OurTupelo

The state Legislature kicked off its current session with a heavy focus on school choice, or expanding K-12 options beyond traditional public schools. 

Those conversations, and related policies, address a broad swath of policies such as expanding charter school accessibility and using public funds to pay for private-school tuition. Both chambers want to expand school choice in Mississippi over the next three months, but they don’t agree on how. 

Mississippi Today education reporter Devna Bose and political reporter Michael Goldberg have been at the state Capitol reporting on those and other education policy discussions since the session began. 

On Jan. 16, Bose and Goldberg answered questions from readers on Reddit and Facebook. The following are some highlights from those conversations.

If you want to be alerted about future AMAs with our reporters, sign up here.

Some questions have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: We were promised that charter schools would thrive where districts were performing poorly. How have charter schools scored over the last few years compared to the public schools near them?

Q: Why are lawmakers singling out Copiah County School District and Hazlehurst City School District, and FORCING a school board consolidation?

Q: Will private schools be required to accept all students who want to attend? Will private schools have public financial reports so taxpayers can see where their money is going?

Q: How are private schools that receive funding originally allocated to public schools going to be held accountable? Why are they not held to the same methods (state tests and accountability model) that public schools use?

Q: Is HB 2, the House’s school choice bill, constitutional?

As Mississippi braces for a powerful winter storm, charitable organizations are expanding services and encouraging residents to take early precautions. 

Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday announced a state of emergency through Jan. 30 in anticipation of prolonged freezing temperatures and possible  sleet, freezing rain and ice, which were expected to begin in parts of the state Friday night and continue through next week. 

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has a list of warming shelters on its website. The agency also encourages Mississippians to prepare for the winter weather by preparing an emergency supply kit. 

Hannah Maharrey, executive director of Good Samaritan Health Services in Tupelo, said the organization has spent the last week working to ensure that unhoused people are aware of the severity of the impending storm and have a plan to seek shelter. Though the nonprofit is accustomed to communicating about severe weather in the summer, preparing for cold and ice of this magnitude is a “new experience,” she said. 

The organization has helped several people this week to obtain identification cards, a requirement for some area shelters.  

She encourages people to be proactive about seeking shelter, and for those who don’t, to seek medical attention as soon as possible if they experience health problems from the frigid temperatures. 

“Don’t wait until it’s too late,” she said. 

In Alcorn County in the northeastern corner of the state, A Place of Grace is serving hot meals three times a day and setting up accommodations for people to stay overnight at the Gospel Tabernacle Church in Corinth. Kelly Thornton, the organization’s executive director and cook, said the nonprofit is working with local emergency management services to transport people to the church, where she and others set up at least 50 cots and mattresses. 

The organization is planning to continue these services until at least Feb. 2. Thornton said she expects roads to close and recommends people in the area call the organization early, at 662–287-7737, if they need transportation to the shelter. 

Thornton, who lived through the Mississippi Delta Ice Storm of 1994, said the early reports of the looming cold front feel reminiscent of it. 

“It kind of caught people unaware,” she said. “We knew something was coming. I don’t think they really predicted the magnitude of what it turned out to be.”

Roderick Gordon, the director of the North Delta Planning and Development District Area Agency on Aging, said meals originally scheduled for delivery this weekend or early next week to homebound seniors were being  distributed Friday to ensure people are prepared for the storm. 

Schelika Chisolm, who runs Salvation Army of Tupelo, said her shelter will be operating with special rules for the winter storm and the following week, during which temperatures are expected to drop below freezing. However, the food pantry will only be open during its regular hours: weekdays 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Special rules include allowing people to stay in the shelter during the day, rather than requiring them to leave at 8 a.m. and return at 4 p.m. As of Friday afternoon, the shelter only had six beds available, out of 61. 

“We are going to provide meals and beverages, shelter, cold weather supplies like blankets, gloves and hats,” she said. 

Her team will be out in the community checking on people as soon as it’s safe to do so, Chisolm said.

“Once the roads are clear, we take our canteens (trucks) out, and we try to find those areas where maybe the lights are out, and we distribute hot meals and things of that nature,” Chisolm said. “So, that will be part of the second phase once the storm passes a little bit.”

Robin Boyles, chief program planning and development officer of Delta Health Center, said the county will host warming shelters at the Bolivar County Expo Center in Cleveland and the Bolivar County Courthouse in Rosedale. Delta Health Center has nonperishable food items available any time in drop boxes outside its Mound Bayou, Indianola, Moorhead, Hollandale, Leland, Greenville and Rolling Fork locations. 

