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U.S. NEWS Saturday 4 January 2020
Mississippi prison chief says 4 of 5 killings done by gangs

By JEFF AMY sector job, signaling incom-
Associated Press ing Gov. Tate Reeves won't
Mississippi's outgoing pris- retain her upon taking of-
ons chief said Friday that fice Jan. 14.
at least some of the five kill- Reeves tweeted Friday
ings of inmates since Sun- that he'd been briefed and
day stem from gang vio- that the first priority was "to
lence, as guards struggle to restore order and safety,"
maintain control of restive followed by an investiga-
inmates. tion and "justice" for those
"These are trying times for who committed violence.
the Mississippi Department "Any loss of life is tragic and
of Corrections," Commis- must be addressed," he
sioner Pelicia Hall said in a said, adding "there is much
statement Friday, hours af- work to be done in our cor-
ter an inmate was found rectional system."
stabbed to death in his cell Outgoing Gov. Phil Bry-
at the Mississippi State Peni- ant was on a family vaca-
tentiary at Parchman. tion, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker
Denorris Howell, 36, was In this May 19, 2010, file photograph, traffic moves past the front of the Mississippi State Penitentiary told reporters Friday. The
found before 3 a.m. in his in Parchman, Miss. violence came even as
cell, covered in blood with Associated Press U.S. District Judge William
a neck wound, becoming Barbour ruled Tuesday
the fifth to die since vio- multiple units of the sprawl- facilities," Dobbins said. "I problems. South Mississip- that while conditions may
lence erupted Sunday with ing prison. Then on Thurs- know guards have to talk pi, in Greene County, was have previously been poor
a stabbing at South Missis- day, Gregory Emary, 26, with inmates to keep con- locked down for almost all at East Mississippi Correc-
sippi Correctional Institute was killed at the Chickasaw trol of other inmates." of 2019, in part because of tional Facility near Merid-
in Leakesville. County Regional Correc- The violence has left rela- guard shortages. ian, there's no longer any
Prison leaders are calling tional Facility, a county-run tives of prisoners terrified, Hall announced Tuesday evidence that the privately
the gang fights "major dis- jail that holds state inmates. trying to find out whether that she will resign in mid- run prison is violating in-
turbances," but Burton calls Also Thursday, 32-year-old loved ones are safe. Sonya January to take a private mates' rights.q
what's going on at Parch- Roosevelt Holliman was fa- Young told the AP that her
man "gang-related riots." tally stabbed at Parchman son has been hospitalized Missouri River power
Hall said investigators be- in a fracas that led to mul- at Parchman since Dec. 23,
lieve only four of the five tiple injuries. but said she has "no idea from upstream dams
deaths are gang-related. Corrections officials have why."
mediately say which death many people overall have phones and the website increases in 2019
The department didn't im-
refused so far to say how "No one is answering the
was not. been injured, or whether states that they cannot
She said the department there have been other vio- give out any information," By JAMES MacPHERSON Dakotas, Montana and
won't confirm the names lent incidents in prisons. she wrote in an email. Associated Press Nebraska was 13 billion
of the gangs "for security Candice Dobbins, the sis- Barbarella Ann Isom's twin BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — kilowatt hours last year,
purposes," but relatives of ter of Terrandance Dob- sons are serving 20 years The wet weather that up from 12.3 billion in
inmates who spoke to The bins, said she's been told apiece on armed robbery caused so many flood- 2018 and more than 38
Associated Press and other violence began spreading convictions. One is at South ing problems around the percent above the long-
news outlets say there's an after her brother's death Mississippi and one is at Midwest in 2019 had one term average. The WAPA
ongoing confrontation be- "Now they're going to war," Parchman. small silver lining: electric buys and sells power from
tween the Vice Lords and she told the Clarion Ledger "I wish he would be trans- generation from the Mis- 56 hydropower plants
Black Gangster Disciples. of Jackson. ferred somewhere else," souri River’s six upstream around the nation. The
It wouldn't be the first time Candice Dobbins said she she said of the son at dams was up 5.6 percent, Missouri River dams are
that the two gangs have first learned of her brother's Parchman. "I know he has federal officials said. its second-largest pro-
warred behind bars in Mis- death after a stranger who to do his time, but I'm afraid It was the first time this ducer of energy that is
sissippi, with previous con- has a relative in a Mississippi for his life." century that the river had then sold to rural electric
frontations at Parchman prison phoned her. Mississippi's prison system back-to-back years pro- cooperatives, municipal
and other prisons over the She said state officials later has struggled to fill guard ducing surplus power, utilities, Indian tribes and
past 15 years. A 2015 survey confirmed the death, but vacancies, with Hall say- which is good news for other customers. Drought
found nearly 3,000 Black have answered no ques- ing it's difficult to attract consumers. The Western years caused by shallow
Gangster Disciple mem- tions, leaving her to try to people with salaries that Area Power Administra- river levels forced WAPA
bers and nearly 2,000 Vice glean information from in- start below $25,000 a year. tion relies on energy from to spend more than
Lords in prisons statewide. mates. Some guards end up bring- the dams for the power it $1.7 billion since 2000 to
All state prisons statewide Terrandance Dobbins was ing illegal drugs and cell sells and must buy elec- fulfill contracts, includ-
remained locked down Fri- originally sentenced to phones into prisons. Crimi- tricity on the open mar- ing $28.3 million in 2017.
day, confining inmates to life for a killing in Adams nal charges were filed in ket in years when hydro- WAPA spokeswoman
cells and blocking visitors. County, and later was sen- 2014 against 26 state cor- power is underperforming Lisa Meiman said the
Besides Howell, Terran- tenced to more time after rectional officers. — a cost that eventually agency was able to sell
dance Dobbins, 40, was an assault on another pris- Some prisons, including is passed to ratepayers. at least $40 million in ex-
killed Sunday at South Mis- oner at Parchman. South Mississippi, have ar- The U.S. Army Corps of cess power over the past
sissippi. Walter Gates, 25, Dobbins said she had been eas where many prison- Engineers, which man- two years to help offset
was stabbed and several trying to get her brother ers are housed in bunks in ages dams and reservoirs those losses.“Generation
other inmates were injured transferred, saying he felt one large room, instead along the 2,341-mile river, was above average for
Tuesday at Parchman dur- unsafe at South Mississippi. of individual cells. This can said energy production the past two years,” she
ing a fight that spread to "Really the prisoners run the lead to worsened security from the dams in the said.q