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Last month, Charles Young told a prison guard he needed medical attention not long after he first saw bright blood in his urine. 

It was a day before a nurse treated him, took a urine sample and concluded that he had a urinary tract infection. Young said she gave him two shots for the pain and antibiotics and sent him back to his cell at the South Mississippi Correctional Institute in Leakesville with some antibiotic pills, which tend to clear up symptoms within a few days. 

But as the week went by, he felt pain in his abdomen and lower back and could barely eat or drink. Six days later, he was taken to the nearby Greene County Hospital, where Young said a doctor in the emergency department told him he needed to be seen by a specialist and that his condition was serious. 

It’s been more than three weeks since that hospital visit. The first time he saw a doctor at the prison was Oct. 3 – after Mississippi Today and an advocacy group began reaching out to the prison and Mississippi Department of Corrections asking questions about his lack of care. He said he underwent a procedure where a catheter was inserted, but he has not been given the results or any updates since.

Officials told him after the hospital visit an appointment with a urologist has been made, but Young said the doctor he saw last week told him it was unlikely he would see the specialist because of “transportation issues.”

 “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Young said by phone last week.

While the blood in his urine has subsided, he still has terrible stomach pain, little to no appetite and irregular bowel movements, he said. 

Federal health privacy laws prevent the Department of Corrections from commenting directly on Young’s medical case. But more broadly, VitalCore Health Strategies, the state’s contracted medical provider since 2020, provides care to more than 19,000 people in the prison system. 

“VitalCore provides primary care services on site,” Mississippi Medical Director Dr. Raman Singh said in a statement. “When a patient needs a higher level of care, VitalCore medical staff take those patients to the specialty clinics and hospitals in the area.”

“With these arrangements, we ensure that our patients have the same level of access to specialist care as other Mississippians.”

An ongoing lawsuit filed by Disability Rights Mississippi in 2021 suggests otherwise. The advocacy group filed the federal lawsuit against VitalCore, the department and Commissioner Burl Cain on behalf of 31 incarcerated men and women across the state’s prisons, including South Mississippi Correctional. 

The lawsuit alleges the defendants don’t provide treatment, medication and medical equipment for those in custody. Incarcerated people experienced worsened health conditions or death from ignored or refused calls for treatment and delayed outside appointments and follow up exams, the complaint says.  

The lawsuit highlighted dozens of situations, including a delayed diagnosis that led to the death of a woman at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl. Similar to Young, she made several sick calls about her symptoms, including blood in her urine, and complained of shortness of breath and passed out the week she died, according to the lawsuit. 

A MDOC spokesperson declined to comment because the lawsuit is ongoing. In court records, the department and VitalCore denied most of the allegations. 

Disability Rights Mississippi has gotten involved on behalf of Young, though Communications Director Jane Walton said she can’t comment on his situation specifically.

Walton said because of the nonprofit’s status as a protection advocacy agency, it has unique access to places many people don’t, including prisons. When the group began looking into how disabled people were being treated in Mississippi prisons, it found “egregious” violations and instances where incarcerated people – both with and without disabilities – went without basic medical, mental health and hygiene care. 

The lawsuit is in the “class certification” stage, where attorneys must demonstrate certain facts to obtain class action status. These include demonstrating that the plaintiffs have been harmed in similar ways and the class is appropriately defined. 

This phase of the lawsuit will likely continue into 2024, Walton said.

Sick calls were often ignored due to lack of staff, the lawsuit alleges. The first time Young needed to see a medical professional about his condition, he was told to come back the next day because there was not one available. 

Three doctors, three nurse practitioners, 18 registered nurses and 12 licensed nurse practitioners who exclusively cover South Mississippi Correctional, according to VitalCore and MDOC. 

In the two years since the lawsuit has been active, two of the plaintiffs have died, according to court records. 

Although Young is no longer seeing blood in his urine, he knows he isn’t entirely better. The pain, weakness and shaking he is still feeling can be connected to an infection in the kidney and bladder. 

