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Two newly discovered videos taken inside the Rankin County jail show officers mocking and laughing at an intellectually disabled inmate, the same man guards had filmed days earlier being shocked in an electrified vest after he asked for a Coke.

Former department employees said the videos, recorded in 2018, were shared widely on an encrypted WhatsApp group chat. The footage provides a deeper look into the culture of the jail, where a recent investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times revealed that guards and jail administrators routinely beat inmates.

In one video, Larry Buckhalter stands before the camera in his prison jumpsuit and a party hat and sings “Happy Birthday” to “Barry,” an apparent reference to Barry Vaughn, the former head of the jail who is now undersheriff.

In the second video, someone off camera instructs Buckhalter to “tell him you love him.” 

“I love you, Barry!” he says, and gleefully announces it is his last day in jail. 

As he speaks, a man in uniform standing behind him slams a plastic sign to the floor. Startled, Buckhalter jumps and screams as people off camera laugh.

The videos were created days after Buckhalter had asked jail guards for a Coke in October 2018. Shortly after his request, the guards strapped him into an electrified vest, intended to keep violent inmates under control. Then they filmed him screaming and convulsing while they shocked him.  

“Now you get a Coke!” a female guard says at the end of the video. “It’s all over! I’m so proud of you, Larry!”

In an email, department attorney Jason Dare said that Buckhalter, who died in 2021, had a crack cocaine problem, but was “never found to be mentally incompetent by a court or health care professional.” 

“Larry celebrated countless birthdays and life achievements at the Rankin County Jail,” Dare wrote. “He never went hungry and was never brutalized, both of which he claimed were regular occurrences in the free world.”

Dare continued: “Although Larry could not give his side of the story for your article, these videos perfectly show his genuine affection for the RCSD. The fact you try to spin it as mockery is shameful.”

Laquanda Anderson and Derrick Shoto, Buckhalter’s niece and nephew, reviewed the videos and Dare’s response. They said their uncle lived with an obvious intellectual disability.

“Everybody knew he had a mental issue,” Anderson said. “And when people find that out, they take advantage of it.”

Buckhalter never mentioned these incidents, they said, but he told them he was afraid to return to the jail, saying that guards there called him “Crying Larry.” 

“He hated it at the jail,” Shoto said, adding that in the videos, “they’re clearly treating him like a puppet.”

Last week, Sean Tindell, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, called the video of Buckhalter being shocked “appalling and utterly unacceptable.”

Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agents have been assigned to investigate the incident, he said.

Last week, The New York Times and Mississippi Today revealed that for years, jail officials had beaten and whipped inmates who broke jail rules or inconvenienced guards. 

More than 70 former inmates, along with former deputies and jail guards, described experiencing, witnessing or participating in the violence. Their allegations were supported by medical records, photos of injuries and department reports along with the cellphone recording of guards shocking Buckhalter.

After seeing the video of Buckhalter that accompanied the original investigation, two former deputies told reporters that additional videos of guards mocking Buckhalter had circulated over encrypted group messages. 

“They made the rounds,” said one of the two former deputies, Christian Dedmon.

Dedmon was one of five former Rankin County deputies and a local police officer — some of whom were part of a patrol shift called the “Goon Squad”— who were sentenced to federal prison last year for torturing three men. 

A 2023 investigation by Mississippi Today and The Times revealed that nearly two dozen residents experienced similar brutality from deputies during drug raids over nearly two decades.

Last year, reporters also uncovered an encrypted WhatsApp group chat where members of the Goon Squad shift traded pictures of rotting corpses and joked about rape and shocking people with Tasers.

One former Rankin deputy, who requested to remain anonymous because they feared retaliation from the department, shared the two new recordings of Buckhalter with reporters.

That former deputy, along with two former guards, said the video showing Buckhalter being shocked and the video of him singing Happy Birthday were both filmed in the office of Amanda Thompson, who was a jail lieutenant at the time and still works at the department. 

The former employees also said the third video was filmed in the office of Kristi Pennington, Sheriff Bailey’s wife, who also works at the department.

“ When you have authority over people, you have a responsibility to take care of them,” Derrek Shoto, Buckhalter’s nephew, said. “No matter who you’re over, you’ve got to treat them with respect.”

