Measures to improve prison health care access and create stronger safeguards against the denial of care in Mississippi prisons survived the first legislative deadline on Tuesday, but several also died.

The legislation is part of a reform package introduced by Rep. Becky Currie, the Republican House Corrections Chairwoman from Brookhaven.

Her effort to ensure more Mississippi prisoners receive the medical care they need follows tours of prisons she took around the state and findings reported in Mississippi Today’s “Behind Bars, Beyond Care” series. The ongoing investigative series has documented potentially thousands of prisoners living with hepatitis C going without treatment, an untreated broken arm that resulted in amputation and delayed cancer screenings one woman said led to a terminal diagnosis. An ex-corrections official said people are experiencing widespread medical neglect in Mississippi’s prisons and turned over internal messages to Mississippi Today bemoaning the care provided by VitalCore Health Strategies, the state’s private medical contractor for prisons.

Tuesday night was the deadline for committees to pass general bills and constitutional amendments originating in their own chamber.

Currie told Mississippi Today she looks forward to passing her bills that survived the deadline on the House floor and plans to work with Senate colleagues to send the bills to Gov. Tate Reeves. She also managed to get a bill passed that contains sections of state code that could allow her to revive some of the dead legislation later.

Below is an overview of the prison health care bills that survived the deadline and those that died.

Alive

Creating a hepatitis C and HIV program in Mississippi prisons: House Bill 1744 would require the creation of a hepatitis C program and an HIV program aimed at improving the treatment available to prisoners. The program would be overseen by the state Department of Health and the prison medical contractor, which is currently VitalCore. Additionally, it instructs the state to develop a plan focused on improving the health of female prisoners.

An October Mississippi Today report revealed that only a fraction of Mississippi prisoners diagnosed with hepatitis C receive treatment, which has allowed the treatable infection to develop into a life-threatening illness for some.

Providing prisoners with protective equipment: HB 1444, introduced for the second year in a row by Rep. Justis Gibbs, a Democrat from Jackson, would ensure that if prisoners are forced to use strong cleaning chemicals, prison officials must provide them with protective equipment such as face masks, gloves, protective helmets and eye protection. The legislation is a response to the case of Susan Balfour, who died of breast cancer after she said prison health care providers failed to offer her necessary medical screenings and treatment.

Taking power to award health contracts away from the Corrections Department: HB 1692 would transfer responsibility for soliciting proposals for the prison health care contract currently held by VitalCore from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Finance and Administration. Currie said she does not want VitalCore to have carte blanche to renew its multi-hundred-million-dollar contract in 2027.

Mississippi selected VitalCore for a three-year contract worth over $357 million in 2024. The company won out over Wexford Health Sources and Centurion of Mississippi, both companies that have held the contract for prison medical services in the past, in a competitive bidding process. VitalCore was awarded over $315 million in emergency, no-bid state contracts from 2020 to 2024.

Prison omnibus bill: HB 1751 contains code sections for many of the individual policies that Currie has introduced. This bill could serve as a vehicle to revive other measures that died with Tuesday night’s deadline and for negotiations with the Senate on policies that might stall in the chamber.

Dead

Requiring medical kiosks for prisoners: HB 1740 would have mandated that prisoners have access to communal kiosks where they could request medical attention. The bill would have allowed officials to track whether prisoners have been seen by medical professionals or not. Often, there are conflicting claims between prisoners and VitalCore about the care provided by the company. VitalCore owns prisoners’ medical records and is not required to divulge them if a prisoner claims to have been denied care. The legislation would have also prevented VitalCore from charging prisoners for medical services.

Currie said the bill was designed to prevent prisoners from suffering the fate of Christopher Boose, the subject of an October Mississippi Today report. Boose, a Newton County man whose one-year sentence for a Drug Court infraction led to a lifetime as an amputee after he says he was denied treatment for a broken arm that turned into a sepsis infection.

Redirecting funds from private law firm to legislative watchdog for prison health audit: HB 1745 would have redirected funds awarded to Butler Snow, a politically connected law firm in Mississippi that MDOC retained over the summer to monitor VitalCore. The Corrections Department entered into the agreement with Butler Snow after the Legislature in 2025 appropriated $690,000 to monitor and review the health contract with VitalCore and provide a report to lawmakers by Dec. 15.

That was news to Currie, who, despite her position as House Corrections chairwoman, was first informed of the agreement in December. MDOC has not issued a public statement about the agreement, which was first reported by Mississippi Today after the outlet obtained a letter Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain sent to a top Senate lawmaker months after the agreement had been approved. 

Currie said she wanted to take back the rest of the money awarded to the firm and give it to PEER, the state’s legislative watchdog committee, to conduct an audit of VitalCore.

Remove requirement for advance notice before prison visits: HB 1748 would have removed a requirement in state law that members of the Legislature must give advance notice to the Corrections Department commissioner before being admitted into correctional facilities. Many of the findings that informed Currie’s push to clean up prison health care resulted from tours she took of prisons around Mississippi. But giving advance notice before visits could allow prison officials to hide what could be routine shortcomings, Currie said.

The deadline for bills to advance out of their chamber of origin is Feb. 12