Tameshia Shelton is serving life for murder. But was the death involved really a suicide?

News, Mississippi News, Prison, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellJanuary 17, 2022wrongly imprisoned, Tameshia Shelton, life sentence, Danelle Young, state pathologist, Dr. Funte, Mississippi Innocence Project, innocent, suicide or murder

‘Dead zone’ leads innocent man to spend six years behind bars

Duane Lake spent six years locked up in a jail cell in Clarksdale for a triple murder he didn’t commit.

News, Mississippi News, Prison, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellJanuary 12, 2022Mississippi inmate, Duane Lake, dead zone, Coahoma County Jail, Triple homicide, not guilty, wrongly imprisoned, innocent, no legal representation, murder, public defender, six years, jailed, Clarksdale

Burl Cain vows to turn shuttered prison into haven of hope, hell for predators.

If Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain has his way, a shuttered prison will become a haven of hope for addicted inmates — and a hell for inmates that prey on others.

News, Mississippi News, Prison, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellDecember 14, 2021Mississippi inmate, Burl Cain, walnut grove, walnut grove correctional facility, Billie jenkins, inmate killed, inmate murder, Joni collins, 4 corner hustlers, vice lords, CMCF, Central Mississippi Correctional facility, addiction program

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

Despite new state law, dozens imprisoned in Mississippi for nonviolent acts will never get paroled

Convicted of second degree murder, third degree murder and manslaughter in the slaying of George Floyd, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin could be released on parole in 15 years.

In Mississippi, Tameka Drummer went to prison in 2008 for possessing less than 2 ounces of marijuana but will never see life beyond bars, despite a new state parole eligibility law going into effect Thursday.

News, Mississippi News, Prison, Prison ReformKatherine MitchellJune 28, 2021parole, prison sentence, life without parole, non-violent offenses, Tameka Drummer, Earned parole eligibility act, habitual offender laws, Mississippi law, SB 2795

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

Did the US Supreme Court just flip-flop on juvenile lifers?

For nearly two decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has chipped away at harsh punishment for juveniles convicted in homicides.

News, Prison, Prison ReformJerry MitchellApril 22, 2021Supreme Court, Miller v. Alabama, Brett Kavanaugh, Brett Jones

These teens escaped life without parole. But they will still die in prison.

Frederick Pritchett is expected to leave prison in 2111 for crimes he committed as a teenager.
By then, he’ll be 116 years old — if he lives that long.

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

Charged at 13, still awaiting trial at 16: ‘He is mentally incapable of understanding what is going on,’ sister says

Born into a household rife with crack cocaine, Quindaris Burress, the youngest of four siblings, was left in an environment no child should ever know, his sister, Alexis Hill, says.

Mississippi News, Prison, NewsKatherine MitchellFebruary 8, 2021juvenile offender, black juveniles, young inmates, youth, Quindaris Burress, Henry Adams Jr, capital murder, charged as adult, Baldwyn, Lesley Adams Berry, Equal Justice Intiative, Jimmie E. Gates

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