Mississippi Today (https://mississippitoday.org/author/mliu/)
Michelle Liu is a 2018 corps member for Report for America, a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms. She has covered criminal justice issues across the state since joining our team June 2018. Her work has appeared in the New Haven Independent.
The federal agency will look at conditions inside Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility
Many Mississippi prisoners remain incarcerated after they are eligible for release because they lack approved addresses. A task force submitted recommendations to a legislative panel this week that includes increased funding for transitional housing
Sentenced to life in prison, Tasha Shelby says she’s innocent and was wrongfully convicted due to faulty science in abuse diagnosis. Mississippi Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments from woman’s lawyers and from the AG’s office Wednesday
Father’s filing says prison employees did not try to stop the beating or offer medical assistance
Rep. Robert Johnson gave the Democrats’ response. As with the governor, our reporters fact checked the Democrats’ facts and figures and contextualized several of their claims
Speech focused on ongoing problems with the state’s prison system, and touched on school choice initiatives, educational gains and job growth. Our reporters identified statements from Reeves to provide additional context and clarity.
Gov. Reeves said he currently has no plans to ask the Legislature for increased corrections department funding
Attorneys for Nash asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to rehear his case, arguing that his harsh prison sentence is unconstitutional
Conditions have worsened for Parchman’s death row inmates, who are not linked to recent incidents reported elsewhere in Unit 29. However, they remain on lockdown with the rest of the prison and their attorneys say they’re being denied food, water, medication and other rights
Several people briefed on the contract between the Department of Corrections and Nashville-based CoreCivic, which owns and operates the prison, shared its details with Mississippi Today
To pay off fines and other debts, inmates in Mississippi’s little-known restitution centers must work grueling low-wage jobs, pay rent and endure strip searches. In this world between prison and freedom, they often don’t know when they’ll get to go home.
Burger joints, meat processors and even private citizens look to the state’s restitution centers as reliable source of cheap labor
Our investigation revealed that the state fails to keep accurate records on who is in the program at any given time, how many people judges send there each year or how long inmates stay
The tip we got seemed a little unlikely: a woman in state prison was also working at McDonald’s — and not voluntarily. Soon we uncovered how Mississippi was running a modern-day debtors prison
Mississippi’s beleaguered corrections system has garnered increased scrutiny in the new year as reports surfaced of deadly fights among prisoners at several facilities, including Parchman and South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville