Mississippi Parole Board Chairman Jeffrey Belk said he has no plans to change the board’s approach to parole, despite the state leading the world in mass incarceration.
Read MoreA federal investigation into allegations of corruption at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility has led to the removal of 10 employees.
Read MoreMississippi’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.
Read MorePARCHMAN, 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.
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreState 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.
Read MoreConfronted 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.
Read MoreJACKSON, 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.
Read MoreOne 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.
Read MoreMississippi has saved a lot of money on its prisons over the past several years. But as the experiences of next-door neighbor Alabama show, rampant violence and understaffing can eventually draw scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department, with potentially costly consequences.
Read MoreLEAKESVILLE, Miss. — Jeffery Wilemon clutched his gut, throbbing in pain as he lay on his bed inside the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in April. But there was no way for him to cry out — not unless he wanted another beating.
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