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CENTREVILLE — Dysfunctional leadership and low academic achievement have been a challenge in the Wilkinson County School District for at least six years, according to past superintendents, district parents and a review of documents from three state agencies. 

The Mississippi Board of Education voted in January to take over the district in the rural southwestern corner of the state, where schools have posted some of the lowest scores in math and reading on state assessments since the 2018-19 school year.

Leaders’ decision to close two schools forced students from rival communities of Centreville and Woodville to attend classes together, spurring fights.

School board meetings sometimes devolved into name calling, and the group’s financial decisions raised questions and concerns about whether they complied with state law. 

As of January, district officials had not submitted a financial audit since the 2023 fiscal year, and they had indicated a $1.7 million deficit in the budget outlook for the current school year.

The district’s struggles reflect those in the community, former Wilkinson County leaders and school administrators told Mississippi Today. In the county, one of the most rural in the state, almost 30% of residents live in poverty. Some of the largest employers are the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, a private prison.

Mobile homes and A-frame homes are situated in thick forest off roads that cut through bluffs in Centreville, a rural community without a bank. Ancient live oak trees hug the 19th century courthouse in Woodville, which boasts a downtown populated by small businesses.

The district student population decreased by half in the last six years, from 1,210 to 648, and the county population has similarly shrunk as locals sought opportunities in Louisiana, which borders Wilkinson County to the west and south.

As L.C. Clark, the former chief of the district’s campus police, put it: The children of Wilkinson County haven’t yet had the opportunity to succeed. Others including Hope Price, whose child attended Wilkinson County High, said they feel it will take greater parental involvement to change a school and community culture that normalized dysfunction.

“When (some parents) found out that the state had taken over the school, they were on Facebook rejoicing,” Price recalled. “And it’s crazy to me. You have no school board, no superintendent. Why are you excited about that?”

Some parents were eager to see the outgoing superintendent punished, she said. 

Now, the district has an opportunity to return to its “glory days,” Interim Superintendent Lee Henry Coats said.

School closings fuel fights

For now, there is bad blood between some residents of Centreville and Woodville, two similarly sized towns roughly 14 miles apart, and the strife spills over into the district’s schools, according to more than a dozen locals who spoke to Mississippi Today. The ensuing clashes started before the two cities’ high schools were football rivals.

Price, of Woodville, said her son was sent to the district alternative school after defending a friend who got into a fight with a student from Centreville on a school bus. 

“They see each other at school after they’re done beefing on social media,” Price said. “It’s where it all comes out.”

The rivalry worsened when district officials decided to shutter both schools in Centreville. The elementary school closed after a 2019 fire, and William Winan Middle School shut down in 2024 despite being renovated in the last decade.

The school closings meant a longer commute for Centreville students and injured pride for alumni. Linton Trahan, an alumnus, had to start waking up his grandchildren at dawn to catch the school bus for the long ride to Woodville.

“You can’t teach them discipline at home if they can’t do nothing but get up, go to school and come back and go to bed,” he said. “And then they get tired and can’t learn because they fall asleep in class.”

A dysfunctional school board

Discipline programs aren’t limited to students. 

Wilkinson County locals may not agree on much, but most who spoke to Mississippi Today pointed to five people they blame for the district’s decline: school board members. Two state agencies have investigated whether board members’ financial decisions and actions broke state law. 

The State Auditor’s Office found that in fiscal year 2023, the school board approved financial statements and paid vendors without presenting the buys at its meetings. The board also accepted bids for consulting fees without reviewing cheaper alternatives and couldn’t account for some expenditures that were $5,000 to $72,000. One invoice was billed incorrectly and another was split in half to circumvent state purchasing law. 

In October, the state Department of Education sent district leaders a letter about allegations that school board members were interfering in the district’s daily operations. The letter states that President Fred Anderson, whose service was terminated as part of the state takeover, had not completed training required under state law. The letter also cited allegations that board member Elease Sullivan, whose service was also terminated, had “expressed concerns” about her daughter’s salary — a conflict of interest, texted other board members about hiring a new football coach after a losing season and arranged an impromptu walkthrough of the high school without the superintendent’s approval.

Two former Wilkinson County superintendents accused board members of violating the state open meetings law and discussing school district business outside of the boardroom. One recalled chaotic board meetings where board members would engage in name calling and make it difficult to fund supplemental pay for teachers and other priorities that would directly impact students in the classroom.

It seemed that serving on the school board “created a level of significance for them, for people to stop in the grocery store or stop at church and want to talk to you,” former Superintendent Kimberly Jackson said of board members’ behavior. Some board members also seemed to enjoy traveling to conferences on the district’s dime, she said. 

Clark, who was a campus police officer for the district for more than 15 years, said he felt ignored by several school board members he thought were out of touch with parents’ and community members’ concerns. He said board meeting minutes were not readily available.

“If you didn’t catch the board member out and talk to them, they weren’t going to talk to you,”Clark said. “To me, they couldn’t have done it any better than getting rid of the board.”

Academics in free fall

After she was hired as Wilkinson County Schools’ superintendent in July 2023, Shemekia Rankin said she struggled to change the dysfunctional school culture and improve test scores. She said she encountered staff who were complacent and willing to pull rank with the help of board members.

“There was no structure,” Rankin said. “So with me coming in, putting new policies in place, teachers and other staff pushed against me. Some left. They didn’t want the culture to change.”

A 2023 report on district instruction backed up some of Rankin’s observations. The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER), which monitors state agencies, contracted an education technology firm to analyze information about instruction at 30 school districts, including Wilkinson County. The consultant’s analysis indicated significant grade inflation in Wilkinson County schools because about 90% of district fourth and fifth graders received As and Bs but less than a quarter of elementary students scored as proficient on state standardized tests.

Rankin said she faced additional hurdles while filling principal vacancies. In her first semester, the high school principal died, the elementary school principal resigned, and a counselor was serving as the middle school principal. Rankin said she was unable to find replacements by end of year due to low job interest and a small applicant pool. 

“Year one was bound to be an F,” Rankin said of the district’s accountability grade. “I didn’t have effective leadership at any of the schools.”

She also struggled to fill teacher vacancies in state tested subjects such as algebra and English II during her second full year on the job. Substitute teachers taught most of those courses, she said.

Many teachers who were stalwarts in the community, some of whom commuted from Louisiana, had retired, leaving a new generation hesitant to join the local teacher workforce. Rankin also struggled to hire a truancy officer during her tenure; the Wilkinson County schools share one with the Natchez-Adams School District.

Rankin looked internationally, primarily in Jamaica, for educators to teach state tested subjects in math and science. She said she was seeing improvements in benchmark data.

“It takes more than two and a half years to move a district, especially given what challenges the district has faced for as long as it had,” Rankin said. “People in the district had stopped caring.” 

Tracking down cheaters

Such apathy might explain concerns about cheating in the district.

In 2023, the state Department of Education began investigating testing irregularities in the district. Department officials reached out to interview Wilkinson County High School teachers  who might have helped students cheat on state tests, but could not reach them.

Those teachers weren’t working at public schools in Mississippi or Louisiana after that year, which prevented state education officials from questioning them, said Brian McGarity, the department’s director of educator misconduct.

“We’ve put a timestamp on their licenses in which they can’t upgrade, move around, or add an endorsement until they talk to us,” McGarity said. “From what we can tell, the last employer for all of these educators was the Wilkinson County School District.”

To complete its investigation, the department needs to question between one and five of those teachers, state education officials told Mississippi Today. The investigation is still open.

“We’re not going to give it up,” McGarity said. “We do work diligently to try to keep a list with cases cleared.”

The state invalidated the high school’s test scores. The “C” accountability grade the district received in 2023 now only applies to the elementary and middle school.

Meanwhile, Coats, the interim superintendent, faced a difficult first few weeks leading the district. He canceled two days of classes because of Winter Storm Fern. A beloved high school senior and a homecoming court attendant was shot and killed.

Coats previously helped improve test scores and attendance at the Holmes County School District, which the state took over in 2021 because of violations including dysfunctional leadership and financial mismanagement. Before that, he worked as a principal in Kosciusko.

“I think a lot of times when you have an MDE takeover, a lot of people are left in the dark. I just want to be transparent on what we’re doing to move the district forward,” he said.

For community members, new leadership brings the hope of improved educational outcomes for the county’s youngest residents.

“For both kids and parents, I just pray that one day we have unity,” Price said. “Genuine unity. We can only go up from here.”

HATTIESBURG — A proposal to create a 24-hour child care facility in Hattiesburg is gaining attention as families face long waitlists, limited hours and fewer state child care subsidies. 

Hattiesburg resident Myra Hawthorne said the idea emerged after she struggled to find care that matched her work schedule. She and other residents say a round-the-clock option could help parents who work overnight, multiple jobs or irregular shifts. 

The conversation comes as Mississippi faces ongoing child care shortages. In April 2025, the Mississippi Department of Human Services announced it would reduce child care vouchers that subsidize costs for low-income families. The decision led some centers across the state to close and left thousands of families on waiting lists. 

U.S. News & World Report reported that nearly 16,000 Mississippi families were waiting for child care assistance in 2025. 

Child care shortages fuel discussion 

Hawthorne, who works as a municipal court clerk, said she sees the effects locally. 

“I was told that I need to start calling at least six months before my baby actually started school because everyone’s waiting list was so long,” Hawthorne said. 

She said limited operating hours at many centers create additional challenges for residents who do not work traditional 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedules. 

“I’m aware of accommodation issues. I know a lot of people who are having to work two jobs,” Hawthorne said. 

Hawthorne said she believes a 24-hour facility could support single parents, overnight workers and families seeking short-term care outside standard hours. She has begun researching what would be required but has not formally started the process.

State regulations require additional accommodations for overnight operations. 

“Additional things you have to have are beds and a place to shower. It’s not a huge difference,” Hawthorne said. “But I have skimmed over it as far as what the building and what I would physically need.” 

Providers cite staffing, cost barriers 

While some families support expanded hours, local providers say the challenges are significant. 

Erin Hensley, director of Panther’s Den, said a 24-hour center could serve families with overnight shifts. However, staffing remains the primary obstacle. 

“It’s hard enough to find staff for during the day, working regular hours,” Hensley said. “It can be a daunting task to add more hours to that, requiring more staff.” 

Hensley said private centers also compete with public schools and Head Start programs that offer state-backed benefits, which can make recruiting and retaining qualified teachers more difficult. 

Cheryl Hodge, assistant director of Angel Academy Learning Center, said operational costs would also increase substantially. 

“Well, a lot of supplies and a lot of — well, all the bills that come up that people don’t think about, like trash service. Services that go throughout the center,” Hodge said. “Electricity is quite expensive. But stuff like that and food cost is very big.” 

Hodge said overnight staffing and increased utility usage could significantly raise expenses for centers already operating on tight margins. 

Broader workforce implications 

Mississippi has few child care facilities that operate 24 hours a day. As businesses expand in Forrest County and more residents work nontraditional schedules, access to reliable child care remains a workforce concern. 

Hawthorne said she has spoken with community members interested in supporting the concept. Whether the idea moves forward through a new facility or collaboration with existing providers, she said the discussion reflects a broader need. 

For now, the proposal remains in the exploratory phase. 

Democrats say the Trump administration is sabotaging a key Federal Emergency Management Agency fund, which could keep operating during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, in order to raise the shutdown’s stakes.

The lapse in funding is in its second week, with Democrats and Republicans still in a stalemate regarding new guidelines for federal immigration officers.But that’s left FEMA, which is part of DHS, without funding as well. Andearlier this week, the administration announced it was freezing disaster aid for long-term recovery projects. The decision has taken heat from Democrats and experts who say there is still money in the Disaster Relief Fund that could pay for these projects.

“That’s just another bonehead decision that Kristi Noem has done,” Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, told NOTUS. “Generally, there has always been an exception with ongoing disasters. They’re just being mean. They have significant resources available to them. They can make the adjustment if they want to.”

Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat from Louisiana and another member of the committee, called the decision “counterproductive” and “ridiculous.”

“It’s to try to make an issue out of an issue,” Carter told NOTUS about the administration’s rationale for pausing the funding. “To paint a picture that somehow, because of the dysfunction of the Republican Party’s lack of negotiations, that they can blame it on someone other than themselves, and to exact pain from the American people in cases where they don’t have to.”

“The resources are there. For them to suggest otherwise is just untrue,” Carter added.

After disasters, states request and then wait on approval from the agency to begin working on projects like reconstructing sewers, roads, bridges and schools. When they are completed, local governments and other entities turn to the agency for reimbursement from the Disaster Relief Fund.

“I have introduced legislation that would ensure the law-abiding agencies under DHS – excluding ICE, CBP, and the Office of the Secretary – receive the funding they need to operate,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS in a statement. “There is no excuse for Republicans to reduce critical services or force public servants to work without pay.”

FEMA told Congress last week that the Disaster Relief Fund had a balance of $9.6 billion as of Feb. 19, a source familiar with the matter told NOTUS. Politico reported Sunday that the agency has typically waited for funds to plummet to around $3 billion before activating constraints.

“It is not uncommon for an administration to use scaling back reimbursements and things as a negotiating tool to try to get Congress to pass a budget or increase the amount of money in the Disaster Relief Fund,” a former senior official at FEMA told NOTUS.

However, the former official added that FEMA does not typically “pause standard reimbursements from FEMA public assistance unless you’re in immediate-needs funding and you’re about to run out of money in the DRF.”

“It’s conceivable that in many jurisdictions, not receiving a reimbursement for a few hundred-thousand dollars, to millions, depending on the size of reimbursement,” the former official continued. “That could really be a major challenge for them if it goes on long enough, and of course, contractors are waiting on reimbursements as well.”

Rep. Sam Graves, the Republican chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which also has jurisdiction over FEMA, told NOTUS that he needs to “evaluate” the announcement, adding that it’s “obviously gonna have an impact on every state.”

Other Democrats are still searching for an explanation for the decision.

“There’s money in the Disaster Relief Fund,” Rep. Rick Larsen, the top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told NOTUS. “There’s no reason to stop the money. But that said, I think there’s some twisted brains at the White House or at Homeland Security who think they’re somehow punishing people because of the shutdown at DHS. All they’re doing is punishing people, period.”

In response to questions regarding the freezing of funding for these projects, a FEMA spokesperson said that the agency “delivered more than $5 billion in funding for recovery projects in the past week, some dating back to disasters that occurred more than 15 years ago.”

“Unfortunately, Democrats insist on playing political games with FEMA’s budget, which could soon have dire consequences,” the spokesperson said in a statement to NOTUS. “Without a budget, FEMA’s Disaster Relief fund is being rapidly depleted, impacting our ability to help communities facing disasters.”

“In order to continue this long-overdue work and accomplish its mission, FEMA needs its funding to be restored,” the spokesperson continued. ”The Disaster Relief Fund has been drastically depleted since the Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”

Prior to the shutdown, a top FEMA official warned members of Congress that the Disaster Relief Fund could be compromised if a major disaster occurred during a funding lapse. And during the shutdown’s first week, officials expressed concern about how a strained FEMA could affect their state.

Danielle Silva, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told NOTUS that the agency has been nonresponsive about the state’s approved recovery projects.

“We need FEMA to kind of monitor and check in every step of the way,” Silva said. “We hope it’s resolved soon, because these projects are kind of key to helping the communities that are impacted rebuild. But we also know that monsoon season is coming.”

The shutdown has also resulted in questions from lawmakers about the return of funding from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program. The program, which was funded using the Disaster Relief Fund, was cut by the Trump administration last year. But a federal judge ruled that the administration’s move was “unlawful.”

Republicans held back on criticizing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“Anytime FEMA doesn’t have the necessary resources to rebuild communities after natural disasters, is certainly something that I’m going to be considerate of,” Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a Republican from Pennsylvania who introduced legislation to protect the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, told NOTUS. “But without actually seeing or reading the intricacies of that specific position, I’m going to defer until I can actually have a chance to review that actual memo.”

Rep. Tom Cole, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS that FEMA helped his home state of Oklahoma respond to wildfires last week.

While he’s “sure” his state will be affected by the freeze and has concerns about securing long-term funding, he’s not disappointed with the agency.

“We’re still waiting on some relief from tornado activity last spring that we think has been approved,” Cole said. “But for whatever reason, hasn’t been released. So we’re working on that. But again, it’s hard to complain about an agency when we didn’t give them the money to operate on. And again, that’s squarely the fault of Leader Schumer and Democrats in the Senate.”

This story is provided by a partnership between Mississippi Today and the NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative, which seeks to help readers in local communities understand what their elected representatives are doing in Congress.

GREENVILLE — Another former law enforcement officer pleaded guilty Friday to charges tied to a federal crackdown on drug trafficking in the Mississippi Delta.

Former Greenwood police officer Jamario Sanford, 38, pleaded guilty to charges involving the transportation and distribution of cocaine through Leflore, Sunflower and Washington counties. 

Sanford also pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He was indicted for accepting a $5,000 bribe from an FBI agent posing as a Mexican drug cartel member in exchange for protecting illegal drug shipments on June 22, 2022. He was paid an additional $7,800 in bribes partly for future jobs.

Sanford had also been indicted for carrying or using a firearm during drug trafficking and an attempt to aid and abet a transport of illegal drugs, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi dropped the charges as part of Sanford’s plea agreement.

On Friday, U.S. Chief Judge Debra M. Brown of the Northern District of Mississippi asked Sanford to describe any medication he takes to determine his fitness to enter a guilty plea. He said he takes medications for nerve pain, anxiety and depression.

Sanford, who walks with a cane, said he has experienced emotional trauma and physical pain after being shot in 2024. He also described how, while working as a police officer in Shaw in 2014, he struggled with a suspect after an officer involved shooting. He said the experience caused him “severe trauma.”

Brown also asked Sanford about getting arrested for simple assault on Jan. 24. Sanford said the charges will be dropped.

