OurTupelo

Mississippi continues to outperform most of the nation in education, according to a new report, but health outcomes for children remain dismal. 

The 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book, published annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, shows the state’s education ranking has held steady at 16th nationwide. Unchanged since last year, this ranking on education is Mississippi’s highest score ever, according to the foundation’s rubric. 

In other measures, though, Mississippi still struggles.

The report puts Mississippi at 49th for economic well-being, 50th for health and 49th for family and community. 

“When we think about children and families where the household head lacks a diploma, that’s tied to a chance of children living in poverty in that house,” said Ashley Parker Sheils, executive director of Children’s Foundation of Mississippi. “Every one of these indicators is an opportunity for us to work together to do better for the children of our state.”

Despite progress in categories that measure economic well-being and outcomes for families and communities, those rankings fell this year for Mississippi. States are ranked relative to each other. Other states also saw improvements, so Mississippi’s rankings fell slightly in those categories. The results put Mississippi at 50th in the country for overall child well-being compared to 48th last year. 

For the first time since the foundation began maintaining these child-centric data rankings in 1990, states received a comprehensive score in the Data Book, tracking a number of indicators from 2019 to 2024. Across the country, state education scores were the lowest of the four categories — education, health, economic well-being and family and community.

Louisiana and Mississippi were the only states to make progress in education during the five-year period, according to the KIDS COUNT data. The Data Book attributes the state’s success to investing in teacher training, strengthening early education infrastructure and passing the 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act. Experts say that helped raise reading proficiency among the state’s youngest students. 

“Mississippi’s continued progress is the result of effective work by our educators, supportive families throughout the years, and strong policies,” said Lance Evans, state superintendent of education, in a press release about the KIDS COUNT data. “We are proud of this milestone and remain committed to building on it for Mississippi students.”

Chronic absenteeism, however, remains an issue across the country and in Mississippi. The Data Book notes that chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% of the school year or 18 school days, among Mississippi students is 27.6% — more than double what was reported immediately prior to the pandemic.

State leaders have increasingly expressed concern about the chronic absenteeism rates in Mississippi. Absenteeism is directly tied to student achievement, and small schools in high-poverty districts are especially impacted.

Despite the state’s performance in education, Mississippi is still dead last in child health outcomes and had one of the sharpest drops in child health outcomes since 2019, according to the report.

Sheils said the findings were bittersweet. Her organization helps produce a factbook for the data each year, which provides county-specific information for local communities.

“You see the numbers and you have that moment of, ‘Should we just pack up and go home?’” she said. “There’s definitely disappointment … We must improve and do better for our children.”

TUPELO — Nearly 50 years after the death of Elvis Presley, a gaggle of exuberant boys and teens shook up his hometown, intent on keeping the king’s legacy alive for a new generation.

Ranging in age from 7 to 17, some in jeweled jumpsuits, they took the stage at the Tupelo Elvis Festival’s youth tribute artist competition last week.

In contrast to their peers, who may never have heard of Elvis, the competitors have dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy to embodying the king’s singing voice, mannerisms and style.

They are careful to specify they are Elvis tribute artists. Unlike impersonators, who pretend to be Elvis and sometimes present a characterized version of the king, tribute artists strive for authenticity. Some wore costumes created by B&K Enterprises Costume Co., a company licensed to recreate Elvis’ outfits and provide costumes for Elvis movies, musicals and TV shows.

“We’re not trying to be him,” said Tucker Gladden, 17, from Madison, Mississippi. “We want to recreate the experience as much as we can for people that maybe didn’t get to see Elvis in their lifetime.”

As for their fascination with a long-dead musician, several of the tribute artists credited the 2022 “Elvis” movie with sparking their interest. A couple said their admiration began after discovering they were distantly related to Elvis. Others said it was Elvis’ faith and charity that inspired them. Some said they had been performing Elvis songs since they were 3 years old.

For 16-year-old Ayden Maloy from Logansport, Indiana, it was the way Elvis’ music helped him during a difficult time in his life and motivated him to begin performing as an Elvis tribute artist three years ago.

“I just broke down in tears because it healed me,” Maloy said. “I think Elvis is the healer.”

In an afternoon of dazzling outfits and daring dance moves, the performers got the audience clapping, singing and swaying along to their Elvis covers. Ultimately, RJ Hursey, a 14-year-old from Bloomington, Illinois, won the competition.

Hursey, who inherited his love of Elvis from his grandfather, said he practices his tributes every day, and when he’s too sick to sing, he researches. He performs at nursing homes and assisted living facilities and hopes to someday star in a remake of an Elvis movie.

“It’s humbling,” Hursey said. “It makes you feel good because we know that he died thinking he’d be forgotten, and we’re just so glad he’s still around.”

While in Tupelo, the tribute artists also toured the Elvis Presley Birthplace, a sprawling complex that includes the home where Elvis was born and the church where he was first exposed to Southern gospel music.