NEW ORLEANS — Around 250 federal border agents are set to descend on New Orleans in the coming weeks for a two-month immigration crackdown dubbed “Swamp Sweep” that aims to arrest roughly 5,000 people across southeast Louisiana and into Mississippi, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press and three people familiar with the operation.

The deployment, which is expected to begin in earnest on Dec. 1, marks the latest escalation in a series of rapid-fire immigration crackdowns unfolding nationwide — from Chicago to Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Carolina — as the Trump administration moves aggressively to fulfill the president’s campaign promise of mass deportations.

In Louisiana, the operation is unfolding on the home turf of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a close Trump ally who has moved to align state policy with the White House’s enforcement agenda. But, as seen in other blue cities situated in Republican-led states, increased federal enforcement presence could set up a collision with officials in liberal New Orleans who have long resisted federal sweeps.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander tapped to run the Louisiana sweep, has become the administration’s go-to architect for large-scale immigration crackdowns — and a magnet for criticism over the tactics used in them. His selection to oversee “Swamp Sweep” signals that the administration views Louisiana as a major enforcement priority for the Trump administration.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the operation. “For the safety and security of law enforcement we’re not going to telegraph potential operations,” spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.

In Chicago, Bovino drew a rare public rebuke from a federal judge who said he misled the court about the threats posed by protesters and deployed tear gas and pepper balls without justification during a chaotic confrontation downtown. His teams also oversaw aggressive arrest operations in Los Angeles and more recently in Charlotte, where Border Patrol officials have touted dozens of arrests across North Carolina this week after a surging immigration crackdown that has included federal agents scouring churches, grocery stores and apartment complexes.

Planning documents reviewed by the AP show Border Patrol teams preparing to fan out across neighborhoods and commercial hubs throughout southeast Louisiana, stretching from New Orleans through Jefferson, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes and as far north as Baton Rouge, with additional activity planned in southeastern Mississippi.

Agents are expected to arrive in New Orleans on Friday to begin staging equipment and vehicles before the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the people familiar with the operation. They are scheduled to return toward the end of the month, with the full sweep beginning in early December. The people familiar with the matter could not publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

To support an operation of that scale, federal officials are securing a network of staging sites: A portion of the FBI’s New Orleans field office has been designated as a command post, while a naval base five miles south of the city will store vehicles, equipment and thousands of pounds of “less lethal” munitions like tear gas and pepper balls, the people said. Homeland Security has also asked to use the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans for up to 90 days beginning this weekend, according to documents reviewed by the AP.

Once “Swamp Sweep” begins, Louisiana will become a major testing ground for the administration’s expanding deportation strategy, and a focal point in the widening rift between federal authorities intent on carrying out large-scale arrests and city officials who have long resisted them.

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Associated Press journalists Elliot Spagat and Mike Balsamo contributed to this report.

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Correction 11/19/2025: The headline has been updated to show southeastern Mississippi.

A quiet, rural area in central Mississippi with a large Latino population, traumatized by massive federal raids in 2019, is now living in fear again as immigration agents set up around town and detain people. 

They’ve lingered outside a laundromat leaving people afraid to leave a nearby church. Vested agents and unmarked cars went to a tortilla bake shop and then a grocery store. 

For two weekends in a row, and the second time in seven years, they shattered the calm in what one Forest resident said has always been “a peaceful place full of Hispanic people.”

Starting Nov. 2, residents saw Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers wearing lettered vests stating “Police ICE” and “ERO” – Enforcement and Removal Operations. Unmarked cars accompanied them, and at least two ICE officers were present, according to photos taken of the agents that were circulated within the community through social media. 

Zully Lopez, who has lived in Forest for three years and grew up in nearby Morton, first became aware of ICE’s presence while she was at church Nov. 2. Members were talking about photos circulating of a sighting of agents near a laundromat on Hill Street. 

Then Lopez heard from a family member at Iglesia El Buen Pastor, a church on Pine Street whose parking lot entrance and exit are located near the laundromat. Over the phone, the family member said some people didn’t feel safe leaving, so they waited inside for an hour. Church officials could not be reached for comment.

Immigration agents detained a person from the laundromat, and then their van pulled into the church parking lot, blocking it for a few minutes. Later, Lopez said she and other members of the community learned that ICE went to a tortilla bake shop on Hill Street and detained a woman there. 

“Why stop there? Were you trying to intimidate?” asked Lopez, who is an American citizen. “That’s what you were trying to do, trying to intimidate good Christians of Missisisppi of that church and people who were trying to wash their clothes.” 

The next week, ICE officers returned. Residents reported seeing them on U.S. 80 where they stopped a truck and talked to the driver. Lopez said the area is near a Guatemalan grocery store. That Sunday, Enforcement and Removal Operations officers parked outside a Mexican grocery store, La Moreliana. It’s not clear whether anyone was detained. 

A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security was not available for comment Tuesday or Wednesday about the presence of ICE officers and detention of people in Forest. 

Nationally, as of mid September, nearly 60,000 people have been detained by ICE and Customs and Border Protection, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse immigration data by Syracuse University. 

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to deploy roughly 250 federal border agents to Louisiana and Mississippi in an initiative dubbed “Swamp Sweep” aimed at arresting nearly 5,000 people in the two states. Citing internal documents and people familiar with the operation, AP reported the initiative would heavily focus on southeastern Louisiana with additional enforcement in southeastern Mississippi.

Lopez said the immigrants in Forest have done nothing but work hard and came to the United States to pursue a better future for their children, which is what her parents did for her. 

Jeremy Litton, an immigration attorney who represents people from around the state, said guidance from the agency and a Board of Immigration Appeals decision have created a situation where people are being detained indefinitely without options for bond. 

Even though she is an American citizen, Lopez said she feels targeted in Forest because of her skin color. 

A couple of weeks ago, Mississippi Highway Patrol stopped her family at a roadblock. Her husband was driving and she was in the backseat with their baby. They are Latino and have brown skin. 

A trooper asked if they have legal immigration status and if they were from there. Yes, Lopez’s husband replied. Then the trooper asked for his Social Security number, but before Lopez’s husband could provide it, the other said he didn’t have to because he spoke English well enough. 

The troopers let them go, but Lopez said she doesn’t feel safe anymore. 

A spokesperson from the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the highway patrol, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. 

In September, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled federal immigration officers can stop people without reasonable suspicion based on their apparent race or ethnicity, if they speak in Spanish or accented English, if they are in a place where immigrants are known to gather and if they work in specific jobs that immigrants are known to work. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is Latina, wrote in her dissent that such a decision has enabled the Trump administration to declare all Latinos, regardless of U.S. citizenship, as “fair game to be seized at any time” if they fit the criteria. 

Lopez lived through the 2019 raids across poultry plants in central Mississippi. 

That morning in August 2019 was the first day of her sophomore year at Morton High School. Then came a call from her father saying immigration agents were at PH Food where her mother worked. Lopez remembers going to the principal to say that students needed to be informed because some of their parents worked at the plant. 

Lopez headed to PH Food while her father picked up her younger siblings from school. At the plant, she saw the buses loading people up and others handcuffed. Her mother was on one of the buses, and Lopez said that was when she realized immigration officers could take her, even though she had work authorization. Her mother was let go once ICE determined she had a Social Security number. 

She remembers seeing classmates distraught about their parents and some children who had to spend time at churches because their parents had been taken away. Lopez said she helped take a group of children to a church and heard a young girl ask if her mother was gone because she was working overtime. 

Since the raid, her mother was able to obtain legal permanent residency, commonly known as a green card. But her father, who entered the country without authorization decades ago, was deported to Mexico in August. He will have to wait 10 years before he can come to the United States because of his prior entry. 

That 2019 experience also changed the trajectory of Lopez’s life. She had worked at a bank and saw herself becoming a certified public accountant. But she felt called to help people navigate immigration matters. 

Lopez connected with an immigration nonprofit organization and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies at Mississippi College. She now works at Litton’s law firm.

“This way is a powerful way to help,” Lopez said about her job. 

The Clevelands discuss the Lane Kiffin situation, Southern Miss’s crash to earth and how an underappreciated kid from the southwest Mississippi community of Oma has entered the national college football spotlight with a 300-yard rushing performance against Mississippi State.

Stream all episodes here.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate again pushed back a decision over whether to increase rates on Jackson customers’ water bills during a status conference on Wednesday.

