Illegal Phones Expose Prisoners' Squalor

Buried on page 16 of the NYTimes  (1/17), is a story about the horrific conditions in Mississippi prisons as reported and documented by inmates on contraband cellphones. Just as outrageous is the response of that state's supreme court, which the article reports upheld a 12 year sentence imposed on Willie Nash, who was in jail on a misdemeanor charge and innocently asked a jailer if he could recharge his phone. The cowards on that court "noted that [the sentence] was 'obviously harsh' and 'seems to demonstrate a failure of our criminal justice system' " but inexplicably did nothing to alleviate the inhumane sentence nor to address the abhorrent injustice except to pay lip service. Another depressing example of justices who fail to do justice.