Roughly 1,800 of the 3,000 inmates at the South Mississippi prison in Leaksville are locked in their cells 23 hours a day and haven't been allowed visitors in at least three months.
It's not because of anything the inmates have done, but because of a lack of correctional officers in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Some family members say inmates are subjected to inhumane conditions including black mold on walls, leaking pipes and abusive treatment by security officers.
In late January, MDOC Commissioner Pelicia Hall said in a statement that visitation and other privileges would be canceled indefinitely at a unit of the South Mississippi Correctional Institution.
In October, MDOC placed a lockdown at SMCI, Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, East Mississippi Correctional Facility and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.
Normal operations resumed in November at the prisons, but most of SMCI went back on lockdown in January and it is still in effect. It's one of the longest lockdowns in recent memory and there is no indication of when it will end.