Brown accepted Sanford’s guilty plea and set sentencing for May 27. Brown released Sanford on the conditions of the $10,000 unsecured bond after his arrest.

Sanford was arrested on Oct. 30 along with former Sunflower County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Marvin Flowers and Greenwood Police Department Officer Tyquana Rucker as part of the conspiracy and aiding the transport of illegal drugs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped Rucker’s charges on Oct. 30 due to exonerating evidence from subsequent interviews with sources. Flowers is set to stand trial on April 20 in Greenville’s federal courthouse.

Sanford declined to comment to Mississippi Today.

Under federal guidelines, Sanford can be sentenced to between 10 years and life in prison. He could also face up to $10 million in fines.

On Oct. 30, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed six indictments, which ensnared more than 14 current and former Mississippi Delta law enforcement officers, including former Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston and former Humphreys County Sheriff Bruce Williams, on drug trafficking charges. 

The Justice Department charged current and former officers from sheriff’s offices in Washington, Humphreys and Sunflower counties and police departments in Greenville, Greenwood, Isola, Hollandale, Metcalfe and Yazoo City.

The department also charged Mississippi Delta-based former highway patrolman Marquivius Bankhead and former state Department of Corrections guard Marcus Nolan on drug trafficking charges. 

In a separate indictment, prosecutors alleged Sanford recruited Dequarian Smith, then a law enforcement officer with the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office and the Isola Police Department, to protect a transport of illegal drugs through portions of the Mississippi Delta. Smith pleaded guilty on Feb. 11 to charges of conspiring to transport illegal drugs and for accepting a $500 bribe.

University of Mississippi Medical Center clinics statewide are expected to resume normal operations and scheduled appointments Monday after being closed for over a week due to a Feb. 19 cyberattack, according to hospital officials.

“It will take some time to fully recover and to investigate this criminal attack on our network systems,” said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs for UMMC, in a Friday statement. 

Clinics will begin reaching out to patients to reschedule canceled appointments Monday and will be open for extended hours and days to accommodate patients as soon as possible, the hospital said. 

Patients across Mississippi, including children with complex medical conditions, have missed health care appointments and surgeries since the attack, which compromised the health care system’s IT network and forced the medical center to shut down all of its network systems, including its electronic patient health records. Experts warned that the hospital system could face weeks or months of recovery following the attack.

UMMC can now access patient records, the medical center said Friday in a social media post. Phone lines and internet are also working, allowing UMMC to resume regular patient call center operations. 

The electronic health record will come online Saturday, and patients will then have access to their MyChart accounts.  

The academic medical center is one of Mississippi’s largest providers of specialty health care and operates the state’s only Level 1 trauma center, which is equipped to handle the most severe medical emergencies.

UMMC has not yet publicly described how extensive the attack on its computer systems was or if any data was compromised. In a Tuesday interview with SuperTalk Mississippi, Woodward confirmed the attacker made financial demands. 

Federal agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have been assisting Mississippi’s largest public hospital since Feb. 19.

“This was not just an attack on UMMC; it was also an attack on our patients, students, faculty and staff,” Woodward said in a statement.

UMMC hospitals and emergency departments have remained open as the hospital recovers from the cyberattack. 

Patients with time-sensitive needs, including prescription refills or postoperative care, can call the UMMC Triage Line at 601-815-0000.

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.

Toward the end of last year, one of my strongest attorneys walked into my office and told me he was leaving. He loved being a public defender and believed deeply in representing people who could not afford a lawyer.

But he could no longer afford to stay. Assistant public defenders in Hinds County earn, on average, more than $50,000 less than their prosecutor counterparts.

As the Hinds County public defender, I know firsthand that our county needs a meaningful investment in public defense. Since taking office in 2020, I have dealt with an average of two staff vacancies during my entire tenure, and I have had nearly 20 attorney resignations.

The vast majority of these are not lawyers chasing prestige or profit. They are public servants forced to choose between serving the people of Mississippi and providing for their own families.

When experienced public defenders leave Hinds County, it is not just a staffing issue. The U.S. Constitution promises people who are accused of a crime the right to a lawyer and a fair court process. Our faith compels us to ensure they do not walk through the legal system alone. But our public defense system is stretched so thin that many languish in jail for months waiting for their cases to move.

People miss work and often lose their jobs. Parents cannot care for their children. And taxpayers foot the bill of prolonged pretrial detention – all before a judge has determined guilt or innocence.

While I have dealt with staff shortages, the crisis in Hinds County has reached a breaking point. Last year, the Mississippi Legislature added a fifth circuit court judge in Hinds County to hear criminal cases, significantly impacting staff shortages and mounting workloads.

Our primary detention facility, the Raymond Detention Center, is now at “emergency” levels, housing a significant number of people above capacity. According to a recent review, there still remain people in our county who have been locked up for months without an indictment, and several who have been detained for more than a year.

We have a meaningful opportunity to address this constitutional crisis. On Monday, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors will consider my office’s request for a $350,000 equity adjustment to bring our starting salary up to parity with the one county-funded assistant district attorney salary. By approving this emergency funding, the Board of Supervisors will join a growing movement of Mississippians who understand investing in public defense is a fiscal, constitutional and moral imperative. 

While I will need over $1 million to achieve full parity with the DA’s office, this equity adjustment will greatly assist retention and recruitment efforts for the experienced attorneys and for support staff I need to effectively manage our office’s high caseloads. The only year I haven’t lost any attorneys because of low pay was in 2022—when our senior circuit court judge ordered a one-year salary supplement to the assistant public defenders in my office.

I can appreciate and recognize that funds are strained, but I also know that public defense is a smart investment. Studies show that across the country, counties that invest in public defense save millions each year because early, effective representation avoids the costs of unnecessary jail time and keeps our citizens working instead of being detained. 

A well-funded public defense system doesn’t just save money, it saves lives. With private philanthropic support, my office has recently hired two client advocates. These professionals work hand in hand with our social worker. In less than two years, their work has helped clients collectively spend considerably more years in their communities rather than behind bars. Each client gained valuable years to live, work and care for their family.

