Federal judge lifts court order on Mississippi youth jail

JACKSON, Miss (AP) — A federal judge has lifted a decade-long federal consent decree governing a youth jail in Mississippi’s capital city. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel P. Jordan agreed to Hinds County’s request to terminate the consent decree on the Henley-Young Patton Juvenile Justice Center in Jackson. The decree stemmed from a 2011 class action lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Disability Rights Mississippi. The suit alleged “inhuman and unconstitutional practices” at the facility, “including regularly isolating children in small cells for 20-23 hours a day and subjecting them to sensory deprivation.” Jail officials say the county has created 115 new policies to improve conditions for detainees.