Jackson officials requested more time to review the financial records of JXN Water, the third-party utility running the city’s water and sewer systems. The city and utility reached an agreement over access to the records just prior to the status conference.

Jackson City Attorney Drew Martin told Wingate the city would have an official response to the court on Dec. 19 after presenting its findings to the city council on Dec. 16.

JXN Water first brought up the need for a rate increase in a financial report in February in which it said the utility was quickly running out of money. It then formally proposed the increase — which it said would be come out to about 12% on the average bill — in April. The Jackson City Council unanimously voted it down.

Mayor John Horhn, who took office in July, has also spoken out against the increase. Under Wingate’s 2022 order appointing Ted Henifin to take charge of the utility, Henifin doesn’t need the city’s approval to move forward with the proposal. The order only requires JXN Water to present the increase to the city, and that it wait 365 days between increases.

Despite the mayor and city council already speaking against the proposal, the city argued in court that it needed access to JXN Water’s financial records to offer an informed opinion. The city’s agreement with JXN Water gives Jackson’s financial adviser full access to the utility’s records, with a stipulation that the city not release any information from the records publicly without first consulting Henifin.

Wingate’s 2022 order shields JXN Water from any public records requirements, although intervenors in the case, represented by the ACLU, argued against the exception.

Mitch McGuffey, attorney for JXN Water, emphasized the need to enact the rate increase before the year ends. Waiting would push back when the utility could increase rates again because of the 365-day requirement, he said. In addition to the 12% increase this year, JXN Water plans to implement smaller increases in 2027 and beyond to keep up with inflation.

Overall, the utility is losing $1.2 million a month from a lack of revenue, McGuffey added. Henifin also pointed to funds needed to repair two large sewer overflows, one on Mill Street and another along I-55 in north Jackson.

In the end, Wingate sided with the city, and kept an injunction in place preventing JXN Water from advertising a rate increase. Under the judge’s order, the utility needs to inform the public of any increase 30 days before it goes into effect. If the judge were to allow JXN Water to go forward with the increase on Dec. 19, the earliest it would go into effect would be Jan. 18, 2026.

By the time of the next meeting, the city may also have new information on restructuring its bond payments as well as on any efforts from the state Legislature to provide new revenue to JXN Water, Martin, the city attorney, added. McGuffey agreed that such changes could reduce how much the utility needs to raise rates.

Mississippi’s appeals court on Tuesday reversed its previous decision to let stand an erroneous sentence that kept a man imprisoned five years longer than the maximum sentence.

In 2015, a trial court in Choctaw County sentenced Marcus Taylor to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell opioid painkillers. But the plea petition was erroneous; it incorrectly cited the maximum sentence for conspiracy to sell schedule III controlled substances as being 20 years. In fact, the maximum sentence was only five years, and should have ended in 2020. 

At the time of his sentence, nobody in court, including Taylor’s then attorney, realized the error, which only came to light when Taylor claimed eligibility for parole in 2023. In May this year, five years after he ought to have been released, the Mississippi Court of Appeals acknowledged that he was serving a sentence 10 years longer than the maximum. But it refused to rectify the error because Taylor, now 43, had applied for post-conviction relief after the three-year deadline to file had already passed. 

Now, the Mississippi Court of Appeals has withdrawn its own opinion and ordered Taylor’s release. 

“When a trial court acts outside the scope of its authority, its actions are void,” the Tuesday order says. “As over a century of precedent firmly establishes, our Judiciary has the inherent power to correct this error.”

Joe Hemleben, Taylor’s attorney, said, “The court made the right decision to correct, rather than condone this injustice.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves will serve as the vice chair of the Republican Governors Association, the organization announced Tuesday.

The association that helps elect Republicans across the country, held its own elections for leadership positions at its annual conference this week in San Antonio. Republican governors elected Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte as chairman, Reeves as vice chairman and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee as policy chairman for 2026.

The governors will assume their positions immediately, serving a one-year term. The move means Reeves will help support other Republicans during 2026 midterm elections.

His election to vice chairman also makes him the likely choice for the RGA chairmanship in 2027, but ascension is not automatic.

Reeves will replace Gianforte as vice chair. Reeves previously served on the association’s executive committee. In a news release Tuesday, Reeves said it has never been more important for states to elect Republican governors as the Democratic Party “sprints toward socialism.”