This is Hinds County’s — and more broadly, Mississippi’s — moment. Mississippians do not want our taxpayer dollars funding unnecessary pretrial detention.

We believe in the Constitution, which recognizes public defense as a fundamental legal right to protect us from government overreach. No one should sit in jail without a fair opportunity to have their day in court.

On Monday, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors can continue to recognize public defense as a priority for our county. They can seriously consider and hopefully vote to approve at their next regularly scheduled board meeting, the modest equity adjustment we need to stabilize our public defender’s office, reduce unnecessary detention and honor the constitutional promise that justice does not depend on wealth.

This is not about politics. It is about whether Hinds County will meet its legal and moral obligations — or continue paying the human and financial costs associated with unnecessary detention. Assuring that clients are effectively represented in the criminal justice system should be of paramount concern. Now is our time to act.

Gail Wright Lowery has served as the public defender of the 7th Circuit Court District of Hinds County since February 2020. Lowery previously served as Jackson municipal court judge and as assistant attorney general of the state of Mississippi. She is a native of Jackson and attended Jackson State University and Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago. 

Ashley Wall’s 9-month-old son has spent about two-thirds of his life at the University of Mississippi Medical Center children’s hospital in Jackson. 

Levi, who has cancer, experienced a delay in a critical bone marrow test as a result of the Feb. 19 cyberattack that struck UMMC and led it to cancel appointments and elective procedures statewide. 

The test, which will determine whether he continues treatment or enters hospice care, was planned for the same day as the attack, but was then delayed until Thursday. Doctors told Wall the test results, which are normally returned in a few days, may take as long as a week. 

Because of the delay, Wall chose to bring Levi home on Feb. 19 to Harrisville, 30 miles south of Jackson, for the first time since August. 

“We didn’t want to lose that time with our child,” Wall said.  

Children across Mississippi have been caught in the crosshairs of the cyberattack on the state’s largest public hospital system. The attack forced UMMC to shut down all of its computer systems and has caused patients across the state to go without medical care. Regularly scheduled clinic appointments and elective procedures at UMMC remain canceled through Friday. 

Children’s of Mississippi Hospital, located in Jackson at UMMC, is the only dedicated children’s hospital in the state. It houses the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma unit and pediatric intensive care. The hospital treats 275,000 children statewide each year, some of whom have complex conditions, including cancer, epilepsy, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, allergies and diabetes.

UMMC is making significant progress in its response to the Feb. 19 cyberattack and restoring systems, and is “hopeful that it will be able to resume normal clinic operations as soon as Monday,” the medical center said in a statement Wednesday. Multiple experts told Mississippi Today the hospital system could face weeks to months of recovery after the attack.

However, some families have been informed that not all elective procedures will resume by Monday. Levi, who was scheduled to undergo an MRI on Feb. 19, was told by doctors Thursday the scan will be postponed further. 

Some families worry that delays in care could seriously affect their children’s health and may force them to restart treatments that improved their condition.

Mary Harwell’s 18-year-old son, Jack, has severe non-verbal autism, cerebral palsy and agitated catatonia, a disorder that causes him to hurt himself and others. For years, Jack and his family endured persistent involuntary violent behaviors, like head hitting, biting and attacks on others. 

“There was no quality of life and our family was falling apart,” said Harwell, who lives in Jackson. “He was just covered in bruises, he was miserable. There was no happiness.”

But for the past three years, electroconvulsive therapy treatments twice a week at UMMC have provided Jack significant relief from his symptoms and restored his quality of life. After just four treatments, Jack’s bruises disappeared, he began eating and regaining weight, he was able to go into a store for the first time in five years, and he began smiling. “He was living again,” Harwell said. 

Since the cyberattack began, Jack has missed three treatments and his symptoms have returned. He stopped eating and sleeping, and has been hitting himself continuously for the past several days, Harwell said. Missing multiple sessions can cause setbacks, forcing patients to restart the treatments at a higher frequency.

Only one other hospital in Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast, offers the treatment. Initially, the facility told Harwell it could not treat Jack without access to his medical records, which UMMC is currently unable to access. Staff later said they might make an exception, but Harwell worries that given Jack’s current, violent condition, she may not be able to safely transport him to the hospital several hours away. 

“It feels like we are starting all over, reliving the nightmare of his condition,” Harwell said. 

Research shows that patient care outcomes decline in the wake of ransomware, or malicious software that holds computer systems or data hostage in demand for a payment, targeting hospitals. 

“Cyberattacks, specifically ransomware on hospitals, kill patients,” said Dr. Hannah Neprash, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, who has studied the effect of cybersecurity attacks on patient care. 

Her 2026 study found that, among Medicare patients hospitalized during the attack, hospitals targeted by ransomware experienced an average increase of 34% to 38% in mortality rates compared to those discharged in the five weeks prior. The impact to patient care was most severe among the sickest patients with the most complex medical needs. 

For families of children with serious medical conditions, the cancellation of elective procedures essential to their kids’ health has been worrisome. 

Jack Jacobs, a high school student from Gulfport, was born with hypoplastic right heart syndrome, a heart condition in which one ventricle is underdeveloped. He has received treatment at UMMC for most of his life. 

Jack had a serious heart procedure scheduled for Feb. 24, but it was canceled as a result of the cyberattack. Although the procedure is not an emergency, it is necessary and not elective, said his mother Susan Jacobs. 

The term “elective” can be misleading, Neprash said. It may be more accurate to call care scheduled versus unscheduled.

“A lot of stuff is in that elective bucket that people take very seriously,” she said, pointing to examples such as cancer treatment. 

Jack’s procedure has not yet been rescheduled. For Susan Jacobs, the uncertainty surrounding the cyberattack and timeline for normal operations to resume has been anxiety-provoking. 

“To not have a clue when your child is going to have a heart procedure is just very disconcerting,” Jacobs said. 

UMMC officials have yet to release information about how extensive the attack was, when canceled appointments will be rescheduled or whether any data has been compromised. The medical center held its last press conference on Feb. 19, the first day of the attack.

