the more intolerable. People have reported many instances when raw sewage overflows from toilets and drains, covering cell and bathroom floors.

The letter says at times, sewage has been on the floor “nearly every day” for six weeks due to toilets that “were constantly overflowing usually after heavy rain…Additionally, for years, people incarcerated at Parchman have reported that the tap water is discolored, contains floating particles, and has a foul smell and taste. When people turn on the tap to drink, shower, or wash their hands, water flows out in nearly every imaginable color: brown, yellow, pink, orange, rust-colored, gray, and tan, often with dark particles floating it in that are big enough to be visible to the unassisted eye.

While Parchman’s guards and other staff can avoid drinking the discolored, smelly water by bringing bottled water to work, incarcerated people only have that option at a high cost (buying bottled water from the canteen) that is unaffordable to many, the letter notes.

Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit news organization that is exposing wrongdoing, educating and empowering Mississippians, and raising up the next generation of investigative reporters. Sign up for MCIR’s newsletters here.