The 30-year-old said he’s never had a health condition like the one he’s experiencing. He said cancer doesn’t run in his family, but there is no way to rule out the disease until he gets further treatment. Continued blood in the urine and pain can be symptoms of kidney or bladder cancer. 

Young said the visit to the outside hospital felt like a ray of hope. 

“It felt great to actually know there was a deeper issue wrong with me, and they were trying to get me to proper medical care,” he said. 

Greg Havard, CEO of the George Regional Health System, could not comment on Young’s medical case, but said the hospital doesn’t see many patients from the Leakesville prison. 

Greene County Regional is able to treat urinary tract infections and bladder conditions, including by using a CT scan and running lab work to make a diagnosis, he said. For more specialized treatment, the hospital refers patients – incarcerated or not – to specialists. 

Singh, of VitalCore, said when a patient needs a higher level of care, medical staff take them to specialty clinics and hospitals in the area. For those at South Mississippi Correctional, they would be taken to medical facilities in the Hattiesburg area, which is about 50 miles from the prison. It’s unclear why Young was taken to the small Leakesville hospital. 

For more complex conditions, VitalCore sends people to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. 

Not long after Young started having symptoms, his family began calling the prison to talk with wardens, nurses and other medical staff. Kathy Williams, Young’s aunt, even traveled from Washington to Mississippi to try and help her nephew get medical care. 

Officials wouldn’t answer or share information about Young’s condition and treatment with her or other family members due to medical privacy laws, she said. Young said he didn’t know how to provide permission to allow the prison to disclose his health information. 

Young has been at South Mississippi Correctional since 2019. He was sentenced to 20 years for manslaughter and aggravated assault and a five-year enhanced penalty of cocaine possession.

Though prison records list a 2033 tentative release date, Young said he has earned time off his sentence to be released in three years. He said he did that by enrolling in educational and skills programs as well as having jobs in the prison. 

In his free time, he reads the Bible, prays and preaches, but with his recent health condition, he hasn’t been able to do that as much. 

Young’s recent medical and safety concerns have renewed his family’s efforts to get him transferred to a regional facility closer to home. South Mississippi Correctional is hundreds of miles away from Greenville, where Young is from. 

Williams said her nephew was told he needed to get medical treatment before being moved because the regional facility likely wouldn’t pay for it. So she, other family members and Young’s 

girlfriend are begging for him to be seen by a specialist outside of the prison. 

“I just never would have thought the prison system was like this,” said Williams, who is a health care worker.

The post Outside doctor told an inmate he needed to see a specialist, but MDOC medical provider has yet to get him to one appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Oct. 10, 1871

Octavius Catto, a 32-year-old educator and civil rights activist who had pushed for Black Americans to be treated as equal citizens, was assassinated during an election day uprising in Philadelphia, which had the nation’s largest population of free African Americans. 

Born free in Charleston, South Carolina, he moved north with his family, where he became an educator, minister, activist and athlete. 

When the Civil War came, he recruited Black soldiers for the Union Army. After the war ended, he fought for the desegregation of Philadelphia’s trolley cars. He played a role in the passage of a bill that barred segregation on transit systems. A conductor’s refusal to admit Catto’s fiancée to a streetcar helped bring about the new law. 

On election day, a mob of white thugs roamed the community, attacking Black residents who tried to vote. One of those men, Frank Kelly, confronted Catto, shooting him in the heart. Kelly escaped, but was arrested and returned to trial, where an all-white, all-male jury acquitted him. 

Catto’s headstone remembers him as “the forgotten hero.” The city of Philadelphia has erected a monument in his honor outside the city hall. It was the first public monument in the city to honor a specific Black American.

The post On this day in 1871 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The outgoing leader of the legislative committee responsible for criminal justice issues plans to hold a hearing Thursday on how Mississippi provides constitutionally required legal services to poor people accused of a crime.

