Posted: 8:53 AM Jul 18, 2012
Reporter: The Associated Press



Mississippi corrections officials say they have decided against re-opening a unit of the state penitentiary that was shut down following lawsuits and a string of violent deaths.

The Clarion-Ledger reports that officials had considered re-opening the penitentiary's Unit 32 because officials have seen an increase of 1,200 inmates over the past two years and need more
beds.

But officials say they have reconsidered and that the unit at the prison in Parchman would remain closed.

The unit, which was shut down last year, once held 1,000 men, from gang leaders to petty thieves to mentally ill inmates.

Corrections officials had moved the last of Unit 32's inmates as part of a settlement in a 2005 lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

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