Parchman | |
---|---|
Mississippi State Penitentiary | |
Entrance to the Mississippi State Penitentiary | |
Coordinates: 33°55′54″N 90°33′3″W / 33.93167°N 90.55083°W | |
Elevation | 144 ft (44 m) |
Time zone | UTC−6 (Central (CST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
ZIP Code | 38738 |
Area code | 662 |
GNIS feature ID | 675442[1] |
Website | mdoc.state.ms.us |
675442 is the GNIS ID for the populated place. The GNIS ID for the "building" is 707754.[2] |
Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP), also known as Parchman Farm, is a maximum-security prison farm located in the unincorporated community of Parchman in Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. Occupying about 28 square miles (73 km2) of land,[3][4] Parchman is the only maximum security prison for men in the state of Mississippi, and is the state's oldest prison.[3][4][2]
Begun with four stockades in 1901, the Mississippi Department of Corrections facility was constructed largely by state prisoners. It has beds for 4,840 inmates. Inmates work on the prison farm and in manufacturing workshops. It holds male offenders classified at all custody levels—A and B custody (minimum and medium security) and C and D custody (maximum security). It also houses the male death row—all male offenders sentenced to death in Mississippi are held in MSP's Unit 29—and the state execution chamber. The superintendent of Mississippi State Penitentiary is Marshall Turner. There are two wardens, three deputy wardens, and two associate wardens.[5]
Female prisoners are not usually assigned to MSP; Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, also the location of the female death row, was for a time the only state prison in Mississippi designated as a place for female prisoners.[3]