“It feels so surreal to pay tribute to Elvis in his hometown,” said 15-year-old Charles Session from Morrilton, Arkansas. “I hope that he’s looking down and smiling at all these young performers.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case of Mississippi death row inmate Tony Terrell Clark, who argued there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him.

Clark, who will turn 46 this month, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2014 shooting death of a 13-year-old boy and the attempted murder of the boy’s father, who were both working at a convenience store in Canton. 

To date, the state has not requested an execution date for him. 

Although she agreed with the  decision not to hear Clark’s appeal, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a separate six-page statement to call out “the problematic standard” that the Mississippi Supreme Court applied in Clark’s case under Batson v. Kentucky in the context of a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington. 

In 1986, the nation’s high court ruled in Batson v. Kentucky that people could not be struck from jury service because of race, and it set up a test for trial judges to determine whether a strike is discriminatory. 

Two years earlier in 1984, the court in Strickland v. Washington established a test to determine when a defendant’s right to effective assistance of counsel was violated by inadequate representation. 

Sotomayor noted that the prosecution in Clark’s case struck Black prospective jurors at a rate more than five times that of white jurors and conducted dubious “special investigations into some of the most qualified Black prospective jurors in an attempt to disqualify them,” but did not investigate similarly situated white jurors. 

On Clark’s appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court, justices said his defense attorney didn’t present a “comparative analysis of minority and non-minority jurors to show disparate treatment” during the Baton proceedings. That led Clark to file a petition in state court, citing ineffective counsel.

Clark’s attorneys argued in a January petition that the Mississippi Supreme Court had refused to review his Batson claims stemming from trial. He also raised Batson challenges in post-conviction, which were denied. 

The state had used seven peremptory strikes against Black people during jury selection. His trial attorneys raised a challenge under Batson after five Black potential jurors were struck, which the state withdrew. During a second Batson hearing, the challenge was denied. 

That led to a jury with 11 white jurors, one Black juror and two white alternate jurors. 

In affirming his conviction and sentence in direct appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court wrote “(t)he case before us is not Flowers,” referencing the case of Curtis Flowers that Clark cited. Flowers, another Black Mississippi man convicted of capital murder, argued there was racial bias during his jury selection. 

The high court returned Flowers’ case to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2016, and after that court reaffirmed the conviction, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Flowers’ case. In 2019, it overturned his murder convictions and death sentence, leading to his release from prison over 20 years after the 1997 conviction. 

Other cases with Batson challenges have cited the Flowers case, including that of Terry Pitchford, with whom the U.S. Supreme Court sided on May 28. 

In Clark’s case, the state Supreme Court ruled that prejudice from his attorney’s ineffective presentation of the Batson claim requires proving not only that the claim would have succeeded but would have resulted in Clark’s acquittal.

“The Court should one day resolve the conflict outlined above and hold that Strickland does not require the kind of prejudice analysis that the Mississippi Supreme Court has adopted for Batson-related ineffectiveness claims,” Sotomayor wrote. 

She said Clark’s case, in its current procedural state, doesn’t present a “viable path” to resolve that conflict. 

In post-conviction, Clark’s attorneys also argued that he was intellectually disabled under Atkins v. Virginia, and therefore it is unconstitutional to execute him. In 2023, the Mississippi Supreme Court remanded his case to Madison County Circuit Court to hold an Atkins hearing. The trial court has granted experts access to Clark in prison, according to court records. 

He is pursuing post-conviction relief in Madison County Circuit Court based on Atkins v. Virginia, filing a petition for relief on the same day the high court’s decision. 

Rep. William R. “Bo” Brown, a Democratic state lawmaker from Jackson who was known for his long and wide-ranging career in public service, died on Monday, multiple state officials confirmed.

According to Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard, Brown, 81, died after a lengthy illness. Brown is survived by his wife, Imelda Brown, children and other family members. Fellow state officials remembered him as a stable leader who sought to find common ground.

De’Keither Stamps, a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission and former state representative, said Brown “represented a style of leadership that is becoming increasingly rare.”

“He was a steady and respected voice whose influence came from wisdom, not volume,” Stamps said. “He never needed to be the loudest person in the room to make an impact. Instead, he led through character, experience, humility and a genuine commitment to serving others. Bo was the kind of leader who commanded respect without demanding attention, and that is one of the many reasons he will be remembered and missed by so many.”

Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said Brown was a “dedicated public servant who cared deeply about Jackson and worked hard to improve the lives of those he represented.”

Brown earned a bachelor’s degree from Tennessee State University, a master’s degree from Jackson State University and a postgraduate certification from Santa Clara University in California, according to his legislative biography.

His long career in public service included working as a public school teacher and coach in Jackson to working for the federal government. He served in a public relations role at the U.S. Department of Justice and between 1972 and 1983, he worked as a program manager for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Brown then worked as a radio broadcaster, an insurance broker and as a Jackson City Council member, an office he held from 1997 to 2005. He was elected to the state House in 2019, serving on committees including Judiciary B, Medicaid and Transportation.

