Baker, Artist, Gardener

ESTABLISHED 1879 | COLUMBUS, MISSISSIPPI CDISPATCH.COM 75 ¢ NEWSSTAND | 40 ¢ HOME DELIVERY MONDAY | JUNE 24, 2019 UNDER THE CAPITOL DOME MONDAY PROFILE Analysis: Views Baker, artist, gardener starkly differ on Mississippi prison’s state Judge will try to decide whether East Mississippi Correctional Facility is excessively harsh, as a class action suit by prisoners alleges BY JEFF AMY The Associated Press JACKSON — A federal judge sat through a monthlong trial last year over conditions at a privately run Mississippi prison, but that wasn’t enough for him to make a decision on whether conditions are uncon- stitutional. Now Senior U.S. District Judge William Barbour has dueling 80- page briefs to consider as he tries to decide whether East Mississippi Correctional Facility is excessively harsh, as a class action suit by pris- Victoria Cheyne/Dispatch Staff oners alleges. Rachel Guery, center, and her mother, Melanie Guery, left, talk with a customer of Three Sisters Pie Co. at the The briefs present starkly differ- Hitching Lot Farmers Market on Saturday. Every week at the market Guery sells tiny “pielets,” macarons, cold ent views of conditions at the 1,200- brew and home-made syrups. bed prison near Meridian, as well as sharp disagreement over what each side has proved and what the Guery’s artistic flare fuels her business, hobby legal standards should be for Bar- bour to make a decision. The case, filed in 2013, had been BY VICTORIA CHEYNE every day and help in the kitchen Outside the kitchen, Guery seen as a key clash over the use of [email protected] was encouraged, Guery’s mother, makes art just for fun. private prisons nationwide, with Melanie Guery, said. At her grand- After changing her major a achel Guery has always been the American Civil Liberties Union mother’s house nearby, something couple times, Guery found her good with her hands. and the Southern Poverty Law sweet was always in the oven. way into the art department while The Columbus baker and Center pouring resources into rep- R Guery claims she can’t cook, but attending the Mississippi Universi- coffee connoisseur, who owns resenting prisoners. It twice made she said baking comes naturally. ty for Women. She emphasized her and runs Three Sisters Pie Co. on “It’s always been a part of my the front page of The New York Main Street, grew up baking her studies in painting and drawing, Times with its claims of Dickensi- life,” she said. although she tended to experiment mother’s recipes and learning “lab Guery took her mother’s recipes an conditions including fires, long with other media. technique” in her childhood kitch- and updated them with new flavors stretches in dim solitary cells and “I pretended to be an artist,” en, where she spent a lot of time as and tweaks here and there, al- untreated medical conditions in a a home-schooled kid. though she admits butter — just Guery said. place where a majority of prisoners She started with tiny “tea cake” shy of two cups’ worth — is never A memorable project is a chair have been diagnosed with mental sugar cookies, sprinkled with absent from any of her spinoffs. she welded together from odds and illness. cinnamon sugar, and then pecan And now the student has be- ends gathered from around her Barbour ordered the new briefs pie and banana nut bread, a recipe come the teacher, Guery’s mother parents’ farm between Columbus after touring the prison late in the passed down from her grand- said. and Starkville. The chair now sits trial and concluding some con- mother. “She does it much better (than in their home. ditions have improved. He asked Meals were cooked at home me),” Melanie said. See GUERY, 6A both sides to discuss what conditions are like now, as opposed to when the suit was filed. See ANALYSIS, 6A Caledonia to install LED lights at two soccer fields Town hopes project is 4-1, with Quinn Parham opposed. Four bids were submitted for complete by September the project. “We have taken bids on LED BY SLIM SMITH lights for the first two soccer fields [email protected] and also bid on the field for metal halide lights,” Matt Forrester Caledonia alder- of Calvert-Spradling Engineering men have finally de- cided to install LED told the board. “In addition, we’ve lights at two of the taken alternate bids to light the town’s four soccer other two fields with either LED fields at Ola J. Pick- or metal halide. In either situation, ett Park. for the first two fields, the low base In its third spe- bid would come in under budget.” cial-call meeting on Wiggins Collins Electric Contractor submitted the low bids for both the Jennifer Mosbrucker/Dispatch Staff the subject, the Caledonia Board From left, Jaidyn Dunlap, Mckenzie Mahan, Skylar Dunlap and Joleigh Lewis practice