If people would like to help A Place of Grace’s efforts, Thornton said the organization is accepting food donations to the church at 1624 Glover Drive, Corinth, Miss. 

Jackson’s third-party water manager said it doesn’t expect any major service disruptions this weekend as a winter storm approaches Mississippi.

“JXN Water has completed winterization efforts across its operations and is prepared for the upcoming cold weather,” the utility said in a statement on Thursday. “System facilities are being actively monitored, and crews are ready to respond if issues arise as temperatures drop. At this time, JXN Water does not anticipate widespread service impacts related to cold weather conditions.”

In 2021, many in the capital city went weeks without running water after a winter storm impaired O.B. Curtis, Jackson’s main treatment plant. Cold weather has frequently jeopardized the city’s ability to deliver water to residents, including in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Not only was equipment at the treatment plant exposed to the cold conditions, but aging, undersized distribution lines throughout the city often break during fluctuating temperatures.

Since taking over the system in 2022, the private utility has winterized O.B. Curtis to withstand cold conditions. The utility is also much better equipped to respond to line breaks, JXN Water spokesperson Aisha Carson told Mississippi Today.

JXN Water now has a mapping system in place which makes it easier to identify breaks, Carson explained. She added that the utility is nearly fully staffed in both of its treatment plants as well as its repair crews, compared to having just a quarter of positions filled during the 2022 water crisis. Moreover, the thousands of repairs to leaks and broken valves JXN Water has made in the last couple years should put it in a “better position” to address service issues, Carson said.

Utility say it can’t make Jackson’s next debt payment

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate called a last-second status conference on Friday after JXN Water manager Ted Henifin again alerted the court of ongoing financial troubles.

The utility won’t be able to make Jackson’s next debt payment of $1.5 million due on Mar. 1, Henifin wrote in a letter. JXN Water has sought a rate increase for nearly the past year, saying it lacks funds to pay its contractors or make sewer repairs. Because JXN Water must first advertise any rate change for 30 days beforehand, there isn’t enough time for the utility to accrue the necessary revenue by the Mar. 1 due date, the letter said.

In response, Jackson City Attorney Drew Martin told the court it was JXN Water’s responsibility to make the payments as the debt belongs to the water system. The city made the last payment of $5 million in December on behalf of the utility. Mississippi Today reached out to city officials to ask if Jackson would be able to take on the next payment, but did not hear back by this publication.

If the city is unable to make future debt payments, it could be subject to losing sales tax revenue, the utility said.

In his letter, Henifin said the only way JXN Water could make the March payment is if it receives $54 million in reallocated EPA funding by mid-February. In the fall, the city convinced Congress to redirect that money from $450 million originally set aside for capital projects.

Lakeisha Pannell loves being sober.

Pannell, 44, has been at Grace House, a transitional sober living housing program for women in Jackson, since October. Pannell was sent there after she got out of prison. She began using drugs at age 14, and her addiction led to her losing communication with her family.

“I went to prison and caught that charge, and I got five and a half years over my head. So yeah, I got to get myself together,” she said, adding that she also wanted to be there for her granddaughter. 

Now in recovery, Pannell says she has changed a lot. She’s happy to be sober, though she struggles finding work because of the felony on her record.

“I’m glad I’m doing my recovery because I was going down a bad road. Now that I’ve stopped my drug use I’m better now. I’m doing a whole lot different.”

Pannell, along with several other people impacted by addiction, visited the Mississippi Capitol on Thursday for Mississippi Recovery Day.

Mississippi Recovery Day allows those impacted by addiction to share their stories and advocate for policies that support recovery. 

This year’s event was co-sponsored by End It For Good, a Mississippi-based non-profit that advocates for a health-centered approach to addiction rather than a strategy focused on criminal justice.

Christina Dent is the founder of End It For Good. A conservative Christian and foster mother, Dent changed her views on addiction after meeting the biological mother of one of her foster children.

“She had been struggling with an addiction for many years, and through getting to know her and seeing her, I realized she is a mom like me, who loves her son just as much as I love my sons.” 

Dent and her fellow advocates see addiction as a medical issue, not a moral or criminal justice one, and want policies that address it that way. Prior events focused on specific policies such as decriminalizing fentanyl testing strips and expanding access to Narcan. Both of those policies are now law.

Several other organizations sponsored the event, such as United Way of the Capitol Area and Mississippi Harm Reduction Initiative.