In 2024, he co-authored a bill that would have required the Department of Public Safety to create and maintain a database of officer misconduct incidents. It did not survive in the Republican-dominated Legislature. He also advocated for improvements to Jackson’s troubled water system.

State Rep. Kabir Karriem, chairman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, said Brown “leaves behind a legacy of service that will not be forgotten.”

“May we honor his life by continuing the work of building stronger communities and serving others with the same dedication he demonstrated throughout his life,” Karriem said.

After a blitz of congressional redistricting ahead of the midterm elections, a national battle for partisan control is about to enter a new phase that could affect representation on everything from tax rates to social safety net programs, teacher salaries, housing regulations and local road repairs.

Georgia’s Republican-led Legislature will convene June 17 for a special session focused on redistricting for the 2028 elections. The agenda includes new voting districts not only for Congress, but also for the state House and Senate — and potentially even the state’s utility regulatory commission.

It will mark the first time since a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened minority voting protections that a state legislature will attempt to redraw its own districts. Mississippi Republicans and New York Democrats also could undertake legislative redistricting before their 2027 and 2028 elections, respectively.

READ MORE: Mississippi Democrats fear big losses in Legislature from redistricting, vow to organize

READ MORE: ‘We’re ready to fight’: Thousands protest Mississippi redistricting and rally for voting rights

Ir remains to be seen, though, how many legislatures will follow, and whether the outburst of mid-decade redistricting will extend down to county commissions, city councils and school boards that make myriad decisions affecting people’s lives. The impact could be widespread.

“The stakes here are not political, they are deeply human,” said Joe Kennedy III, founder of Groundwork Project, a nonprofit that supports local civil rights and democracy organizations.

What’s fueling the redistricting movement?

Voting district boundaries typically are redrawn once a decade after each U.S. census to account for population changes. But last summer, President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw congressional districts to try to win additional seats in the midterm elections. Other states followed with their own partisan gerrymandering.

Then a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in late April jumpstarted even more redistricting. The court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana as an illegal racial gerrymander, providing grounds for Republicans in other states to reshape districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

Why is Georgia redrawing its districts?

A federal judge ruled in 2023 that some of Georgia’s congressional, state Senate and state House districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory manner. The Legislature quickly approved revised maps with new majority-Black districts, though they resulted in little change to Republican majorities in the 2024 elections.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has called lawmakers into special session to again redraw districts in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Louisiana case. That could allow Republicans to undo the court-ordered changes they made in 2023 and potentially redraw other Democratic-held minority districts to the GOP’s advantage.

Republicans have yet to unveil details of their plans. But Democratic state Rep. Tanya Miller, who is running for attorney general, denounced the upcoming redistricting as a means of “rigging maps to maintain power.”

How many seats are at stake?

Several months before the Supreme Court ruling, a report by Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter forecast that Republicans in 10 Southern states could eliminate 191 Democratic-held legislative seats — including 140 districts with Black or Hispanic majorities — if the Supreme Court gutted federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities.

“If anything, our report was an understatement,” Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter, recently told The Associated Press. “What’s at stake is the future of this democracy.”

Other analysts don’t expect that many seats to be redistricted. But they do expect the Supreme Court’s decision to ripple through states.

“We’re going to potentially see a lot of frenzied efforts at every level, including at the local level, to try out undoing district maps and configurations that have performed quite well in providing improved representation for communities of color,” said Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Washington office of the Brennan Center for Justice.

What states have pending court cases?

The precedent from the recent Supreme Court decision already is being applied in several states. In light of the ruling, a federal appeals court is allowing Alabama to use a state Senate map approved by Republican lawmakers in this year’s election instead of one imposed by a federal judge who found the state had diluted the voting power of Black residents. The change affects two state Senate districts in the Montgomery area.

The Supreme Court has sent legislative redistricting cases filed on behalf of Black voters in Mississippi and Native Americans in North Dakota back to lower courts for further consideration in light of its Louisiana decision. The Washington attorney general has asked the Supreme Court to do the same for legislative redistricting cases involving Hispanic voters in that state.

What’s stopping states from redistricting?

About half the states have provisions in their constitutions prohibiting mid-decade redistricting of state legislative seats, said Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who runs the “All About Redistricting” website.

But even in states where it’s allowed, lawmakers may have fewer reasons to redraw their own districts than those for Congress, Levitt said. Politicians who promoted congressional redistricting for the 2026 midterms often justified it as a way to counter gerrymandering in other states and win as many seats as possible for their party. They had extra motivation because a swing of only a few seats nationally in the November elections could affect control of the closely divided U.S. House.

By contrast, most state legislative chambers already are dominated by one party.

”There’s a lot less incentive, if you already control the state legislature by 10 or 12 seats, to eke out an incremental one or two at the expense of really ticking off your own party membership, or at the expense of maybe risking losing seats in a broader way,” Levitt said.

Could local governments also redraw districts?

The Supreme Court decision making it more difficult to prove Voting Rights Act violations already has affected some local governments.

Plaintiffs have voluntarily dismissed a challenge to commission districts in Meriwether County, Georgia. A federal court has accepted new legal briefs in a challenge to Board of Supervisors districts in DeSoto County, Mississippi. And Indiana’s attorney general has asked a federal appeals court to take note of the Louisiana case when deciding a challenge to how judges are selected in Lake County.

Over roughly the past four decades, data from the University of Michigan shows that cities, counties and school boards have been involved in more than three-fifths of the 466 lawsuits alleging violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which forbids providing minorities less opportunity than other voters to elect the representatives of their choice.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean local governments will rush to redistrict as a result of a weakened Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court decision cleared the way for officials to justify redistricting based on partisan ambitions. But many local offices are officially nonpartisan.

Warning: This story contains detailed descriptions of the manner of suicide in prison. 

Nearly three months into a 10-year sentence for a drive-by shooting, Denise Short asked prison staffers at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl to place her on suicide watch. The 21-year-old mother had planned to take her own life, she told them in March 2024. 

Prison officials ignored Short’s request, which would have required frequent well-being checks and other moves to keep her from harming herself. Instead, they locked her in what the department calls a “segregation” cell, or “restrictive housing”— or what is more commonly known as solitary confinement, according to a lawsuit filed by her family. She was left alone behind a steel door with a narrow sliver for a window.

A day later, correctional officers found Short’s body hanging from a state-issued bedsheet, the lawsuit alleges. 

“There were so many opportunities to help Denise,” said Jenessa Hicks, a lawyer representing Short’s family. But at every turn, said Hicks, Short was denied the help she needed. 

Short is one of at least 47 people who died by suicide while in restrictive housing units in Mississippi’s prisons between 2015 and 2025, according to an investigation by The Marshall Project, Mississippi Today and the Clarion Ledger. The team reviewed prison housing histories, disciplinary records, death incident reports, police records, lawsuits and autopsies.

Among the findings: 

• Nearly 75% of the incarcerated people who died by suicide were housed in restrictive housing units, where well-being checks are supposed to happen more frequently than in the general population — twice per hour, no more than 40 minutes apart. In some cases, rigor mortis had set in by the time a person was found, signaling that they had been dead for hours. 

• Many of the incarcerated people who killed themselves had a history of self-harm or previous suicide attempts that were known to prison officials. 

• The Mississippi Department of Corrections continues to use solitary confinement to house people who are diagnosed with mental illnesses, despite national studies, federal lawsuits against the agency, and United Nations testimonies that show the practice heightens the risk of suicide and worsens mental health conditions. Solitary confinement can also trigger mental health issues in people who have not been previously diagnosed. According to MDOC’s standard operating policies, placement in restrictive housing — what the Justice Department defines as any housing condition where someone is locked in a room alone or with one other person for the vast majority of the day — can only be used when someone poses a risk or threat to themself, others, staff, facility security or property, or has committed a major rule violation such as violence, gang activity or possession of contraband.

According to MDOC’s standard operating policies, placement in restrictive housing — what the Justice Department defines as any housing condition where someone is locked in a room alone or with one other person for the vast majority of the day — can only be used when someone poses a risk or threat to themself, others, staff, facility security or property, or has committed a major rule violation such as violence, gang activity or possession of contraband.

Before someone is sent to restrictive housing, a medical staff member is supposed to review an incarcerated person’s medical record for any conditions, including those related to mental and physical health, “that could be detrimental to confinement,” according to MDOC policy. 

MDOC spokesperson Kate Head said the department uses restrictive housing “as a last resort for housing an inmate who poses a threat to themselves, property, staff, other inmates, and/or the operation of the facility.”

Nationwide, half of all suicides in prisons and jails occur in solitary confinement, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

A 2024 study found that solitary confinement increased the likelihood of suicidal ideation, even more than incarceration without solitary confinement. Another 2021 study in the Lancet Journal listed occupation of a single-person cell and no social visits as risk factors contributing to the heightened risk of suicide. The practice has also been linked to self-harm, chronic stress, anxiety, trouble sleeping and difficulties with memory and concentration. 

Solitary confinement is especially harmful to people with mental illnesses, said Terry Kupers, a forensic psychiatrist and nationally recognized expert on solitary confinement. It is often used to warehouse difficult incarcerated people whom corrections staff don’t know how to handle, he said. 

“The more inadequate the mental health treatment in a correctional system, the more people with mental illness are sent to solitary. It’s just a matter of convenience,” Kupers said.

The United Nations and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care both state that solitary confinement should never exceed 15 days. At one Mississippi facility, incarcerated people classified as “close custody” stayed in restrictive housing for an average of 515 days, a 2022 investigation by the Justice Department found. One man who died by hanging had been in solitary confinement on death row for 20 years.

Mississippi is “unfortunate, but not alone,” in its continued use of solitary confinement, Kupers said. He has testified as an expert witness in multiple lawsuits against the state, including one that resulted in the 2010 closure of a solitary confinement unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. 

Other prison systems in the Deep South have grappled with the use of solitary confinement and its impact. 

A class action lawsuit over a solitary confinement program led to Georgia State Prison being shut down in 2022. The facility, which specialized in housing and caring for those with serious mental illness, was the site of nearly one-third of all suicides in the Georgia corrections system, according to the Southern Center for Human Rights, which represented the incarcerated people in solitary.

In Alabama, a federal judge ruled in 2017 that mental health care in the state’s prisons was “horrendously inadequate” and violated the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment. At the time, the state’s prison suicide rate was four times the national average. 

The Justice Department sued Alabama over numerous constitutional violations in its prisons. The state responded by increasing funding to the corrections system and embarked on building a $1 billion prison that is expected to be complete this year.

Since 2009, nearly 40 states have enacted legislation to limit solitary confinement for adults and juveniles in prisons, jails and youth detention. The one law passed by Mississippi on limiting solitary confinement is narrowly focused on pregnant people. Passed in 2021, it states prison staff can’t place them in solitary unless there is a reasonable belief they may harm themselves or the fetus, or they are a flight risk. 

To date, no state has fully ended the use of solitary. Washington banned its use in private detention facilities in 2023, only to undo that law two years later.  

States have been successful in enacting laws to prevent vulnerable groups of people from being placed in restrictive housing, including those with serious mental illness, those who are pregnant or postpartum, and those who are caring for children. Other laws have required prisons and jails to report their use of solitary confinement and training for corrections officers and law enforcement about its use. 

The torturous conditions in Mississippi’s restrictive housing units make them “breeding grounds for suicide, self-inflicted injury, fires, and assaults,” a 2024 investigation by the Justice Department found.

“All they do is beat, bang and cry,” said one incarcerated man interviewed by the Justice Department at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. 

‘Why y’all always refusing me medical treatment?’

Brandon Mitchell cried out for help repeatedly before he died by suicide in solitary confinement at East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian in 2021. EMCF is a privately run facility that incarcerates prisoners with mental illnesses. Approximately 75% of residents at the facility have a diagnosed mental health condition, according to Emily Lawhead, a spokesperson for Management & Training Corp., which operates the prison. 

For nearly three years, Mitchell was in restrictive housing for all but two weeks. He was otherwise shuffled between a medical unit and camp support, a smaller unit for people needing acute mental health treatment.

Two weeks before his death, a mental health nurse wrote in her notes that Mitchell was acting out “all to get attention.” 

For at least 10 months before his death, Mitchell had recurring mental health episodes, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of his estate. He cut his arms. He set fires. He broke his cell window. He tied a jumpsuit around his neck. He was kept in solitary. He told security and mental health staff that he was suicidal, asked for medication and to be taken out of his cell. He said he felt like he wasn’t being taken seriously.

“Why y’all always refusing me medical treatment?” he asked a nurse, according to the lawsuit.

Self-harm is a psychiatric emergency, Kupers said. In prison, behaviors that could be manifestations of mental illness are treated as disciplinary violations, making it harder for those in solitary confinement to get out, and perpetuating what Kupers called a “vicious cycle” of despair.

“People tend to self-harm, go to suicide watch for days or a week, and get sent back to solitary,” Kupers said. “A suicide crisis is not over in a few days.” 

A review of disciplinary reports for self-harm showed incarcerated people cut themselves with razors, glass and other sharpened objects; swallowed batteries; and attempted to hang themselves with clothing or bedsheets — all while they were supposed to be under supervision. 

These acts of self-mutilation were punished with loss of canteen or telephone privileges, isolation and restitution — requiring the incarcerated person to pay for medical expenses. 

The frequent self-harm episodes are also indicative of security failures that make it easier to carry out a suicide. 

“The idea that a person is in segregation and is actively asking for help, and the response, oddly enough, is to further isolate the person, is really a head-scratcher for me,” said Andrea Armstrong, a nationally recognized researcher on deaths in custody.  

Preventable deaths, including suicides, happen when prisons fail at their core functions, Armstrong said. These responsibilities include attentive supervision, services such as mental health treatment and security around the facility’s outside perimeter. 

Consistent understaffing, poor recordkeeping that improperly places people in restrictive housing, and lax oversight that allows illegal drugs to flow through the system all contribute to these failures, making it easier to die by suicide or homicide in these facilities. 

MDOC policy requires frequent checks on people who are in restrictive housing, especially those who are “violent or mentally disordered or who demonstrate unusual or bizarre behavior.” The policy also states that those who are suicidal should be under continuous observation.

Chronic understaffing often prevents checks with that frequency. 

The Justice Department’s 2024 investigation found that the Central Mississippi prison, where Short would later die, was operating with less than half the staff needed. The state auditor’s office is demanding a $7.4 million penalty from the private company that runs EMCF, where Mitchell died, for failure to provide the minimum mandatory staff to run the prison, as a 2020 investigation by The Marshall Project revealed. 

The Justice Department’s 2022 investigation at Parchman, another Mississippi facility, revealed that some corrections officers had falsified count sheets, claiming that they had done security checks when they had not.

In the absence of staff, some — like Mitchell — resort to extreme behaviors, such as setting fires and self-harm, to draw staff members’ attention to the largely unsupervised units.

When staff are present, they serve as de facto gatekeepers to health care. In order to see a medical professional, incarcerated people have to fill out a “sick call” form, which is handled by corrections officers. 

Those sick calls are sometimes ignored, said attorney Greta Kemp Martin, formerly with Disability Rights Mississippi. The organization monitored Mississippi prisons and filed a lawsuit in 2021 against MDOC, corrections staff and VitalCore, the department’s private healthcare contractor, alleging inadequate medical care. 

Corrections officers, who are not trained mental health professionals, are the first responders to psychiatric emergencies. 

In a 2020 self-harm incident documented in an MDOC rule violation report, a corrections officer ordered an incarcerated person at EMCF to stop cutting himself. When the prisoner did not stop, the officer sprayed him with a chemical. He was then punished with a 30-day loss of all privileges. 

“Even when you are imprisoned for committing a crime, you still deserve to be treated with basic human dignity and not completely disregarded and have your cries for help be totally ignored,” said Hicks, the lawyer representing Denise Short’s family. 

Short’s lawsuit alleges that when she notified one MDOC employee of her suicidal thoughts, the employee responded, “Do what you have to do.” 

MDOC denied that, according to the lawsuit. 

At the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility where Short died, her family’s lawyer alleges major discrepancies between what prison records show about the timing of her check-ins and her death and what video evidence shows. Short was last seen alive between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on March 19, 2024, her family’s lawsuit alleges. An MDOC employee says they saw her through a narrow cell door window at 6 a.m. the next day and believed she was standing. But lawyer Jenessa Hicks said video evidence shows that Short was already hanging by that point. She was discovered dead at 8:20 a.m. that same day. 

The news team requested logs that would reveal if anyone checked on Short in the hours leading up to her death, but MDOC did not provide them by the time of this publication.

Mitchell’s case also raises serious questions about the frequency of check-ins. When he was found dead in his cell on the morning of April 24, 2021, his body was cold and stiff. Rigor mortis had set in. 

Grant McLaughlin, who now works for Lagniappe Daily, contributed to this report. He has continued working on this project since he was a reporter at the Clarion Ledger.

This article was published in partnership with Mississippi Today, The Marshall Project – Jackson, a nonprofit news team covering Mississippi’s criminal justice systems, and the Clarion Ledger.

BEAR LAKE, Idaho – These fingers last typed about my good friend and former Clarion Ledger co-worker Mike Knobler in February of 2022. Mike had returned to Mississippi to run in the Mississippi Blues Marathon, which he completed, making Mississippi the 36th state in which he had successfully run a 26.2 mile race.

You can read that column here, and it will give you some needed background about why I write about him again today. You see, that’s when Mike, a former sports writer-turned-international tax attorney, told me he was getting close to his goal of running marathons in all 50 states. Thirty-six down, 14 to go, he told me. And that’s when I told him that should he make it to 50, I’d be there.

So here we were, on a sunny Friday morning where Mike, at age 62, finished the hilly Bear Lake Idaho Marathon course, all 26.2 miles with a view of the lovely, aqua waters of Bear Lake and with the scenic Bear River Mountains serving as a backdrop. The race was run at an elevation of 6,000 feet, adding to the course’s difficulty, but Mike finished smiling and raising a triumphant fist. He won the 60-70 age group’s first prize, finishing in 3 hours, 56 minutes.

“Beautiful course, lots of hills,” he said, after shaking hands and sharing sweaty hugs with well-wishers. The race director/announcer made a big deal about Mike having completed the 50-state achievement, which led to cheering and to other runners, mostly much younger than he, approaching to congratulate him. The guess here is if you’ve just run a 26.2 miles, you really appreciate someone who has done it over 50 times in all 50 states.

Later, I asked Mike how it felt to achieve such a remarkable goal, all the more impressive when you realize he did not start running until he was 40, 22 years and about 55 pounds ago. He thought for a few seconds before answering.

“It’s weird, because I am not your traditional goals-setting person,” he said. “I usually adapt rather than commit, but this is the exception. It feels good. There’s definitely a sense of accomplishment. I surely didn’t expect to do this when I started running. But once I got about halfway through the states, I thought to myself, ‘Hey, yeah, I can do this.’”

And so he has. He has also run seven additional marathons for 57 total, including Boston three times. For most of these marathons, he has flown his own plane to and from. It’s the same plane — a single engine, Mooney M20J – he once flew around Mississippi and the Deep South to cover sports events.

I asked him how his aging parents, both former UCLA physics/chemistry professors, felt about his accomplishment.

“It’s weird,” he answered. “Mine is not an athletic family. We’ve been watchers, rather than doers. I think my marathon running has made me kind of a curiosity to them. Come to think of it, I think maybe I am a curiosity to a lot of people.”

If he has been a curiosity until now, wait until you learn what is next for Mike Knobler: 26 countries.

After spending Friday night in nearby Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Mike flew his Mooney into and across Canada. From near the northeastern tip of Canada, he will fly across the Atlantic to Greenland and from there to Finland, where next Saturday he will begin his next goal, 25 marathons in 25 weeks, in 25 different countries. Over the next 11 months, he plans to literally fly around the world.

The marathon schedule is mind-boggling: from Finland, to Norway (the Midnight Sun Marathon), to Belgium, to Austria, to Montenegro, to England, to Germany, to Wales, to the Isle of Man, to Denmark, to Iceland, to Sweden, to Ireland, to Moldova, to the Czech Republic, to Poland, to the Netherlands, to Hungary, to Slovenia, to Morocco (Casablanca), to Turkey, to Greece (Athens, where he will run the original marathon course), to Cyprus, to Spain, to France. Counting the Bear Lake Marathon, that will make 26 marathons in 26 weeks, in 26 countries, all run by a 62-year-old man, flying from race to race in his own plane. What’s your hobby?

“You don’t have to be a great athlete to run marathons,” Mike said. “You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

To do it for half a year – 26 times in 26 countries, you also have to be retired. Mike has retired – at least for now – from lawyering. Until last Thursday, he lived in Malibu. But he closed down his apartment, put his furniture in storage and has headed off into an adventure most of us can only imagine.

Danny Knobler, his older brother, was here to see him complete his 50 in 50 goal and will fly with him to Finland for the first European marathon, but Mike will travel the rest solo. You should know that Danny, formerly an accomplished baseball writer, now lives in Thailand where he owns a sports bar. These Knoblers live interesting lives.

After 26 marathons in 26 weeks, Mike’s plan is to see much of the rest of the world. His tentative itinerary will take him to Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, back to Australia, Philippines, Japan and, finally, Alaska. Because of weather, the flight from Japan to Alaska can’t happen before May, so he’ll have December until May to visit those countries.

His biggest challenge running-wise over the next 25 weeks? Surprisingly, he says it’s not running a marathon every week. He already accomplished three marathons in three weeks last year, running marathons in Connecticut, Minnesota and Iowa on consecutive Saturdays.

No, the biggest challenge will come in three trail marathons, which he calls “a whole different kettle of fish.” Those marathons will be run on difficult terrain, rather than paved roads, forcing him to often change stride and direction to avoid obstacles and keep his balance to avoid falling. One of the trail marathons is in Montenegro, where the elevation rise 6,000 feet during the course of the race. That’s equivalent to going up about 600 flights of uneven stairs over 26.2 miles. The course is so difficult that race organizers place a nine-hour time limit on participants.

Mike believes he can do it. “My goal for the trail marathons is to put in reasonable effort and have some fun,” he said. “My goal for all the road marathons is to finish in under four hours.”

That would keep his record perfect. He has started 57 marathons. He has finished 57 marathons.

Flying-wise, the biggest challenge is the last leg, from Japan to Alaska. “Getting across the Pacific is the biggest challenge of flying around the world,” he says, and I’ll take his word for it.

“Russia could make it easier, but they won’t,” Mike said.

WIth this adventure in mind, Mike changed his four-seat Mooney into a two-seat plane. What was once the back two seats now holds a 150-gallon ferry gas tank.

You may wonder, as I, what Mike plans to do next after 50 marathons in 50 states and then 25 marathons in 25 weeks in 25 countries?

The answer? He doesn’t know. Remember, this sports writer-turned-lawyer’s nature is to adapt, rather than commit. Safe to say, he adapts – and at least once commits – quite well.

•••

Read more about Mike Knobler’s marathoning here.

The immense power of the seven-member Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board is being displayed as it contemplates closing a Canton school – SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy – for alleged money woes.

The Board is expected to make a decision later this summer. But will that decision be constitutional?

SR1 is one of 12 charter schools currently in operation in Mississippi after being approved by the state Authorizer Board. Those schools cumulatively receive about $50 million annually in state and local funding, plus additional federal funding, making the Authorizer Board responsible for more public money than most of Mississippi’s agencies, boards and commissions.

Supporters have long argued that charter schools overseen by the Authorizer Board are public schools. The primary differences between charter and traditional public schools are that charters do not have to adhere to some of the rules and regulations of traditional schools, and students have to apply and agree to certain conditions to be admitted to a charter school.

When the charter schools were finally approved in the mid-2010s after a hotly contested legislative debate, the Authorizer Board also was created to oversee the new public schools.

The creation of the Authorizer Board was eye-opening since the charter schools were touted as public schools  and the Mississippi Constitution is clear about which public entity administers public schools.

Ed Board, not Authorizer Board, in constitution

Section 203 of the Mississippi Constitution, approved by voters in 1982, clearly states that the nine-member Mississippi Board of Education, in the old days referred to as a lay Board of Education, would oversee public schools. The members of the Board of Education are appointed on a rotating basis by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. Members of the Charter School Authorizer Board are appointed by the governor and lieutenant governor, along with one person from the Mississippi Department of Education, presumably appointed by the state Board of Education. Members of both boards face Senate confirmation.

It was viewed as a seminal event when voters approved the “lay state Board of Education” as part of Gov. William Winter’s  education reform efforts of the early 1980s, an effort to take education out of the hands of politicians. Previously, the state Board consisted of three statewide elected officials: the superintendent of education, the attorney general and the secretary of state.

Section 203 of the state constitution says the Board of Education “shall manage and invest school funds according to law, formulate policies according to law for implementation by the state Department of Education, and perform such other duties as prescribed by law.”

The Charter School Authorizer Board is not in the Mississippi Constitution. It was not approved by voters. It was created by a law passed by the Mississippi Legislature.

Normally, at least according to ninth grade civics most Mississippians of an older age took, a law does not trump the constitution.

Supreme Court says charter schools are public

The Mississippi Supreme Court also has weighed in to proclaim charter schools are indeed public schools. That ruling came after a group of Jackson parents challenged the constitutionality of local public money being diverted to charter schools.

In the 2019 majority decision, Justice Robert Chamberlin, who is now a federal judge in the Northern District of Mississippi, wrote: “In other words, charter schools are not established as a separate school district and remain a public school of the local school district for the purposes of Article 8, Section 206.”

Section 206 of the Mississippi Constitution requires the Legislature to establish funds for the public schools and gives local governments the authority to provide additional money to the schools.

Thus far, no one has challenged whether it is constitutional for the Authorizer Board instead of the state Board of Education to oversee the charter schools.

And truth be known, it seems unlikely that the current Mississippi Supreme Court would buck the wishes of Gov. Tate Reeves and Republican legislative leaders who support charter schools. Many lawmakers who are still in office voted to create the Authorizer Board. And let’s just say the current Supreme Court has been reluctant to rule against the state’s political leadership.

But still, if charter schools are public schools, then why are they not administered by the Board of Education like the Mississippi Constitution mandates?

The goal of the newly opened Delta Harvest Neighborhood Market is to support Mississippi farmers and Jackson shoppers with fresh, locally-grown foods.

The market opened Thursday at the Jackson Medical Mall. It will be open 2 p.m.-7 p.m. every Thursday at the same location.

Shoppers lined up on the first day to purchase vegetables, meat, eggs, meal kits and more. Many customers left with their food in reusable bags bearing the market’s logo. The farmers themselves and volunteers helped customers shop and check out.

The market was created by a partnership among several community organizations, including the Itta Bena Economic & Cultural Alliance, the Jackson District Missionary Baptist Association and the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative.

Tracy Johnson, a consultant with the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, organized the market.

“Our goal is to connect farmers to communities that we can provide with healthier foods, but also that we’ll be able to pay the farmers more,” he said.

“The whole thing is about reviving this economy.”

Johnson explained that all of the money spent at the market stays in Mississippi, from the farmers and their helpers to the volunteers at the market who ring up customers.

He said the market is a pilot. If the model is successful, organizers will change the hours and expand into multiple locations. It currently supports five farmers, all from the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative farmer’s cooperative, Southern Black Women in Agriculture.

Organizers hope to support up to 30 farmers.

One of the farmers participating in the initial market was Patricia Porter. She described herself as a “hardworking farmer.” She sold banana peppers at the market, but she also produces peas, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and more.

She was happy with the turnout.

“It gets you out to other people to know that you’re growing healthy food and good stuff coming out of the garden,” Porter said.

Other members of the co-op were there, as was Myra Bryant, a consultant who works with them.

Fellow farmer and co-op member Nadean Randle also sold food at the market. She spoke passionately about the importance of eating whole foods and how the desire to help others do so led her to becoming a farmer.

“You want to know that you’re eating food, not food-like substances,” she said.

“I say, if it will not rot, it’s not real food. Except for honey.”

Bryant believes organizers can bring in up to 100 farmers from across the state.

“Our number one goal is to feed the families here in Jackson, Mississippi,” she said.

Three customers came with the goal of supporting local farmers and finding high quality food.

Dot Smith, 70, wanted to support farmers from her hometown, Lexington. She bought sweet potatoes and banana peppers.

“It’s always important to support … Black people or growers. And you know, the Delta is one of the finest growing places there is,” she said.

Pamela Hurston, 62, is a Jackson native who bought some mixed greens, which she plans to use in a Sunday meal.

“I know the history of the Delta, and how they’re working hard to … have their own, create their own.” she said.

“So they take a part of their own and bring it here for us to take part in it? I say, yeah. I just wanted to be a part of it.”

Joseph Latham, 26, is a graduate assistant at the Jackson Medical Mall. He didn’t buy anything on Thursday, but plans to return. He’s been meaning to switch to getting his groceries locally.

“I know for sure with it being locally owned, especially Black locally-owned, that I’m definitely going to get my money’s worth,” Latham said.