The computer system outage at UMMC has extended beyond canceled procedures and has forced caregivers to face additional tough decisions about their children’s care. 

Alisa Hughes, a Jackson resident, has an 8-year-old granddaughter with severe asthma who has received treatment at UMMC since birth. 

Jayln was running a fever and was experiencing difficulty breathing Sunday. Concerned about the security of her granddaughter’s health information, Hughes opted not to take her to the UMMC emergency room, where she typically receives care. At a local urgent care center, Jayln was diagnosed with the flu. 

“We just prayed that they wouldn’t send her to the ER,” Hughes said. “…It was scary knowing that the hospital that you’ve trusted for the last eight years with her, you don’t feel confident taking her to this time.”

The cyberattack has disrupted other areas of the health care system as well. Levi, the 9-month-old with cancer, normally receives his medication at the hospital. But due to the attack, his family had to get the medication from a pharmacy. One medication required prior authorization for insurance coverage, but unable to reach his doctors, the family ended up paying for the $200 medication out of pocket. 

When the family returned a week later, hospital staff said they had never received the message that a prior authorization was needed because the hospital’s phone lines were down. 

Dr. Alan Jones, the associate vice chancellor for health affairs at UMMC, said at the press conference Feb. 19 that the hospital regularly prepares for operational disruptions during regularly scheduled maintenance of the electronic health record. 

Neprash said she is skeptical that downtime protocols, or procedures that kick in during IT system failures and use paper records, adequately prepare facilities for ransomware attacks. 

“There’s a huge difference between being ready for three hours of (electronic health record) downtime versus three days or three weeks,” Neprash said. She noted that each ransomware attack affects different parts of hospitals’ systems, so it can be difficult to prepare for them. 

Her research indicates that larger hospitals and health systems with sophisticated IT infrastructures can experience greater impacts from ransomware attacks compared to their smaller counterparts due to a larger number of interconnected computer systems and greater reliance on technology. 

Wall said she witnessed the effects of these operational disruptions on Levi’s care during his Thursday bone marrow test. What is normally a two-hour procedure ended up taking the entire day, she said. Wall said the hospital’s limited communication has been particularly frustrating given the time-sensitive nature of Levi’s treatment. These complications have made her question whether adequate protocols will be put in place to prevent similar issues in the future. 

However, for many families in Mississippi with children who have complex medical needs, there are few, if any, alternative options except to wait for normal operations to resume. 

“We keep saying, ‘Well, we lived through this for years so we can do it again,’” Harwell said. “We have no choice.” 

Correction, 2/27/2026: This article has been updated to reflect that Wall chose to bring Levi home to Harrisville for the second time since August.

Jacqueline Jackson, 55, loved everything about the computer classes she took at Margaret Walker Alexander Library.

She said she signed up because she realized how many tasks, such as sending emails and signing documents, require a computer. 

“Everything is a computer,” she said. 

“That’s the fastest way to get something done, as well.”

Jackson was behind on her technology knowledge, and doesn’t have a laptop or desktop computer at home. Still, thanks to the classes at the library, Jackson learned new skills such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and even how to make a flyer.

The new knowledge helps her to better navigate in today’s high-tech environment.

“It was actually easier than I thought it was going to be,” she said.

Margaret Walker Alexander Library which is part of the Jackson Hinds Library System, offers free individual computer classes for all of its users.

The classes are one-on-one, and students can schedule them between 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays depending on their availability. People of all ages and skill levels can apply, and the library provides practice laptops.

Students can learn about internet safety, cybersecurity, software and hardware, and more.

The classes are mainly taught by circulation assistant Isrrael Ontiveros. He has a lifelong love for technology. He has an associate degree in information technology, a master’s in linguistics and is currently working toward a Comptia Security+ certification that is awarded for advanced cybersecurity knowledge.

“We live in a society where technology is advancing, and now technology is demanding more from everybody,” Ontiveros said.

He said that the combination of being patient and thorough with his students contributes to their success in learning.

“They come back and they commend me and thank me for staying with them for so long, ”Ontiveros said.

Jackson had to take a break from the class for personal reasons, but plans to start again soon. Her advice to others who want to take the class is, “just try to be a little bit open and try it.”

Muddy waters and descent into a whirlpool. 

That’s the dangerous image that Joesph Patri Brown uses to describe his experience in the Mississippi justice system. The 57-year-old inmate, who has been on death row for over 30 years, said most people don’t know how to stay calm and resist being pulled deeper, but it’s something he’s come to learn. 

“I had to hold my breath and hope I survived,” Brown said from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman through video conference for the release of his memoir.  

Brown has used writing as a way to provide a glimpse into his life and those of 34 others on death row as he asserts his innocence and appeals his conviction. 

Short stories, poetry and think pieces he’s written while incarcerated have been collected in a book called “The Image They Had Painted,” which was released in January through Publication Studio Guelph in collaboration with The GOAT PoL. 

Through his writing, Brown critiques the system that imprisoned him and sentenced him to die, calling it a form of murder rather than justice. In recorded interviews before publication, Brown said he considers the book many things: resistance, resilience, a testimonial and an educational tool. 

A person falling into a whirlpool is on the book’s cover, and its back cover shows a person climbing out of the swirling waters. The book can be read from front to back or back to front. 

Brown, identified in court records as Joseph Patrick Brown, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1992 shooting death of a Natchez convenience store clerk, Martha Day.

“Where is Someone,” a piece from the book, travels back to March 12, 1994, when Brown was sentenced to death. He wrote that it was a blur as he looked back at his crying family members in the courtroom. When he was in the Adams County jail awaiting transport to prison, thoughts raced through his head and he considered taking his own life. 

“I’m all alone. I don’t have anyone. No one is coming. I’m sinking deeper into a much darker place when an idea comes to me,” he wrote. 

“ … You never know what you might do when you reach a certain level of despair.”

Failed appeals and hopes for reprieve

Born and raised in Natchez, Brown served time in youth detention and did previous stints at Parchman. He began using drugs when he was young, and he shared that addiction with Rachel Walker, his then-girlfriend. Court records say drug addiction led to the hold-up of the Charter Food Store and Day’s death. Walker testified that she saw him go inside and heard gun shots before he returned with a cash register and a gun. She said Brown told her to keep quiet.