“We’re focusing on the things that matter – like creating high-paying jobs, investing in American families, and keeping neighborhoods in our states safe,” Reeves said. “Alongside Governor Gianforte, Governor Lee, and President Trump, we’ll continue to elect more Republican governors and expand the American Dream.”

The leadership elections took place on the heels of Republican losses in gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey.

Reeves, Mississippi’s two-term governor, is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump. Reeves is term-limited, and his second term ends in January 2028.

While most states have made public their proposals for a $50 billion federal investment into rural health care, Mississippi is keeping its plan under wraps. 

Thirty-two states have made their full application or proposal summaries for the Rural Health Transformation Program available to the public, according to a report from Princeton University’s State Health & Value Strategies Program. Ten states, including Mississippi, have announced but not shared their application, and 8 have not made any details public. 

All 50 states submitted applications for the one-time funds, which will be doled out over five years beginning in 2026 as part of a major federal investment into rural healthcare. The federal government has said states may post plans to their websites at their discretion, though the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will not release awardees’ project summaries until funding decisions are made. Awards will be finalized by the end of December. 

Gov. Tate Reeves, whose office oversaw the development of Mississippi’s plan, denied Mississippi Today’s public records request for the application. He told reporters at a press conference Nov. 4 the state will work with CMS to determine when it can make all or part of the document public. 

“The primary reason for denying the request is to protect sensitive technical and detailed budgeting information that could jeopardize and undermine the competitive nature of the procurement process that must be followed in awarding federal funds,” said spokesperson Shelby Wilcher in an email to Mississippi Today.

Mississippi is expected to receive at least $500 million – and possibly more – as a part of the program, Reeves said Nov. 4. He shared an overview of Mississippi’s plan, which includes conducting a statewide assessment to study rural health, facilitating collaboration between providers, expanding the medical workforce, advancing health technology and closing gaps in care. The plan largely mirrors the broad strategic goals of the federal program. 

Heather Howard, a professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, said states publishing the proposals is important because it allows stakeholders to see the programs they are pursuing and states to share ideas for tackling the widespread challenges rural communities are facing in accessing health care. 

“Transparency is always the best practice in government,” Howard said. “And I would say, particularly so given the significant funding at issue and the underlying rural health challenges across the country.”

Concerns about duplication have already risen. Leaders advising on how to spend tens of millions in opioid settlement dollars noted that several of the projects proposed could also be eligible for funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program. 

The Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council is “wanting to be careful not to double-fund when funds are limited,” State Health Office Dr. Dan Edney, a co-vice chair of the committee who also supported the governor in crafting the rural health plan, said at the council’s meeting Nov. 3. 

In a letter denying Mississippi Today’s request for the state’s Rural Health Transformation Program, Reeves’ office said the requested records “appear to be confidential under Federal law” until awards are made, citing the same document that says states may post plans to their websites at their discretion. 

It also pointed to a state law that exempts public bodies from the Mississippi Public Records Act’s deadlines during procurement. The law does not bar the state from releasing the records, but says it is not required to meet the usual deadlines until contracts are awarded. 

“If potential subgrantees are able to gain access to detailed budgeting information for each initiative in the application, they might use such information to inflate their bids and thereby deplete the limited federal funds that are critical to improving health outcomes in rural Mississippi,” said the letter. 

States can redact sensitive information or publish a summary of the application to address valid concerns about releasing proprietary or sensitive information, Howard said. Six states have opted to release only a summary of their application as opposed to the full document. 

“It’s good that they are sensitive to that, but states have ways to address that,” she said.

The Rural Health Transformation Program was tacked on to President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending law passed this summer, which cuts federal Medicaid spending. Congressional Republicans added the one-time money for rural health to soften the blow associated with the permanent cuts in rural areas. 

The program’s funds will offset just over a third of the estimated $137 billion cuts to federal Medicaid spending expected in rural areas over 10 years, according to analysis from KFF. 

In Mississippi, cuts to payments that help hospitals offset low Medicaid payments will amount to a loss of $160 million a year statewide beginning in 2029, Mississippi Medicaid Director Cindy Bradshaw told lawmakers Sept. 24.