The Mississippi Senate formally recognized Recovery Day in the Senate Chamber. The attendees had a little over an hour to tour the Capitol, network and meet with their legislators before a press conference on the inner rotunda steps. After the press conference and lunch, some gathered at the All Recovery Meeting to share their experiences and connect with others.

Like Pannell, several attendees were either residents or graduates of Grace House. Emilee Shell is the director of Grace House and is a graduate of Grace House herself.

Last year, Grace House submitted a proposal to the Mississippi Opioid Settlement Advisory Council, but did not make the final list of recommended projects that the council shared with the Legislature. Shell hoped for Grace House to be reconsidered and to talk to lawmakers about increased access to detox programs and recovery residences. 

“People that are in recovery are some of the hardest workers, the biggest go-getters if you just give them a chance,” she said.

Like Pannell, Jerica Hill, 36, is a resident at Grace House who was inspired to get sober because of prison.

“I had a son. He’s six years old right now, and when I lost custody of him and went to prison and everything, that’s when I realized I need to get sober,” she said.

Hill said her addiction also caused her to lose communication and trust with the rest of her family. She said that being sober is great, and that “you can actually really enjoy life.”

Stacey Spiehler, 45, fell into addiction after a traumatic childhood and several complicated pregnancies as an adult. Several members of her family struggled with addiction.

“I didn’t know how to handle my emotions. I didn’t know how to handle my fear. I didn’t know how to handle anything,” she said.

“There was one day where it was either a big bottle of vodka or a gun,” Spiehler said, and she chose the vodka.

Her addiction led to her becoming homeless. Over the next several years, she went to Matt’s House Shelter for Women and Children, brief stints in Brentwood Behavioral Health and St. Dominic Hospital, her mother’s house, a rehab in Chicago, Harbor House Chemical Dependency Services and finally Grace House.

She said Grace House was an important part of her recovery.

“Without that stable, kind of, floor to sit down on, chill out on, relax on and be around a whole lot of other women who had just beaten the same thing that I did, without that, I don’t know where I’d be,” she said.

She graduated from the University of Mississippi last year as a Lyceum Scholar and is president of the board for Families as Allies. She’s close with her family and ex-husband, and is an advocate for children with disabilities because of her son, who has autism and cerebral palsy.

Spiehler wants more lawmakers to listen to and understand people impacted by addiction. 

“We need kind, compassionate, informed paths to recovery,” she said.

During the press conference, legislators thanked the attendees for their advocacy and talked about supportive policies, and people impacted by addiction spoke in favor of health-centered approaches and non-traditional paths to recovery. 

“That’s the goal, a healthy thriving life, and we want to celebrate every step that a person takes that gets them closer to that healthy, thriving life,” Dent said.

In his speech, Rep. Fabian Nelson, a Democrat from Byram, highlighted last year’s success in passing a state law that increased access to Narcan, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

He told the attendees their presence in the Capitol was important. “We need you here to come here and talk about what is important to you because that’s the way that we get things done,” he said.

This year, Nelson is trying again to push a bill to take hypodermic syringes off of the drug paraphernalia crime list, which would allow for needle disposal programs.

Rep. Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, talked about a bill he authored to have state-funded clinical trials for ibogaine, a drug that could be used to treat opioid use disorder and mental health issues. The bill recently passed in the House and is now in the Senate.

“What it does is bring some of the most treatment-resistant, hardest-hit Mississippians into the kind of gold-standard they deserve for FDA-approved medical research,” he said.

Katie Scheel of Columbus credited medical cannabis with helping her recovery and making her healthier, calmer and a better mother. She spoke out against House Bill 1195, which would restrict medical marijuana advertising.

“I wanted to show y’all that these guys have a mom that is present because of medical cannabis,” she said, with one child in her arms and the other by her side.

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

One of the most dangerous pronouncements to come out of Washington in recent weeks was the decision to pause all federal funding for child care.

After a sleepless weekend for everyone connected to child care in Mississippi – parents, center owners and directors and staff – updated federal rules governing the receipt of these funds have now been released. According to the federal Office of Health and Human Services, funds are paused for certain states. Mississippi is not one.

However, Mississippi families are currently experiencing problems with the reenrollment process required by the state Department of Human Services to receive funding for child care. There is confusion related to the acceptance of paperwork to reenroll. Some child care providers indicate there are eligible children who were enrolled receiving funding and others not.

Mississippi has a finite amount of money allocated by the federal government which is placed by the state Department of Human Services in a child care payment program.

The state could allocate additional funds to the program as legislators did in the 2025 session. The $15 million allocated by the state is more than in the past, but a token amount when considering the total needed. Since the Department of Human Services is not utilizing the federal funding it could to serve all qualifying children, a system has been developed that accepts applicants based on the date they tried to enroll and not those recently attempting to reenroll. The current number of children reported on the waiting list is almost 20,000.

As a non-traditional student myself, I would not have been able to attend college without access to child care. A divorced mom of a 3-year-old, my attendance at the University of Arkansas would have been impossible without the campus child care program. Without money saved from a job I quit so I could attend school full-time and without family support, I would still be in the Arkansas Delta watching the cotton grow and employed in a low wage job.

This was over 50 years ago, and I would like to think the investment in my education paid off. Today’s investment in educating non-traditional students is even more important given the need for well-trained individuals in all fields of engineering, medicine, science, business, education and the list goes on. Child care is a critical part of the equation that equals success.

Some child care programs do not accept federal funding and rely solely on tuition payments to remain operational. In Mississippi, however, it is estimated that just over 50% of child care programs receive some level of federal funds, in addition to tuition payments provided by parents. As centers strive to operate, they plan and budget using funds from both tuition payments and the Department of Human Services programs. Without a stable income, it is impossible to project how and if monthly bills will be paid.

The federal funds are restricted for use by working families whose incomes fall below established eligibility financial thresholds and/or students who attend school and work. Children in foster care and those who have a ruling indicating they need special services are also eligible.

Families must submit income documentation annually and provide several documents specific to the child at enrollment and reenrollment. These documents are listed on the state Department of Human Services website.

Families with incomes higher than those who qualify for federal funds are still at risk of being impacted by the lack of federal/state support. Child care centers must pay the bills that are due and salaries must be paid regardless of cash flow. All employers and families utilizing child care should voice concerns to state legislators and the state Department of Human Services. All families can be impacted when child care centers close because of lack of funding.

In Mississippi, state funds are available that could be allocated to assist working families by keeping centers open so people can work. Currently, there are approximately 20,000 eligible children on the wait list who could be served if Human Services utilized funds already earmarked for working families and those in training.

Recruiting businesses to come to our state has proven to be successful. What measures will be taken to make this a state young families choose to live or stay in to fill the new positions? Without a family-friendly response from state leadership, child care centers will close, care for certain age groups will disappear and providers will leave the profession, creating an even greater access crisis for parents.

No child care means no workers. No workers means no production. A pause or lack of child care can also interfere with training and schooling, delaying non-traditional students’ ability to get a job.

Bio: Cathy Grace is the early childhood specialist at the North Mississippi Education Consortium. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 50 years as a first -grade teacher, consultant to state and nonprofit agencies and child care programs. Grace taught early childhood education at four state universities and retired from Mississippi State University as professor emerita. She also directed the planning and implementation of public kindergarten while employed at the Mississippi Department of Education. She has worked in Washington as an early childhood advocate and presented research numerous times at state, regional and national conferences. 

Tougaloo College has named three finalists in its search for a new president. Donzell Lee, the current president, will complete his term in June. 

The finalists are: 

• Elfred Anthony Pinkard, former president of Wilberforce University, a private historically Black university in Ohio
• Archie Tucker II, president of Push Pull Solutions, a consulting firm based in Texas specializing in higher education marketing and philanthropy
• Corey Wiggins, federal co-chair of the Delta Regional Authority 

Each finalist is slated to participate in forums with students, faculty and alumni.  After the sessions, constituents will submit a written evaluation of each finalist. 

Tougaloo, a 157-year-old, private historically Black college located in north Jackson, has been on the hunt for its 15th college president for nearly a year. In June, the college’s presidential search committee held community listening sessions for faculty, alumni, board of trustees and students after hiring WittKieffer, a Chicago-based consulting firm to help lead the search. 

In a November letter addressed to constituents, Blondean Davis, chair of the presidential search committee, said the search committee received 114 applications for the role at Tougaloo. WittKieffer consultants and committee members reviewed and screened each submission before identifying 12 candidates to move to first round interviews. In December, committee members selected final candidates for the role and to schedule campus visits. 

“I’m extremely pleased with the process and think we have three highly qualified candidates,” Davis told Mississippi Today. 

In February, WitKieffer plans to gather constituents’ evaluation responses and present them in a formal report to the search committee. The committee will meet to discuss the firm’s report and make recommendations for the candidates to have a final interview with Tougaloo College’s board of trustees in March. The board will then decide whether to offer a contract.  