He has maintained his innocence. State and federal appeals that have been rejected raised issues with ineffective assistance of counsel during trial and post-conviction. Among the issues his attorneys raised was what they considered thin evidence linking him to the crime and dependence on witnesses –  Walker and a jailhouse detainee named Larry Bernard, according to court records – whom his attorneys argued were not credible. 

Brown has been waiting several years for a federal judge to rule on his habeas petition. Every time an officer hands out legal mail inside the unit, he hopes to receive news about the ruling, but it hasn’t come. 

“Depending on how this ruling goes when they get back to me, I’ll be alive and free or I’ll be dead,” he wrote in an April 2025 piece. 

Mississippi Today was unable to locate Day’s family for comment. 

As he waits for the court to rule, Brown has continued to write and work on publishing his book. 

He appeared at a Jan. 22 virtual book launch through video, appearing from the chest up and with a blurred background. Another death row prisoner squeezed Brown’s shoulders, causing him to smile. Occasionally, others passed behind him and a television flickered. 

Brown’s video calls lasted for 30 minutes, so he called back several times to continue answering questions or reading passages from the book. 

Brown said he included “had” in the book’s title because it highlights the image the state has imposed on death row inmates – that they are violent, can’t be trusted, need to be confined up to 24 hours a day in a cell and locked down seven days a week year-round.  

His writing puts a different face to the state’s portrayal. 

“I have shown that I can live inside of this world and keep my humanity,” he said.

Brown said he is around men who are thoughtful and talented. Some are also writers and artists. They may offer a hug and they look out for him. 

From his piece “There Are More,” Brown remembers his first day on death row and how he thought he was the only one because the others had been executed. The guards put him in a cell without sheets or toilet paper, and they didn’t give them to him when he asked for them. Then came the booming voice of a man in a nearby cell who “started raising hell” to get the items to Brown. 

Later, when he met the man during yard time, Brown thanked him. 

Some things have changed on death row, including more time for the men to spend out of their cells and the ability for them to have video visits. Brown gives credit to the current prison administration for the improvements. 

Brown read a few of his poems including “Americanism,” which incorporates the history of the Transatlantic slave trade and the Trail of Tears and connects it to the country’s use of the death penalty. The poem ends with the lines: 

You strap me to a death table, laying me out the way Rome did Christ,

forcing into me this history of Americanism, you take my life.

My final words, will forever be: F— you, you funky motherf—ers

Even decades in a cage, I lived free.

In addition to writing, Brown talked about the editing and design process. 

‘We produced what was inside of my mind’

Alison Turner, who previously lived in Mississippi, has worked with incarcerated writers and served as Brown’s book editor. She said other prison writers sometimes see revisions as an attack or a critique of who they are, but Brown leaned into feedback. 

Brown considers Turner a mentor. He said from edits, he saw his voice and purpose of writing evolve, going beyond writing for himself to writing for everyone who was around him and writing in a way that humanized the experiences and living conditions of death row. Turner is now an assistant professor and oral history curator at the University of South Dakota. 

At times, Brown said he was stubborn about what he wanted for the book, but he said his collaborators helped bring to life what he was trying to convey in his writing. 

“We produced what was inside of my mind in a way I wanted it done,” he said. 

Brown’s other published work can be found in several places, including a monthly column called Chronicles of Parchman through Rooted Magazine. He has published writing with The GOAT PoL, an online platform that houses writing from around the world. 

Brown continues to speak out about the death penalty and works with organizations including HumanS Remain, a nonprofit that supports Mississippi death row inmates through education and advocacy. The organization’s website publishes journal entries for several death row men and Lisa Jo Chamberlin, the only woman sentenced to death in Mississippi. 

At the book launch, Brown’s nephew asked him how he finds balance between love and hate for the state of Missisisppi. He also wanted to know what his uncle looks forward to. 

“I hate what this state does to me … I just want to go home,” Brown said. “I want to be home, I want to be around my loved ones. I want to do all these things.”

“The Image They Had Painted” is available for purchase at https://publicationstudio.biz/books/the-image-they-had-painted

Mississippi’s Black voters recently won a victory that puts them on the brink of having greater sway over who sits on the state’s Supreme Court.

But that win may be short-lived.

In the coming months, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on a case that could weaken or overturn key parts of the Voting Rights Act — a Civil Rights-era law that protects the power of racial minorities to elect candidates of their choice.

If the law is upended, it could radically alter the country’s voting maps, a shift that would be felt heavily in Mississippi and unwind decades of progress for Black voters across the U.S.

Last year, a federal judge found that the current voting map used to elect Mississippi Supreme Court justices illegally diminishes Black voting power in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock then ordered Mississippi lawmakers to redraw one of the three districts that are used to elect the state’s nine Supreme Court justices. In their ongoing legislative session, lawmakers have taken preliminary steps to comply. 

Mississippi has the highest Black population share of any state, at about 37%, but just one of the nine justices is Black. There have only ever been four Black justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court in the state’s history, and none of them have ever served at the same time.

That electoral history is “bleak,” according to Aycock, who heard arguments over the matter in a non-jury trial last year in northern Mississippi. A George W. Bush appointee, Ayock concluded in her decision that “Black candidates who desire to run for the Mississippi Supreme Court face a grim likelihood of success.”

The Voting Rights Act requires otherwise, Aycock ruled. The act, first passed in 1965, has been a bedrock legal guarantee of political equality and full democratic inclusion for Black Americans and other racial minorities.

The pending U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais could weaken or even eliminate Section 2, a key part of the Voting Rights Act. This section is critical to lawsuits that challenge racial discrimination in election maps and that Aycock relied on to support her ruling. The case, brought by a group of self-identified “non-African American” voters against Louisiana’s congressional map, could put into doubt legal rulings across the country that have required districts that favor racial minorities. 

Lawmakers are responding to Aycock’s order, but slowly. 

