MDOC shuttles women inmates from metro facility to Delta prison

Incarcerated women are being moved from the state’s designated women’s prison in central Mississippi to a formerly decommissioned prison in the Delta more than a hundreds miles away.

News, Mississippi News, Broken Justice, Prison ReformJerry MitchellJanuary 7, 2023incarcerated women, women prisoners, CMCF, Delta, women's prison, moving, Pearl, Greenwood, Burl Cain, MDOC

Mississippi prisons may soon exceed capacity

Mississippi — the world’s leader in imprisoning people — will soon skyrocket past its capacity to hold them all.

News, Mississippi News, Broken Justice, PrisonJerry MitchellDecember 5, 2022inmates, prison capacity, prison population growth, MDOC, parole, Mississippi prisons, drug and alcohol problems, Burl Cain, recidivism, prison staffing

Mississippi Auditor: Prison Company Must Pay $2 million for No-Show Workers

Mississippi’s state auditor on Monday demanded a private prison operator pay nearly $2 million after the company improperly billed the state for thousands of prison guard shifts that were never actually worked.

News, Mississippi News, Prison Reform, PrisonJerry MitchellNovember 15, 2022The Marshall Project, MTC, state auditor, 2 million, billed the state, prison guards, MDOC, minimum requirements, Private prisons

Republican legislators oppose Medicaid expansion, but want federal dollars to pay for prisoner healthcare

State Republicans have balked at expanding Medicaid, but are embracing legislation that would take advantage of the federal program to pay for healthcare for very sick incarcerated people — and likely create a money-making opportunity for nursing homes.

Will Patricia Brown die in a Mississippi prison for drug possession? Supreme Court will decide.

Unless something changes, Patricia Brown will spend the rest of her life inside a Mississippi prison, all because of a $20 rock of cocaine.

News, Mississippi News, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellOctober 28, 2021Department of Corrections, Patricia Brown, Supreme Court, cocaine possession, life in prison, life without parole, habitual offender laws, big law, little law, non-violent offender, Pontotoc County, MDOC, Johnson v. United States

Mississippi must fix ‘foul-tasting, smelly’ water at Parchman, groups say. Corrections head responds: Water is ‘absent’ of bacteria.

Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman inmates drink foul-tasting, smelly, and potentially contaminated water, say the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Resources Defense Council.

Mississippi News, News, Prison Reform, PrisonJerry MitchellSeptember 10, 2021Mississippi inmates, Burl Cain, Parchman, Mississippi Corrections Commissioner, drinking water, Parchman water, Southern Poverty Law Center, National Resources Defense Council, MDOC, SPLC

Facing slashed budgets, desperate prison officials look to religious volunteers for programs that states refuse to fund, expert says

In the wake of states slashing prison spending by billions, desperate corrections officials are throwing a Hail Mary.

Mississippi News, News, Prison Reform, PrisonJerry MitchellMay 25, 2021Mississippi inmates, Burl Cain, Angola, Parchman, Mississippi Corrections Commissioner, MDOC, seminaries, Ruth Graham, Prison ministry, religious volunteers, Leavell College

Burl Cain remade Angola prison in his own image. Can he do the same with notorious Parchman?

Burl Cain burnished his reputation as a reformer inside the walls of one of the nation’s bloodiest prisons, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola where stabbings, beatings and killings were commonplace.

Mississippi News, News, Prison Reform, PrisonKatherine MitchellMarch 17, 2021Mississippi inmates, Burl Cain, Angola, Parchman, Mississippi Corrections Commissioner, MDOC, prison conditions, seminaries, prison chaplains

The Justice Department drops the hammer on Alabama’s prison system. Could Mississippi be next?

A year after deadly riots, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division continues to investigate Mississippi prisons.

Mississippi News, Prison, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellJanuary 5, 2021prison, prison reform, contraband, prison gangs, MDOC, prison inspection, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Mississippi department of health, Mississippi prison system, Denorris Howell

Will prison contraband go up in smoke when Mississippi’s tobacco ban ends? Will it mean higher health care costs?

Mississippi officials are hoping that lifting the ban on smoking inside prison will help curb the huge contraband trade that some inmates estimate may run in the millions.

Mississippi News, Prison, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellDecember 29, 2020prison, prison reform, contraband, smoking, tobacco ban, cigarettes, Burl Cain, East Mississippi Correctional Facility, prison gangs, MDOC

‘They basically starved him to death’

Former Army National Guard officer Edward Stafford Knight went away for life in prison in August 2001.

His widow and others believe it turned into a death sentence.

News, Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellJuly 13, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative ReportingTate Reeves, Veto, prison crisis, Department of justice, criminal justice reform, Mississippi Governor, parole, Mississippi prisons, Edward Stafford Knight, mississippi department of corrections, MDOC

Reeves prison reform bill veto invites federal intervention, advocate says

Without offering any meaningful explanation, Gov. Tate Reeves recently vetoed thoughtful, bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation that would have gone a long way toward addressing Mississippi’s current prison crisis.

Perspective, Civil RIghts, Prison, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellJuly 12, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative ReportingTate Reeves, Veto, prison crisis, Department of justice, bipartisan, criminal justice reform, Mississippi Governor, parole, Mississippi prisons, MDOC, mississippi department of corrections, J. Cliff Johnson