Some critics have noted that the program is temporary funding that will not cover the losses rural hospitals are facing. And, the funding is aimed at implementing new programs to strengthen rural health, not making direct payments to hospitals to make up for this difference. 

“What we’re seeing is a real interest in workforce development and health technology, which is exciting,” Howard said of applications states have made public. “…But that’s not going to make up for the day-to-day reimbursement cuts that hospitals are reeling from.” 

Mississippi’s plan will not include direct financial assistance to hospitals, which the federal government has made clear it will not approve, Reeves said Nov. 4. 

Half of the $50 billion program will be distributed evenly among all states with approved applications. The other half will be calculated based on a formula that calculates each states’ rurality, the quality of its application and implementation of policies aligned with the Make America Healthy Again agenda.

Mississippi has recently taken steps to adopt policies that receive higher scores, including reestablishing the Presidential Fitness Test in schools and seeking a waiver to restrict purchases of sugary foods and drinks through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The Foundation for Mississippi History has received $1.4 million in donations for the future Margaret Ann Crigler Park, which is part of the ongoing effort to revitalize downtown Jackson.

The Mississippi Arts Commission and the Phil Hardin Foundation contributed $500,000 each. In addition, two anonymous donors gifted $200,000 each. The donations are directed to the Foundation of Mississippi History, a nonprofit that supports Mississippi Department of Archives and History projects.

“It’s such an uplifting day today to see this, to see dreams become a reality through the generosity of so many donors, and really all of us working together,” Spence Flatgard, president of the state archive department’s Board of Trustees, said at a press conference Tuesday in front of Two Mississippi Museums and across the street from the future park.

The two museums are the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which are a short walk from the state Capitol building.

Katie Blount, director of archives and history, said the park would help the larger push to revitalize the downtown area.

“A park can really galvanize other improvements, and we’re really excited about that,” she said.

The new park is currently in phase one of construction. It’s set to open at Mississippi Makers Fest in 2027. It will be a green space with a children’s area, a walking trail, a splashpad, a pavilion and more.

Lloyd Gray, executive director of the Phil Hardin Foundation, said the park would help the Two Mississippi Museums provide educational opportunities to Mississippi students and that their donation was an investment in the capital’s revitalization. 

“No entity in our capital city is more important to the educational, cultural and civic life of our state than the Two Mississippi Museums, and we at the Hardin Foundation are both honored and excited to be a part of their continued growth and development,” he said.

The Legislature allocated $3 million to support construction of the park, according to an archives and history press release.

“The arts enhance the quality of life and local economies,” said Mississippi Arts Commission’s Executive Director David Lewis in the release. “With the generous support from the Mississippi Legislature, we can activate our citizens’ innate creativity and invest in our communities.”

The park is located at the former site of the Eudora Welty Library.

Once a Sears department store, the Welty library became the flagship branch of the Jackson/Hinds Library System in the 1980s. The library closed its doors in June 2023 after falling into disrepair. The Jackson City Council transferred the property to Mississippi Department of Archives and History in December that year. The state department is now turning the site into a park and green space, inspired by the city of Jackson’s original layout.

Margaret Ann Crigler Park gets its name from the late wife of Noble Crigler, a retired businessman who contributed $1 million in lead funding to the project in 2023. 

Editor’s note: The Phil Hardin Foundation is a Mississippi Today donor. Donors do not in any way influence our newsroom’s editorial decisions. For more on that policy or to view a list of our donors, click here.

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.

After reading about Katina Rankin’s “degrading” hospital stay, I felt compelled to do three things: (1) offer her my sincerest apologies, (2) share my perspective from a family member of a patient who was recently in two Mississippi hospitals and (3) propose a cost-effective solution to keeping our hospitals open. 

Ms. Rankin, thank you for sharing your story. You stated that you almost did not write about your experience, but I am so thankful that you did. It gave me, and I am sure others, a very candid picture of what it felt like to be in your shoes.  

When you shared that you “dragged” yourself to the restroom after waiting 15 minutes after pressing the call button for assistance, I visualized that scene and felt your distress. While you did not get the care that you deserved, I am respectfully answering your call by first saying that I am truly sorry about your experience. While our health care system has problems, it also has the potential to be greater, and it will take courageous patients like you to share their stories to strengthen our hospitals, not tear them down.  