Powerful committee heads overseeing the process say they want to see if a decision in the Callais case comes before legislators adjourn for the year in early April. A decision could come at any point before the end of the Supreme Court’s term in June, and many legal observers said after the oral arguments in October that they expect the court to severely limit the Voting Rights Act.

That leaves Mississippi’s Black voters in a legal quagmire, holding out hope for the prospect of greater influence over the state’s high court while fearing a national unwinding of Black political power and representation. 

“It’s unsettling for people of color here in the state of Mississippi to be waiting for them to push their pencil to draw lines,” said Rep. Kabir Karriem, a Democrat who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus in the Mississippi House of Representatives. “It’s long overdue, but with the (U.S.) Supreme Court holding us in the balance, we don’t know what to expect.”

Mississippi’s voting districts under scrutiny

The Mississippi Supreme Court, like all state-level high courts, potentially wields significant power. In Mississippi, that power has risen and fallen throughout the decades, as has the court’s commitment to upholding the Constitutional promise of racial equality.

In recent years, the state Supreme Court has struck down the process to put citizen-led initiatives on the ballot and made it harder for death row prisoners to appeal their cases. It has also pushed modest reforms of the state’s beleaguered public defense system and imposed requirements intended to make money bail less burdensome. 

Mississippi is among only six states to elect Supreme Court justices from district-level elections rather than statewide elections or gubernatorial appointments.

That’s an arrangement that, at least on paper, could improve the standing of Black voters in Supreme Court elections. While Black voters make up a sizable bloc, they aren’t a majority of the state, and voting patterns remain highly polarized by race in the state. No Black candidate has won a statewide election since Reconstruction

Even so, the districts used in Supreme Court elections weaken the influence of Black voters, according to a 2022 lawsuit filed by a coalition of Black voters. 

The current districts were drawn in 1987, an unusually long time compared to the other states that use judicial voting districts for state supreme court seats. There are three districts, each of which sends three justices to the court. Black voters currently make up just shy of a majority in one of the three districts, with the Black-majority Delta region split between two different districts. 

When the lawsuit was filed, there were two justices on the court who had won elections with Black support. 

But by the time Aycock ruled last August, there was only one. A white justice who had historically been elected with the support of Black voters — and who often dissented from the court’s conservative majority — was defeated in 2024 by a white Republican state senator. 

That left Leslie King as the lone justice on the court with a history of Black electoral support. King is only the fourth Black justice to sit on the court since the 1985 appointment of Reuben Anderson by the governor. To stress the hardship Black candidates face in judicial elections, plaintiffs in the suit emphasized that all four Black justices in the state’s history first reached the high court through gubernatorial appointments, not by winning elections. 

“A Black candidate has never won without possessing the incumbency advantage,” Aycock noted, describing that fact as “critical” to her ruling. 

Aycock not only ordered the Mississippi Legislature to give Black voters greater power in one of the three Supreme Court voting districts. She also indicated that she’s likely to order special elections for at least some of the court’s seats, though she delayed that decision until she reviews a new map.

That would follow court-ordered special elections last year that boosted Black representation in both chambers of the Legislature, following a different voting rights lawsuit.

The Voting Rights Act’s fate

At the heart of the Callais challenge to the current legal landscape is a claim that states cannot intentionally draw voting districts to achieve a certain racial composition — such as a district that favors Black voters — even when done to remedy a disadvantage faced by minority voters in electing their favored candidates. 

If the Supreme Court sides with plaintiffs, it could unravel many wins for Black representation, both old and new. Republicans in Mississippi could eventually redraw the state’s congressional map and eliminate its majority-Black district, currently held by Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, and at least one leading Republican considering a run for governor has floated that possibility.

But the fallout from a Callais decision that guts the Voting Rights Act would reach far beyond Congress, said Kareem Crayton, a lawyer and scholar who helps lead efforts around voting law and race for the Brennan Center for Justice, a policy think tank and advocacy center.  

“Most of the claims that are brought are not congressional,” Crayton said. “A lion’s share of Section 2 litigation that has succeeded has been at the local and state levels.”

That means disruptions to current redistricting law would be deeply felt at the levels of government many people interact with the most, at a time when there’s already great strain on many of the country’s political institutions.

“This matters to real people,” Crayton said. “If all of those settled understandings about who is responsible to you, who is accountable to you, are thrown into doubt, that’s not good for our democratic system.”

Legislative, legal wrangling ahead

Since state legislators gaveled into session in January, the state House and Senate have each passed placeholder bills, but these bills don’t yet contain revised voting lines.

Despite Aycock’s order, Mississippi lawmakers may choose not to enact a new map at all if the U.S. Supreme Court revises the legal landscape around redistricting, said Rep. Kevin Horan, a Republican, who chairs one of the committees that initiated a possible redistricting bill.

However, Horan told The Marshall Project-Jackson and Bolts that as of now, he intends to comply with Aycock’s order and plans to advance a new Supreme Court map, “if the Senate will agree.” 

State Sen. Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, similarly advised senators recently that redistricting may be necessary if the nation’s high court doesn’t rule soon.

Horan said legislative staffers are working on maps, but declined to discuss the details.

If no decision comes from the high court within the next few weeks and legislators do adopt new maps, then the Callais ruling, when it comes, is certain to prompt a volley of legal filings and arguments.

An appeal of Aycock’s order is already pending before the 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, which put the appeal on hold until the Callais decision is handed down. The 5th Circuit might take the appeal up again or it could send the case back down to the district court for Aycock to reconsider her ruling. 

Depending on the details of the Callais opinion, civil rights attorneys favoring redistricting might find themselves arguing to salvage Aycock’s opinion on new legal grounds, to preserve a newly adopted map, to petition a court to draw its own map or to push forward special elections.

For Karriem, who leads a Black caucus with 58 members, the stakes aren’t primarily procedural or technical. They aren’t even about grand theories of law and interpretation.

For him, this is a dire moment.

Black communities are bracing, Karriem said, for “devastation.” 

This article was produced in collaboration with The Marshall Project-Jackson, a nonprofit news team covering Mississippi’s criminal justice systems, and Bolts, a nonprofit publication that covers criminal justice and voting rights in local governments.