WASHINGTON, DC, June 17, 2013 – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF), alleging shocking human rights violations against mentally ill and special needs prisoners by the private, for-profit facility.

Intended to provide safe and humane treatment for the state’s seriously mentally ill prisoners, EMCF is described as dangerous, filthy, and “operating in a perpetual state of crisis where prisoners are at grave risk of death and loss of limbs” with little to no medical or psychiatric attention.

The deplorable living conditions at EMCF are sadly not the exception. The conditions at EMCF and other privately run prisons around the country are the result of an increasing shift in privatizing traditional government functions. From the NSA’s international intelligence operations to schools, airports, and military operations, traditional government roles have been drifting to the public sector—and the costs may be too high.

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/jun/17/private-prisons-shocking-treatment-mentally-ill-sp/#ixzz2Wazife00