Not to belittle Ms. Rankin’s experience, but I must share a completely different perspective after spending over two months in the hospital with my aunt.  It is important to note that our experiences are mutually exclusive of illness and other circumstances.  However, both are based on our own personal interactions and observations, which shaped our realities.  

On Aug. 23, my reality was that my aunt was critically injured in a car accident that took the life of her sister. That evening, my aunt was airlifted to a Level 1 trauma center where she was placed on life support. At this very critical and early stage of her care, there was nothing that the doctors or nurses could do other than pray, keep her comfortable and provide regular updates on findings from her lab work, scans and X-rays, which they did with intellect, grace and compassion.    

Once my aunt was able to tolerate being off the ventilator for several hours, she was transferred to a long-term acute care hospital where her care and recovery were remarkable.  

As soon as I entered this hospital, I was visually reminded of the true healer in health care by Bible scriptures on the walls, including the 23^rd Psalm, which reads, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  

Considering that my aunt was indefinitely confined to a hospital bed, I did not want her progress to be further complicated by pressure sores. Thanks to the attention, skill and compassion shown by her staff, she did not develop any ulcers in her over two-month hospital stay.  

Each time I pressed the call button for assistance, within five minutes, either a nurse or an aide arrived to help. It is important to note that their response and care were without their knowledge of my background in health care.

Ms. Rankin stated that she waited for 15 minutes after pressing the call button for help. Although there is no universal standard for response times after a call button has been pressed, a 2012 study by “BMC Health Services Research” found that the quicker the response time, the lower the rates of falls and associated injuries.  

Considering that Ms. Rankin carried her IV pole with her to the restroom, and further, with an unspecified neurological condition, those responsible for her care would have a lot of cleaning up to do had she fallen.  

Ms. Rankin identified several problems during her hospitalization, including personal cell phone use by hospital staff. A 2024 study published in “Hospital Topics” found that personal cell phone usage by nurses “is a barrier to effective nursing care in hospitals.” This risk also opens the door to medical malpractice lawsuits when patient safety is compromised; a problem that we do not need, especially when so many of our hospitals have closed and others are at risk of closing. 

Ms. Rankin also found that compassion and communication skills among the hospital staff were lacking. Additionally, she characterized emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient.  A 2025 overview of EQ by “Cleveland Clinic” explains that this quotient allows us to “respond and interact with others in a way that’s honest, reflective and respectful,” components that Ms. Rankin says were also missing during her hospital stay.

Patients such as Ms. Rankin have every right to report these and other weaknesses within our health care settings. However, we must use these experiences to strengthen our health care system so that all Mississippians can receive exceptional health care that will put us at the top, not the bottom of national rankings.   

As a family member of a patient of two Jackson-based hospitals that graciously aided in her recovery, I have hope that we are still the “City with Soul,” although with the unfortunate experiences of Ms. Rankin, it may not always be so obvious.  

As we have learned from Ms. Rankin, our health care system does need improvement, such as health care workers responding efficiently and therapeutically to the needs of their patients. What was a “degrading” experience for her, just may be the defining moment for health care providers to develop a universal response time to call button activations.  

Perhaps, the optimal response time could be five minutes or less as in the case with my aunt. However, further research is needed to develop evidence-based practices.  

Ms. Rankin, based on my answer to your call, I hope that it is clear that you and all Mississippians are important to me and that our hospitals need both patients and providers to survive. Again, I am sorry about your negative hospital stay experience and you have my prayers for a full recovery.  

We’re all a part of God’s body. The act of fostering compassion, emotional intelligence, and therapeutic communication does not cost a thing to start making small but significant improvements in our complex health care system.  

The transformation that we seek will also require others sharing their stories, whether positive or negative to move Mississippi forward.

Bio: LaKeisha J. Crye is an educator, sociologist, registered nurse and advanced practice registered nurse. She is a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and the owner of a private mental health practice in Clinton. She is pursuing a doctor of nursing practice in an executive leader program and a doctor of philosophy in marriage and family therapy with a concentration in systemic studies.

Disclaimer: The ideas and opinions expressed in this essay are solely those of LaKeisha J. Crye and do not represent any board, organization, agency or institution.