The Mississippi Department of Human Services is expected to explore a funding model advocates for months have proposed as a solution to the state’s child care crisis, agency director Bob Anderson announced during a Senate Public Health Committee meeting Wednesday. 

That model would use some of the department’s unspent $156 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds to address the roughly 20,000 working families on a waiting list for child care vouchers, or coupons. Since April, families have been added to the waitlist after pandemic-era funds that had boosted the voucher program ran out. 

The agency has yet to navigate the federal regulations around tapping into TANF funds for this purpose, Anderson said. Mississippi already transfers the maximum 30% of TANF funds to the Child Care Development Fund. That’s the federal block grant that makes up the bulk of the voucher program funding, called the Child Care Payment Program. But other states have successfully channeled additional TANF dollars toward their voucher programs in a way that doesn’t conflict with the transfer cap.

“We have to be sure we identify the families as eligible, and that the money is allocated pursuant to the federal law,” Anderson said to lawmakers during the hearing. 

Senate Public Health Chair Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, then said: “You can do all that, can’t you?” to which Anderson responded he was “certainly going to try.”

Advocates from the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, the main group pushing the state to use more TANF funds for child care, said Wednesday’s announcement was “extremely encouraging.”

“It’s a very significant development because before, they were sounding like they didn’t think it was possible to do it,” said Carol Burnett, executive director of the group. “But now they’re beginning to say, ‘Well, it’s new for us, we don’t really know how to do it’… The fact that they’re pursuing it is a very promising development.”

The voucher program is currently only serving 18,000 children – about half of what it was serving at the height of the pandemic – according to the Mississippi Department of Human Services. 

Importantly, the enhanced pandemic funding didn’t expand eligibility. Instead, it allowed the program to reach more eligible families. The voucher program has historically only received enough funding to cover 1 in 7 eligible children. 

Working parents consistently struggle to pay for child care in the U.S., where it takes an average of 10% of a married couple’s median income and 35% of a single parent’s income to pay for the weekly expense. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deems child care that costs more than 7% of a household’s income to be unaffordable. 

The use of additional TANF funds is not the only option on the table to resolve Mississippi’s child care crisis. Anderson asked the Legislature during Wednesday’s hearing to appropriate as much as possible toward the $60 million needed to fund the child care voucher program. Anderson added, however, that because federal cuts have shifted costs to states, he didn’t include an additional child care funding request in his department’s budget request. 

“If the Legislature is inclined to fund child care in a larger amount – whether it be $16 million, $20 million, $25 million, $45 million, whatever amount – we will devote those funds to providing certificates to those families and those children who are on our waiting list right now.”

Last year, the Legislature appropriated $15 million of the $45 million the department requested to the voucher program. This year, the total amount needed has risen to $60 million due to inflation, said Mark Jones, director of communications at the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Meanwhile, the state has assumed $15 million in additional costs to run its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – another impact of the many federal funding cuts that are tightening the state’s budget. 

The increased need for child care funds coupled with the decrease in available state funds make for a difficult situation. But several lawmakers on either side of the aisle have expressed support of at least matching last year’s $15 million appropriation. 

Meanwhile, Mississippi averted an unrelated child care disaster after the Trump administration froze child care funding to five states – California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York – following allegations of widespread multi-state fraud concerns, which the states have argued the administration has not provided evidence to support. All other states were required to immediately submit new paperwork, including “strong justification” for all child care expenses, to continue drawing down federal funds. 

Mississippi successfully “defended its spend” and was able to draw down federal funds Jan. 16, Jones told Mississippi Today Thursday. 

“Because of the controls we had in place, we were able to so quickly comply,” Jones said. “If the TANF scandal taught us anything, it’s to do it right.”

Mississippi has faced shortages in child care availability long before the recent tumult on the federal level. 

Centers are closing in record numbers, child care workers are providing uncompensated care, and parents are facing impossible decisions – including anecdotal reports that several desperate parents have left their children unattended with at-home security cameras, or “nanny cams,” and were later reported to Child Protective Services. 

The only thing that will resolve the crisis, advocates say, is immediate and significant increase in funding. 

“Employers across the state need the child care industry to be stable, they need parents to have stable child care,” said Matt Williams, director of research at the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. “There are always improvements that could be made to processes and policies regarding access to affordable child care, but revenue is what’s needed right now. The voucher program has been functioning in recent years pretty well, and what the system needs is more revenue.”

A new lawsuit accuses Rankin County prosecutors of refusing to release public records that could play a role in reversing wrongful convictions resulting from criminal acts by a “Goon Squad” of deputies, many of whom are serving decades in federal prison.