House Judiciary B Chairman Nick Bain, a Republican from Corinth, said on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast on Sept. 25 that the hearing this week will center on reforming the state’s disjointed public defense system. 

“We lag behind in public defense, indigent defense in Mississippi,” Bain said. “We don’t have a uniform system all over the state. That is as much of a constitutional right as your right to bear arms, your freedom of speech or your right to the press.”

Recent reporting from ProPublica, The Marshall Project and the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal shows that Mississippi’s indigent defense network is disjointed with no uniform system in place. 

“In other states, any discussion of policy change takes place at one or two systems,” David Carroll, director of the Sixth Amendment Center, told the news outlets. “There are nearly 500 indigent defense systems in Mississippi.”

Mississippi is one of only a handful of states without direct state oversight of public defense. Instead, local governments bear almost all the responsibility of providing poor criminal defendants with an attorney, as guaranteed by the Constitution.

In many counties, defendants aren’t appointed new lawyers until they’re indicted, a process that can take years. And by the time defendants receive a court-appointed attorney, so much time has passed that the lawyer is unable to locate crucial witnesses or evidence that could exonerate them. 

To combat these deficiencies, Bain believes the state needs a public defense organization with counties grouped together into districts that parallel how state prosecutors, called district attorneys, function. 

Numerous task forces dating back to 1995 have highlighted the state’s fractured system that leaves defendants in jail for long periods of time without an attorney. But state leaders haven’t done much to change the system.

Bain, a part-time public defender, believes counties and cities are hesitant to spend a significant portion of resources on public defense because of a “tough on crime” mentality in Mississippi that makes public officials queasy about spending tax dollars on people accused of committing serious offenses. 

However, the three-term lawmaker argues if local and state governments provide more money to indigent defense, it can save them more money in the long run. 

“It’s beneficial to your cities and your counties to do this,” Bain said. “For whatever cost it may have, it certainly outweighs, I think, liability down the road. Not to mention, it’s the humane thing to do, to help these people.” 

But even with an upcoming hearing, there’s no guarantee that Bain’s dream will ever become reality anytime soon. The Alcorn County lawmaker recently lost his reelection bid when his Republican challenger defeated him by around 26 votes in a runoff race. 

READ MORE: House chairman Nick Bain loses by 26 votes, becoming seventh incumbent legislator defeated

When lawmakers convene at the state Capitol in January for their 2024 regular session, presumptive Speaker Jason White will appoint new House members to lead the chamber’s legislative committees, including the Judiciary B Committee. 

Whoever becomes the new leader of the committee Bain currently leads will help determine the future of the notoriously fractured defense system.

The post Outgoing House leader to hold hearing about state public defense system reforms appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down fellow editorial cartoonist, Scott Stantis. Stantis, the editorial cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune, lives in Birmingham, Ala. and was once the cartoonist for the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal and the Birmingham News.

He and Ramsey talk about what makes cartooning in the South so special, their careers, and what it is like to obtain a dream only to experience the demise of the editorial cartooning profession.

The post Mississippi Stories: Scott Stantis appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: A Good Sign appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign on Friday aired a new TV ad accusing Brandon Presley, his Democratic opponent, of illegally accepting money from leaders in solar energy companies. 

“Here’s Presley’s signature approving a solar energy plant,” a narrator on the Reeves ad says. “Here’s the solar businessman who funds Brandon’s campaign. Check after check, thousands of dollars, breaking the law.” 

Presley is currently north Mississippi’s representative on the three-member Public Service Commissioner, which is responsible for regulating public utilities in the state. 

The basis for Reeves’ allegations stems from a state law enacted to ensure ethical regulatory practices forbidding commissioners from accepting donations from public utilities they oversee.

Presley strongly denied the Reeves campaign’s accusation, telling Mississippi Today at an event in Jackson Friday morning that every campaign contribution his campaign has accepted has been “completely legal.”

