JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An appeals court says a federal receiver can proceed with a takeover of a Mississippi jail where a judge found unconstitutional conditions and “a stunning array of assaults, as well as deaths.”
A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves acted properly in 2022 when he appointed a public safety consultant to act as a receiver for the Raymond Detention Center in Hinds County. The judges also wrote that “we find that some constitutional violations remain current and ongoing” at the jail outside Jackson.
The takeover has been blocked pending the appeal by Hinds County, which argued that a federally appointed consultant would be “utterly unaccountable” to voters and taxpayers.
However, the appellate judges told Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the consultant's work and remove his budgeting power, ruling that the judge had given him “overly broad” authority to determine the annual budget for the jail, including for staff salaries and benefits, medical and mental health services and facility improvements.
Giving those financial decisions to the consultant would allow him “to ignore the budgetary constraints that the Hinds County Board of Supervisors has had to deal with” in managing the jail, they wrote.
Reeves put the jail into receivership in July 2022 after citing poor conditions, including deficiencies in supervision and staffing. Seven people died in 2021 while detained at the jail, he said.
At that point, federal and state judges had ordered receiverships or a similar transfer of control for prisons and jails only about eight times across the country, according to Hernandez Stroud, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law.
In October 2022, Reeves appointed Wendell M. France Sr., a public safety consultant, former correctional administrator and 27-year member of the Baltimore Police Department, to improve conditions at the jail. France was scheduled to assume operational control of the jail on Jan. 1, 2023.
When he ordered a receivership, Reeves wrote that cell doors did not lock. A lack of lighting in cells made life “miserable for the detainees who live there" and prevented guards from adequately watching detainees, he wrote. He also said that guards sometimes slept instead of monitoring the cameras in the control room.
Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones has said county officials are committed to fixing the jail's problems, many of which stem from staffing shortages. In October 2023, Jones announced that one of the worst parts of the jail had been closed and 200 inmates had been transferred to a privately run prison in Tallahatchie County, nearly 150 miles (241 kilometers) to the north.
FILE - Visitor information signs dot the entrance to the Hinds County Detention Facility in Raymond, Miss., Aug. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams returned to court Friday as he seeks to fend off federal corruption charges while battling for his political future.
The Democrat is appearing at the 2 p.m. hearing in Manhattan federal court, where his lawyers are set to argue that a bribery charge — one of five counts against Adams — should be thrown out because it does not meet the federal standard of a crime.
The indictment, which also includes wire fraud and conspiracy charges, accuses Adams of accepting flight upgrades and other luxury travel perks valued at $100,000 along with illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official and other foreign nationals looking to buy his influence.
In exchange, prosecutors say, Adams performed political favors that benefited the Turkish government, including accelerating the opening of a consulate building deemed unsafe by fire inspectors.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to the charges and vowed to remain in office as he mounts his legal defense.
U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho allotted the defense and prosecution each 20 minutes to argue the issue.
Late Thursday, Ho rejected Adams' request for a hearing on the mayor's claims that the government has been leaking information about the investigation to the news media. The judge ruled that Adams and his lawyers failed to substantiate those claims and, if any leaks occurred, that the government was to blame.
As for the bribery charge, Adams’ lawyers urged Ho in a memo last month to dismiss the “extraordinarily vague” allegation, saying it sought to criminalize “normal and perfectly lawful acts” that Adams undertook as Brooklyn borough president before he was elected mayor.
The years of flight upgrades and other perks he received were at most “classic gratuities,” which a recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings found were not covered by the bribery statute if they were given for past acts, according to the filing.
Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, responded that Adams actions were plainly criminal.
“It should be clear from the face of the indictment that there is nothing routine about a public official accepting over $100,000 in benefits from a foreign diplomat, which he took great pains to conceal — including by manufacturing fake paper trails to create the illusion of payment,” prosecutors wrote.
Ho is expected to hear arguments from each side on the motion to toss the charge. It’s unclear when he will issue his decision.
At a hearing last month, federal prosecutors indicated they may bring additional charges against Adams and indict others around him.
Several of Adams’ closest aides — including his police commissioner, schools chancellor and multiple deputy mayors — have resigned in recent months after federal investigators executed coordinated searches of their homes in early September.
Adams has maintained that he can continue to lead the city effectively while fighting the charges.
But his political future remains fraught and several opponents have announced plans to challenge him in next year's mayoral primary.
Earlier this week, Adams raised eyebrows after repeatedly declining to criticize former President Donald Trump, refusing to say when he last spoke with the Republican nominee or whether he was angling for a pardon should Trump win reelection.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)
FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference at City Hall, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024.(AP Photo/Kena Betancur)
FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to reporters after a news conference in New York, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