For a generation, Rankin County Sheriff’s Department deputies, some of whom called themselves the “Goon Squad,” used “torture, violence, and other abusive practices to coerce confessions and extract or manufacture evidence for criminal cases prosecuted primarily by the Rankin County District Attorney’s Office,” the lawsuit alleges. 

The ACLU of Mississippi and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit Thursday in Rankin County Chancery Court.

“Due to that misconduct, the Goon Squad was responsible for profound suffering by community members, including numerous wrongful convictions,” says the lawsuit, which represents one side of a legal argument.

The lawsuit cites reporting by Mississippi Today and The New York Times, which included revelations from former Rankin County deputy Christian Dedmon about how he and others in his department regularly entered homes without warrants, beat people to get information and illegally seized evidence that helped convict people of drug crimes.

His statements corroborated many aspects of the publications’ investigation that uncovered a two-decade reign of terror by Rankin County sheriff’s deputies, including those who called themselves the “Goon Squad.” Dedmon’s statements also shed new light on the deputies’ tactics and the scope of their violent and illegal behavior.

In 2023, Dedmon and five other officers barged into a home without a warrant and then beat and tortured two Black men, Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins. One of the deputies shoved a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and shot him, shattering his jaw. To conceal their crimes, the deputies destroyed surveillance footage, planted false evidence and lied to investigators. 

After a state and federal investigation, Dedmon and the other officers pleaded guilty and were sentenced to federal prison in 2024.

Soon after Dedmon’s statements were published by Mississippi Today and The Times on Dec. 23, the civil rights organizations filed a public records request with the Rankin County District Attorney’s Office related to actions taken in response to the Goon Squad’s abuses. District Attorney Bubba Bramlett denied their request. 

“Given the documented and admitted misconduct of multiple Rankin County officers, which spans the course of two decades, the lack of transparency is deeply troubling,” said Ayanna Hill, a racial justice staff attorney with the ACLU of Mississippi. “Extraordinary measures should not be required to obtain records that, by law, belong to the public.”

The lawsuit asks the court to compel the district attorney to release a list of cases involving Goon Squad officers, actions taken in response to those revelations and communications between prosecutors and those officers.

The District Attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication of this story.

In a March 2024 statement to Mississippi Today, Bramlett said his office conducted an “extensive review to identify any and all cases in which these officers were involved.” He said his office dismissed those indicted cases and didn’t go forward with cases where “the integrity of the investigation may have been compromised.”

Mississippi Today found dozens of drug cases dismissed in the wake of the 2023 Goon Squad arrests. Some of these dismissals cited the unavailability of those deputies, who are incarcerated, as witnesses. Bramlett’s office wouldn’t divulge any details of its review, including how many cases have been dismissed and how far back his review went.

According to local defense lawyers, the district attorney’s office is not reviewing cases where defendants pleaded guilty, ruling out a vast majority of drug cases involving the deputies. Dedmon estimated deputies conducted hundreds of home search break-ins without warrants in recent years.

When the civil rights organizations asked for a list of all the cases that Goon Squad officers had been involved in over the past four years, Bramlett’s office responded that it had no such list.

“The Rankin County District Attorney’s Office prosecuted and convicted people with the Goon Squad’s help. It should be eager to provide the public with information about what it’s doing to address,” said Terry Ding, a staff attorney with the ACLU State Supreme Court Initiative. “But instead, it is unlawfully withholding all of its records except one self-serving statement to the press.” 

Ding said that the public “has a right to know how their public officials respond to cases of severe police misconduct.”

Center for Constitutional Rights Justice Fellow and attorney Korbin Felder said in a press release in the wake of Rankin County’s largest law enforcement scandal, “the District Attorney’s office should have created a transparent process of disclosing records and reviewing all cases involving these officers. 

“Rather than providing the citizens of Rankin County and the victims of law enforcement abuse the transparency and accountability they deserve, the District Attorney’s office continues to insist that the public and the victims are not entitled to such,” Felder said.

The lawsuit says Bramlett’s office had “a legal duty to disclose misconduct by those officers to the people being prosecuted as well as those convicted.”

Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the nonprofit Innocence Project, said the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1963 decision in Brady v. Maryland requires prosecutors to disclose any evidence that might clear a defendant, even if the evidence arises after that person’s conviction.

The lawsuit in Rankin County cites the case of Ron Shinstock, who is serving a 40-year prison sentence after he was convicted in part by the testimony of Chief Inspector Brett McAlpin, who federal prosecutors described as the “ringleader” for the 2023 attack on Jenkins and Parker.

