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

No-Show Prison Workers Cost Mississippi Taxpayers Millions

Prisoners, guards face danger from chronic understaffing by MTC

Second FBI prison probe in six years leads to removal of 10 employees. Staffers reportedly delivered steak, shrimp and meth to inmates.

A federal investigation into allegations of corruption at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility has led to the removal of 10 employees.

Mississippi News, PrisonKatherine MitchellSeptember 18, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative Reportingmississippi department of corrections, mississippi prisoners, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, CMCF, FBI, FBI prison probe, Carl Arnold, embezzlement, corruption, prison reform, mississippi prisons, Rankin County Prisons

State law: No experience required for Miss. prisons chief

Mississippi’s new corrections commissioner will inherit the state’s worst prison crisis in half a century history, but, thanks to state law, no corrections experience is required.

Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellMarch 2, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative Reportingmississippi prisons, prison reform, mississippi department of corrections, mississippi news, Parchman, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Mississippi Governor, Tate Reeves, Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, George Flaggs Jr., Corrections commissioner

Mississippi prison guards face attacks as their numbers dwindle, vacancies rise

PARCHMAN, Miss. — The attack on Jennifer White came as she started a morning shift at the most dangerous unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the sprawling Delta prison farm here.

Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellFebruary 20, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative Reportingmississippi prisons, prison reform, mississippi department of corrections, mississippi news, Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, Parchman, Prison guards, Prison guard attacks, The Marshall Project, Prison Understaffing

Justice Department launches probe into deadly conditions at four Mississippi prisons

A month after deadly riots, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division had announced it is launching an investigation into four Mississippi prisons.

Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellFebruary 5, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative Reportingmississippi prisons, prison reform, mississippi department of corrections, mississippi news, Parchman, Prison gangs, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Mississippi Governor, Tate Reeves, Prison Riot

Anatomy of a Disaster

State leaders and lawmakers oversaw the gutting of the Mississippi Department of Corrections’ budget by $215 million over the past six years.

And now they must oversee the future of funding Mississippi’s prisons, one of which is imploding.

Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellFebruary 3, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative Reportingmississippi prisons, prison reform, mississippi department of corrections, mississippi news, Parchman, Prison gangs, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Mississippi Governor, Tate Reeves, Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, Prison Riot

Justice Department investigating Mississippi prisons

Confronted by horrific conditions and in the wake of recent uprisings inside Mississippi’s prisons that have left five dead, the Justice Department, in coordination with state authorities, has launched criminal and civil investigations with a look at possible charges, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting has learned.

Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellJanuary 17, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative Reportingmississippi prisons, prison reform, mississippi department of corrections, mississippi news, Parchman, Mississippi department of health, Prison gangs, Mississippi State Penitentiary

Want out of jail? First you have to take a fast-food job

JACKSON, Miss.—During her shifts at a Church’s Chicken, Annita Husband looked like the other employees. She wore the same blue and red polo shirt, greeted the same customers, and slung the same fried chicken and biscuits.

Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellJanuary 9, 2020Mississippi Center for Investigative Reportingmississippi prisons, prison reform, mississippi department of corrections, mississippi news, restitution, Flowood Restitution Center

Lawmakers refused to increase an infamous prison's funding. Then, chaos erupted.

One prisoner strangled another to death while other inmates cheered the killing. Two convicts escaped a dilapidated building by walking out an open door. Maximum-security detainees freely roamed hallways, beating and threatening others.

Prison, Prison Reform, Mississippi NewsKatherine MitchellJanuary 8, 2020prison violence, Locked Down, mississippi prisons, SMCI, Prison gangs, prison reform, mississippi department of corrections, mississippi news, Parchman, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Convicts escaped, Prison murder

News reports of chaotic conditions in Miss. prisons spark bipartisan call for reform

Top Mississippi officials called for a review of the state’s increasingly troubled prison system, following stories by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica that documented chaotic conditions in the state prisons.

Prison Reform, PrisonKatherine MitchellSeptember 6, 2019mississippi center for investigative reporting, SMCI, prison reform, mississippi prisons