Testing rates in the state’s prisons, where the coronavirus has already claimed at least one life, remain low
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Posted inJustice
More transparency about Mississippi prison practices during COVID-19 pandemic needed, local, national groups warn
Advocates call for information that includes total number of tests, new cases, hospitalizations, lockdowns and quarantines, deaths and recoveries, in addition to the release of elderly and sick prisoners
Posted inJustice
Former corrections chief takes job with state’s prison phone contractor
Pelicia Hall was the first woman to head the Mississippi Corrections Department
Posted inCollaboration
Mississippi prison crisis: Inmates aren’t the only ones in danger; guards face attacks as their numbers dwindle
Analysis of state records and hundreds of pages of court documents, along with interviews with more than 30 prison employees, reveal a dangerous environment for everyone behind bars. As corrections officers quit, those remaining must guard more and more inmates
Posted inMississippi Prisons
Mississippi cut corrections by $215M. Horrid conditions, violent deaths have followed at Parchman
With 16 violent deaths, Parchman sees “level of violence and lethality that we associate with prisons in countries like Brazil and Honduras”
Posted inJustice
Civil rights probe into Mississippi prisons officially opened, Justice Department confirms
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
Posted inGovernment
Reeves eyes contraband phones, reopening private prison, tougher guard screening to ‘restore order’ at Parchman
Gov. Reeves said he currently has no plans to ask the Legislature for increased corrections department funding
Posted inJustice
Why a DOJ probe, the latest in a string of actions against Mississippi prisons, could take years
The Justice Department, through its Civil Rights Division, is more than familiar with problems plaguing correctional institutions in Mississippi and across the Deep South. However, their investigations and the settlements that normally follow don’t come quickly
Posted inJustice
‘We must do better’: Gov. Reeves rolls out plan for troubled Mississippi prisons
The first phase involved tapping an interim commissioner and committee led by a key Reeves ally to conduct a national search for a permanent leader
Posted inJustice
Amid festering crisis, Reeves confronted with embattled and leaderless prison system
With a recent spate of violence in Mississippi prisons and departures of the agency’s top leaders, Gov. Tate Reeves must grapple with a cloud hanging over his young administration
Posted inAnalysis
Prison unrest ignites debate on proper level to fund state government as Bryant leaves office
As Bryant leaves office Mississippi has close to $1 billion in reserve funds, but it is also true that commissioners appointed during his tenure to oversee the Department of Corrections warned that violence and carnage were possible if more money was not appropriated
Posted inGovernment
The state inked a deal to house Parchman inmates in a private prison. Is it legal?
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
Posted inJustice
Parchman at the center of state prison system plagued by neglect and lack of funding
Understaffed, underfunded and plagued by gang violence, inmates in Mississippi’s Parchman prison have been living in deadly conditions that state lawmakers knew about for decades. Now, everyone is paying the price
Posted inJustice
Parchman’s former supermax unit, shuttered amid civil-rights lawsuits, back in use after prison unrest
Notorious unit was shutdown 10 years ago following a lawsuit by the ACLU over conditions
Posted inGovernment
Prison brass warned of dangerous conditions a year ago, but lawmakers did not act
In the aftermath of deadly incidents at correctional facilities, state leaders vowed to address problems plaguing Mississippi prisons. These promises come despite a series of cuts to correctional budgets and unfulfilled requests for funding to make repairs at Parchman