McAlpin led a violent raid of Shinstock’s home, holding his children at gunpoint and forcing him to strip naked in his backyard. According to the lawsuit, McAlpin and other deputies beat him, threatened him with sexual abuse and told him he would be raped in prison. Shinstock’s friend was reportedly beaten so badly that he bled from his ears.

In emails and phone calls, Dedmon delineated the drug raids that occurred in Rankin County almost every week for years.

He said deputies regularly brutalized and humiliated suspects to get them to share information during the raids. And he said they often seized evidence without a legally required warrant, raising questions about possible wrongful convictions in hundreds of narcotics cases stemming from the raids.

For some raids, Dedmon said, the deputies would falsely describe emergency circumstances that gave them cover for searching without a warrant. For others, they would falsely claim that evidence was in plain sight, he said.

Dedmon said deputies were entering homes without warrants so often that in 2022 McAlpin passed on a warning from a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office demanding that “the warrantless entries had to stop.” The warning was specifically aimed at him, according to what McAlpin told him, Dedmon recalled. “He said to me that times are changing at the D.A.’s office.”

The lawsuit cited Dedmon’s remark, saying this information suggests the office knew of this “massive misconduct” but failed to inform the public or those arrested by Goon Squad officers.

“To this day, neither criminal defendants nor the public have been informed of the full scope and gravity of the Goon Squad’s misconduct,” according to the lawsuit.

In 2023, while investigating allegations against the Goon Squad, reporters for Mississippi Today and The Times sought copies of warrants related to nine raids by the unit. The department did not provide the warrants and referred reporters to the district attorney’s office, which declined to release any documentation.

Jason Dare, the lawyer for the Sheriff’s Department, has said that Dedmon’s remarks insinuate “that investigators with the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department do not procure search warrants for residential searches. Such a generalized accusation against our investigators is false, defamatory and easily disproven through readily available public records.”

Dare said Dedmon’s statements to Mississippi Today show the former narcotics investigator “admits that he knew right from wrong and admits to falsifying reports to the Sheriff’s Department, both of which show that the training and policies of this department taught him how to legally and properly perform his duties. Assuming these statements are accurately reported, they show that Dedmon made the choice to commit criminal acts and is incarcerated as a result.”

Dare said the sheriff “has remained committed to the safety and protection of Rankin County citizens.”

Krissy Nobile, director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, had volunteered her office to help review past Goon Squad cases to determine what, if any, wrongful convictions took place.

That offer still stands, Nobile told Mississippi Today: “Our office specializes in post-conviction.”

Meanwhile, Shinstock is scheduled to be released in 2056, just before his 82nd birthday. “I lost my family, I lost my home,” he said. “I lost my life.”

While the Senate appears to remain opposed to the House’s push for sending public dollars to private schools, the chamber’s Education Committee passed bills with many of the House’s other proposals on Thursday.

The panel of lawmakers advanced 15 measures over a nearly three-hour hearing, including four bills that mirror segments of the House’s omnibus measure, House Bill 2. 

The committee passed bills that would extend a literacy act that helped raise reading scores in Mississippi into higher grades and establish a similar math act. It also approved bills that would create a framework for school consolidations and mandate financial literacy education for high school graduation.

“A lot of stuff from last year passed again today, and then a lot of new stuff that you’ve probably seen in a House bill somewhere,” Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, a Republican from Leakesville, told reporters after the meeting. “But, as I said before, we have most everything in House Bill 2, and we’re gonna pass (the Senate bills).”

An adolescent literacy expansion, which the Mississippi Department of Education estimates would cost $9 million, would send more literacy coaches to schools and establish an eighth-grade reading gate, akin to the test that third-graders are required to pass to graduate. 

The math act passed by the committee on Thursday is similar — with a cost of about $3.5 million. Lawmakers and education officials are aiming to replicate the state’s reading gains in math by deploying coaches and testing students at least three times a year to identify weaknesses.

Sen. Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, amended the bill to specify the use of high-quality instructional materials after committee Vice Chairman David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson, also pushed back against it, asking for a standardized curriculum and closer alignment with the state’s literacy program.

“We established a model that works, and I want to stick to that model,” Blount said.

The committee also passed a bill that would broaden the powers of the Commission on School District Efficiency, which the Legislature established years ago. The bill would require the commission to give the Legislature recommendations on school consolidations as early as the next session. 

Then, if any consolidations are approved by the Legislature, they would begin July 2028, DeBar said. 