“He’s the only candidate in this race that’s funding his campaign off of money from people that are going to jail for stealing dollars in the welfare scandal,” Presley said of Reeves. “This is typical for someone as corrupt as Tate Reeves.”

Presley is referring to Reeves accepting donations from Nancy and Zach New, two people who have pleaded guilty in connection to Mississippi’s welfare scandal where state officials have said millions of dollars meant for the state’s poorest citizens were unlawfully squandered. 

Reeves accepted the donations from the News before they were accused of a crime, but after the allegations against them surfaced, the first-term governor said he donate the contributions to a charity.

The Republican governor, however, did not give away the money and told media outlets earlier this year that he would donate them after the civil and criminal trials against them had concluded, a process which could take years. 

The Presley campaign in a press release also said that a document in the Friday ad that accused the Democratic candidate of wrongdoing was actually property code violation for a Florida address that’s been altered to appear as a campaign finance violation.

Voters will choose to vote for either Reeves or Presley in the general election on Nov. 7. 

The post New Tate Reeves ad accuses Brandon Presley of accepting illegal campaign contributions appeared first on Mississippi Today.

There appears to be much political jackassery afoot in the candidate haggling over debate(s) in the Mississippi gubernatorial race.

At this point, just weeks away from the Nov. 7 general election, it’s still unclear whether Mississippi voters will be treated to such a televised debate. In the meantime, they can enjoy some childish fear and loathing about it from the candidates and campaigns on social media.

Here’s the deal:

Incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves doesn’t want to debate. This makes sense, politically. When you’re a well-known incumbent sitting on a lead and a pile of cash, facing a lesser-known and funded challenger, conventional wisdom is you have little to gain and much to lose from debates.

Plus, Reeves himself has said that extemporaneous speaking and charming a live audience is not his strong suit. He’s right.

Presley, on the other hand, really wants to debate. This makes sense. He needs the exposure.

Plus, Presley is an excellent orator, silver tongued, has the gift of gab. Compared to Reeves, he’s a regular Daniel Webster. Many politicos figure he’ll mop the floor with Reeves in a debate.

Ergo, Presley has been calling for debates for months, vowing to spar with Reeves “any time, anywhere” and agreeing to any debate requests he’s gotten. He’s accepted five invites to date. These include invites from WJTV and Gray TV stations — outlets with wide reach across the state.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves, challenger Brandon Presley continue to debate over debates

Reeves had ducked the invites, and when pressed said he was busy and his campaign was working on it. Presley’s campaign made much political hay of this, saying Reeves was scared to debate or answer questions in front of Mississippians at-large. Presley’s campaign even ran an ad with a tracker and bloodhounds looking for Reeves, a la Sen. Mitch McConnell’s famous ads from the 1980s.

Facing these slings and arrows, plus the fact that Mississippi voters expect gubernatorial candidates to debate, Reeves had to do something. He recently told media his campaign was working with Presley’s campaign on debates — plural. Presley’s campaign promptly responded that this was a lie.

Then on Wednesday, T-minus 34 days until the election, Reeves announced he had accepted a debate invite, from Jackson television station WAPT, for a debate on Nov. 1 — just six days before the election.

Now, this appears to be a rope-a-dope move by the Reeves campaign. It appears likely his campaign invited itself to a debate with WAPT without any consultation of the Presley campaign.

Normally setting up a debate in a major race involves weeks of negotiations and agreeing to ground rules between the host and the competing campaigns. And most debates are held further out than six days from an election. That compressed timing would make it impossible for any candidate who mopped up in a debate to make political hay of it, or for voters to digest it and use it in choosing.

And the debate Reeves agreed to is, oddly, with the Jackson station with the smallest reach, lacking affiliates to broadcast the debates statewide. If only that station airs it, it would not be broadcast live in numerous key election battleground areas of the state.

This all raises some questions of whether WAPT practiced parity in formulating this debate, or worked with the Reeves campaign on organizing the event before even inviting Presley.