their of Aldermen on Thursday accept- main bid and alternate bids. soccer skills on Thursday night at Ola J. Pickett Park in Caledonia. All four girls are members ed a bid from Collins Electric Con- Collins’ bid to provide LED of Caledonia Alliance, a traveling club soccer team. Aldermen voted Thursday to install LED tractor Inc. The measure passed See CALEDONIA, 6A lighting at two soccer fields. WEATHER FIVE QUESTIONS CALENDAR LOCAL FOLKS PUBLIC 1 What medicine cabinet mainstay MEETINGS Thursday July 1: Lowndes was first marketed under the name ■ Sounds of Summer: Bring lawn chairs or Baby Gays? blankets to enjoy music by the Juke Joint Gypsies County Super- 2 What according to The Hitchhiker’s visors, 9 a.m., Guide to the Galaxy is the ultimate from 7-9 at the Columbus Riverwalk. Food and answer to “Life, the Universe, and beverages available for purchase. Free. For more County Court- Everything?” information, contact Main Street Columbus, 662- house Hayden Torres 3 On what date is Pi Day celebrated? 328-6305, or Columbus Lowndes Chamber of July 2: Colum- 4 How is sushi delivered in a kait- Commerce, 662-328-4491. Third grade, Annunciation en-style restaurant? bus City Council 5 Name two of South Africa’s three regular meeting, High 84 Low 68 capital cities. Thursday and Tuesday, July 2 5 p.m., Munic- ■ TWT auditions: The Tennessee Williams Tribute Partly cloudy, chance t-storms Answers, 6B ipal Complex Full forecast on holds auditions for “Death of a Streetcar Named Courtroom page 2A. Virginia Woolf: A Parody,” by Tim Sniffen, at 6:30 July 15: Colum- p.m. June 27 and 6 p.m. July 2 at the Columbus bus-Lowndes Arts Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center, 501 Main Convention and St. (Production dates Sept. 5-7.) Roles for men INSIDE and women. May come prepared with a one-minute Visitors Bureau Board regular Classifieds5B Dear Abby 4B comic monologue, if desired. Contact the CAC, Raphael Marcus works construc- Comics 4B Obituaries 5A 662-328-2787, if you need an individual audition tion and likes to watch basketball meeting, 4 p.m., 140TH YEAR, NO. 89 Crossword 6B Opinions 4A at a different time. and spend time with his family. CVB office DISPATCH CUSTOMER SERVICE 328-2424 | NEWSROOM 328-2471 2A MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2019 THE DISPATCH • www.cdispatch.com SAY WHAT? DID YOU HEAR? “When they fall, we all fall.” Laura Cardinal, vice president of the Manchester Motorcycle Club, after seven bikers were killed in a BET Awards honor Mary J. Blige, collision with a pickup truck Friday in New Hampshire. Nipsey Hussle, Tyler Perry Monday Story, 5A. Blige, a nine-time Grammy winner and two-time Oscar nominee, earned the New phase in 2020 presidential Lifetime Achievement Award BY MESFIN FEKADU Travis Scott, Meek Mill and race tests Dems’ aggression AP Music Writer 21 Savage. Blige, who earned the Candidates will face The 2019 BET Awards Lifetime Achievement featured a number of con- Award, ran through her each other on the Buttigieg criticized at emotional temporary pop and rap hits during a lengthy per- stars who are dominating formance, which featured the charts, from Cardi B to debate stage for the Lil Kim and Method Man. Lil Nas X. But the show be- town hall after shooting The R&B star went from first time on Wednesday longed to artists viewed as “My Life” to “No More Dra- THE ASSOCiated PRESS icons in the black commu- ma” to “Just Fine,” when and Thursday nity, including singer Mary SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Democratic presidential candidate Pete audience members turned J. Blige, filmmaker Tyler BY STEVE PEOPLES Buttigieg faced criticism Sunday from angry residents of South Bend, the aisles into “Soul Train” Perry and the late rapper AP National Political Writer Indiana, at an emotional town hall meeting a week after a white police lines as they showed their Nipsey Hussle. officer fatally shot a black man in the city where he is mayor. best dance moves while Hussle, a respected and NEW YORK — The unwritten Buttigieg said he would call for an outside investigation of the shoot- beloved community activist the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul rules that have so far prevented the ing of 54-year-old Eric Logan by Sgt. Ryan O’Neill. in South Los Angeles who sang onstage. Democratic presidential contest The 37-year-old mayor said he would send a letter to the federal De- was shot to death on March Rihanna presented Blige from devolving into all-out conflict partment of Justice’s civil rights division and notify the local prosecutor 31, posthumously earned with the award, who earned are about to be tested. that he’d like an independent investigator appointed.

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