Another bill that the committee approved Thursday, which mirrors a section of House Bill 2, would require financial literacy education for Mississippi students. 

The Senate committee previously passed three other components of House Bill 2 — easing public school transfer regulations, making it easier for retirees to return to the classroom and raising assistant teacher pay. 

The committee has passed more than a third of the provisions in House Bill 2 altogether, and more are coming. Senators have filed bills promoting prayer in school and permitting homeschooled students to play sports at their assigned public school, both pieces of the omnibus House bill. 

The panel on Thursday also took up 11 other education measures that would give more money to schools for their gifted students, raise the salaries of school attendance officers, allow school boards to enact cellphone bans during school hours, permit the earlier distribution of procurement cards that teachers use to buy classroom supplies and create an ombudsman office within the state education department.

One bill that would have revoked the charter of charter schools that are rated D or F for longer than two years was listed on the committee agenda. However, DeBar, who’s been outspoken about his disapproval of the performance of the state’s charter schools, cut the meeting short without bringing the bill up for a vote.

“I don’t anticipate bringing that back up,” he said. 

The bills passed by the committee can now be considered by the full chamber. 

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann referred House Bill 2 to the Senate Education Committee this week. DeBar said he will take it up in committee, but he has repeatedly said the Senate opposes any measure that includes a voucher system of using public tax dollars for private schooling.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center has raised nearly $90 million for the construction of a new cancer center, an important step in Mississippi’s quest to gain a national designation that could improve outcomes for patients in the state with one of the nation’s highest cancer mortality rates, according to hospital leaders.

“What we don’t have in Mississippi is the gold standard kind of cancer program that is available in other places in the country,” said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the UMMC School of Medicine, during the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday.

The medical center is asking the state Legislature to appropriate $100 million to go toward the new building’s $250 million overall cost. The project also has the support of U.S. Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker and U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, who are seeking approximately $40 million in federal funding for the cancer center, Woodward said. The remaining costs will be financed through bonds issued by the medical center.

The five-story building will be located on State Street across from the medical center and “bring together education, research and treatment under one roof,” according to the project’s fundraising website. The building will be adjacent to the American Cancer Center’s Jackson Hope Lodge, which provides a free place to stay to cancer patients and their families. 

The new building is critical to the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute’s application for designation by the National Cancer Institute, a federal agency run by the National Institutes of Health, Woodward said. The institute recognizes cancer centers that meet rigorous requirements for laboratory and clinical research and translate scientific knowledge into innovative treatments for patients. It also provides training for the next generation of cancer-care professionals and performs outreach to the community. 

There are 73 NCI designated centers nationwide, but none in Mississippi, Louisiana or Arkansas. Cancer patients in Mississippi seeking care at a designated center must travel to Alabama, Tennessee or Texas. The designation was first introduced in the 1970s as a part of a national initiative to increase Americans’ access to cutting-edge cancer treatment. 

Achieving the designation will be a “long, heavy lift,” that could take up to a decade, Dr. Rodney Rocconi, the director of UMMC’s cancer center since 2023, previously told Mississippi Today. It will require the center to recruit faculty, expand its research capacity and demonstrate strong programming in community outreach and prevention.

Designated centers receive a support grant from the agency and have access to early clinical trials. Studies have shown that patients treated at NCI-designated centers have lower mortality rates than people treated at non-designated cancer centers. 

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Mississippi, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mississippi’s cancer death rate is 25% higher than the national average.

UMMC, the state’s only academic medical center, is the only institution in Mississippi capable of achieving NCI designation because a successful application requires a high level of research horsepower, Woodward said to the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday. 

“It’s either us, or it doesn’t happen,” she said. 

The state Legislature increased its appropriation for the cancer center to $9 million in 2024 – a nearly $5 million increase — to support research infrastructure, clinical trials and recruiting researchers.

The medical center is currently recruiting cancer researchers “as fast as we can,” Woodward said Wednesday. 

The University of Mississippi Medical Center has sought National Cancer Institute designation since 2012, a process it then expected to take five years, the Jackson Free Press reported at the time.

UMMC has received several sizable donations for the cancer center, and donations have outpaced the medical center’s internal schedule, said Woodward. John and Sandy Black of Madison donated $25 million to support the new facility last January. 

“The enthusiasm that we are meeting for this project is phenomenal,” Woodward said. 

The medical center has discussed the application process with the National Cancer Institute, Woodward said. The institute will not give UMMC a pass on any requirements, but they have been “exceedingly encouraging” of Mississippi’s efforts, Woodward said.

“They know the need in the state.”