This prompted Presley to vow that he’s going to go ’round the state and have the five debates he agreed to, even without Reeves. He said he’ll bring an empty chair to stand in for the governor.

Now, as compelling as this would be to watch, it’s doubtful the media outlets would schedule valuable air time for Presley to argue with a chair.

And while Reeves’ desire to hold off on a debate until just days before the election and limit its reach seems absurd, Presley has gone around for months saying he’d debate Reeves anywhere, any time. He’s sort of backed himself into a corner on agreeing to whatever Reeves and WAPT cook up. The Reeves camp has already been chiding Presley on social media for wavering on whether he’ll do the said ridiculous last-minute debate.

One would think Mississippi voters deserve better than all this, and deserve to see candidates debate and answer questions. It remains to be seen if — and when — that will happen. Until then, it appears the political jackassery over debates will continue.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves says he’ll have ‘debates’ with challenger Brandon Presley

The post Mississippians deserve timely gubernatorial debate, not fear and loathing appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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The possibility of temporarily pausing or reducing the annual 3% cost of leaving increase Mississippi’s state and local government retirees receive was discussed recently by legislative leaders.

The discussions came during a recent meeting the 14 members of the Legislative Budget Committee held with Ray Higgins, the executive director of the Public Employee Retirement System. After the meeting, legislators indicated that they do not favor limiting or changing the annual 3% cost of living increase, though the fact it was discussed highlights the trouble legislators face grappling with ensuring the financial viability of the public employee retirement system.

Some key legislative leaders indicated that they are reluctant to allow taxpayer funds to be pumped into the public pension program at the level members of the governing board say may be needed to ensure its long-term financial viability.

Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, asked if suspending the annual 3% cost of living increase for three years would solve the financial woes facing PERS, which provides pensions for most state and local government employees, including educators.

“I wouldn’t use the phrase solve all the problems, but it definitely would have a major impact,” said Higgins. “… Something like that has a direct impact on the unfunded liability.”

Afterwards, Kirby said he was only gathering information, but said that any such suspension, “I don’t think is on the table,” and that he personally would not support it.

Making any changes to reduce or suspend the annual 3% cost of living increase most likely would create an uproar among current employees and retirees. Many of the retirees take the annual 3% increase as a so-called “13th check” at the end of the calendar year.

READ MORE: PERS will ask Legislature for cash, consider changes to ’13th check’

The 10-member board of trustees of the Public Employee Retirement System has voted to increase the amount the state and local governments contribute to employees’ paychecks for retirement from 17.4% to 19.4% beginning on July 1, with another planned 2% increase. The board left open the possibility of increasing the amount the governmental entities contribute to each paycheck for retirement to 27% over a period of time.

Various legislative leaders said the increases could be difficult for the government entities to sustain, particularly local governments. They predict local governments would have to lay off employees and cut services to sustain such an increase in the amount they contribute to employees’ retirement.

House Pro Tem Jason White, R-West, said other options much be considered. White also asked had the Board looked at some type of reduction in the annual cost of living increases.

“I think there has been a commitment at least around the coffee pot … that we (legislators) want to fix this long term and we want your board to be part of the solution,” White told Higgins“… For myself, I would say we are not going to just increase it (the amount of government money put into the plan) 5%, 10% and hope it gets better.”

After the meeting, White told Mississippi Today: “I am not advocating for any specific change to PERS. My concern is for its long-term sustainability. We’ve had good conversations with Ray Higgins. He understands our cities and counties cannot afford a 50% increase in their employer contribution. Also, taxpayers are asking lots of questions on the subject during the campaign season so it’s a hot topic as you already know.”

In recent years, efforts have been made to improve the system’s financial viability that has been negatively impacted by multiple factors, including a decrease in the number of government employees. A reduction in the public sector workforce means less funds for the system.

Higgins stressed that PERS does not face immediate financial woes, but that the governing board has “a fiduciary responsibility” to ensure the pension plan remains solvent. He said the longer officials wait to address financial issues with the system, the more difficult it will be to do so.

