Mississippi police officer pleads guilty to forcing prisoner to drink his own urine

Michael Christian Green faces up to year in prison after pleading guilty over incident in town of Pearl in December

A Mississippi police officer pleaded guilty on Thursday to a federal misdemeanor charge after authorities accused him of forcing a prisoner to drink his own urine.

In court filings, first reported by the Daily Beast, prosecutors for the US district court for the southern district of Mississippi alleged that the patrol officer, Michael Christian Green, ordered a prisoner to lick up his own urine after the man had urinated in the corner of his holding cell.

The incident took place at the Pearl police department in Pearl, Mississippi, a town outside Jackson, the state’s capital, and was captured on security cameras.

Mississippi has come under scrutiny in recent years for its short-staffed prisons that create unsafe conditions for inmates. In February, the Department of Justice released a report saying Mississippi maintained “basic safety failures and … poor living conditions” in three large correctional facilities in the state. Parchman, the state’s penitentiary, has become notorious for being one of the worst prisons in the US.