The PERS board has also advocated for an annual payment into the system in state funds in addition to the payment contributed to each employee paycheck. Kirby said he was not enamored with the possibility of an “infusion” of additional state funds into the system. Kirby also said he understands the concerns expressed by the board about the possible financial stress facing PERS, but he questioned whether the issues facing the system are as dire as some believe they are.

PERS is providing or will provide benefits to about 325,000 members, including current employees, retirees and others who used to work in the public sector but no longer do.

The system’s current funding ratio is about 61%, meaning it has the assets to pay the benefits of 61% of all the people in the system, ranging from the newest hires to those already retired. Of course, all of the people in the system will not retire at once. Theoretically, though, it is recommended that retirement systems have a funding ratio of 80% or more.

The system is underfunded by roughly $20 billion.

While legislators expressed concern about pumping a large sum of additional funds into the retirement plan, they also indicated they understand the importance of the system that impacts roughly 10% of the state’s population.

“This is a state obligation, and we are damn well going to fund it,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is chair of the Legislative Budget Committee.

White said, “My parents are retired Mississippi educators. My wife also is a state retiree. I understand and appreciate the retirees and the duty we owe them. However, we cannot ignore the $19 billion hole that exists. My comments are pointed toward all stakeholders having an adult conversation on this issue and trying to collectively put PERS on a path to viability and sustainability. No other motivation.”

The PERS board plans to recommend to the Legislature changing the benefits for new hires, including even limiting cost of living increases at times based on the financial condition of the plan.

But it is not clear whether legislators could change the cost of living increases that the governmental entities committed to for current employees and retirees.

Rep. Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg, asked if the state could legally make a change in the cost of living increases for current employees and retirees.

“Historically, the legal comment generally speaking no you cannot make changes,” Higgins said. “… Other states have made changes to current benefits. The landscape might have changed. But the prevailing and historical comment is you cannot make those changes.”

There have been court decisions, including in Mississippi, ruling that to make changes in benefits for current employees and retirees would be breaking a contractual commitment.

Higgins stressed, “anytime we (PERS Board members) have … analyzed the COLA always (it has been) in the context only if needed to maintain the fiscal integrity of the plan.”

The post Legislative leaders ask about suspending PERS ’13th check’ increases, though they say it’s unlikely appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Department of Health has approved nearly 1,800 religious vaccine exemptions as of Sept. 23, with the number of requests slowing in recent weeks.

In April, a federal judge ruled that parents can opt out of vaccinating their children for school on account of religious beliefs. U.S. District Judge Halil Sul Ozerden of the Southern District of Mississippi issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit, filed last year by parents who said the vaccination requirement violated their First Amendment rights.

Under the newly created process, which went into effect July 17, parents must complete the form on the Mississippi Department of Health’s website and make an appointment with their county health department to submit it. At the appointment, parents are shown an educational video about vaccination and are informed that if an outbreak occurs, their child will not be able to attend school or day care until it is resolved. The form is then processed by the health department.

Prior to the court ruling, Mississippi led the nation in childhood vaccinations as one of six states without a religious exemption for vaccines. It’s unclear exactly what impact this new exemption will have, but researchers have generally found a decline in childhood vaccination rates when a religious or personal exemption is added.

Dr. Jana Shaw, a childhood vaccination researcher and professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University, said unvaccinated children are often clumped together in specific communities, not evenly distributed across the state, making it easier for them to “start and fuel outbreaks.”

Data from the first few weeks of exemption requests showed Jackson, George, Pike, Lincoln, and Madison counties had the highest number of parents submitting requests.

The Health Department has continued to emphasize the importance of childhood vaccinations and encouraged parents to vaccinate their children, including hosting a series of walk-in vaccination clinics at county health departments.

The post State approved 1,800 religious vaccine exemptions for schoolchildren as of September appeared first on Mississippi Today.