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The House approved legislation strictly limiting when Mississippians can be jailed solely on the basis of mental illness, when they have not been charged with any crime– something that currently happens hundreds of times a year.

Similar language in the Senate is awaiting a floor vote.

Currently, state law allows people to be jailed during involuntary commitment proceedings if there is “no reasonable alternative.” Hundreds of times a year, Mississippians are jailed with no criminal charges, solely because they may need treatment for mental illness. No other state jails so many people charged with no crime for such lengths of time. 

Since 2006, at least 17 people have died after being jailed during the commitment process, including a man who died after being jailed without charges in Alcorn County for 12 days in January. No state agency tracks this information, so Mississippi Today and ProPublica assembled a tally by reviewing lawsuits, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reports, and news clips.

The House legislation, HB 1640, authored by Public Health Chairman Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, would require a judge to determine that a person is “violent” and issue a specific order to hold them in jail. The detention would be capped at 24 hours, and the local community mental health center would be required to provide treatment while the person was jailed. A person would get a hearing within three to five days of their evaluations, compared to seven to 10 days in current law. 

HB 1640 would also require a screening by a mental health professional before a person could be taken into custody, a provision intended to prevent situations where people are taken to jail to await evaluations that determine they don’t actually need treatment.

On the House floor on Tuesday, some lawmakers raised questions about who will pay for the treatment that will be required if counties can’t detain people in jail. The bill contains no additional funding.

“It’s cheaper to transport someone than to keep them in jail,” Creekmore said, arguing that deputies can drive people to available crisis unit beds around the state instead of holding them in jail. 

The Department of Mental Health operates a bed registry that allows county officials to see where there are open beds around the state, but the facilities can also reject patients if they determine they are violent or have medical needs the crisis unit can’t care for. State data shows the number of those rejections has been falling.

As initially introduced, the legislation restricting jail detentions applied to all jails in the state. The committee substitute added language allowing people to be detained in jails that have been certified as a holding facility by the Department of Mental Health. To get the certification, jails and other facilities must meet health and safety standards, including suicide prevention protocols, and provide mental health treatment and medications.

Adam Moore, spokesman for the Department of Mental Health, said Tuesday afternoon that there are currently only two certified holding facilities in the state. One is the Chickasaw County Detention Center and the other is Magnolia Regional Health Center in Alcorn County.

Joy Hogge, executive director of the nonprofit organization Families As Allies, was at the Capitol Tuesday for Mental Health and Wellness Day with a handout urging lawmakers to make some changes to HB 1640 and the related Senate bill, SB 2744. 

Hogge said she is concerned that requiring a screening before a person can be taken into custody for commitment proceedings could put a burden on families by forcing them to try to get a relative to agree to go to a provider’s office for an evaluation in the midst of a crisis.

“What we see is families that are just desperate to get help for their loved one, and find it very difficult to do that,” she said. 

The screening requirement includes an exception: If a person being considered for commitment proceedings is “actively violent or refuses to participate in the pre-affidavit screening,” the community mental health center can recommend that the process go forward and sheriff’s deputies can take a person into custody.

Hogge said there are some patients, such as those with complex medical needs or physically aggressive behavior, who won’t be able to get the treatment they need at the crisis stabilization units; the state hospitals may be the only facilities that can treat them. 

But the state hospitals admit patients only with a court-order through the commitment process, and only during designated hours. With more flexible admissions policies, the state hospitals could admit those patients faster and they could spend less time in jail.

“Why aren’t we looking more at that part?” Hogge said.

Moore, the DMH spokesman, said the agency is considering adding admission hours at the state hospitals in the next few months.

“Our state hospitals are working closely with the CSUs in situations where someone has a commitment order and may be physically aggressive and needs to be admitted quickly to the state hospital,” he said.

The Families As Allies handout also calls on lawmakers to “eliminate all references to holding people in jail,” instead of permitting it in certain circumstances. 

Leaders of another nonprofit organization, Disability Rights Mississippi, have also said the legislation doesn’t go far enough in restricting jail detentions for people who have committed no crime. They are planning a lawsuit against the state and some counties arguing the practice is unconstitutional. 

The post House approves limits to jailing people with mental illness charged with no crime appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Rosanna Banks has been jotting down ideas and dreaming about the “what can be” in life since she was a 14-year-old filled with the promise of what tomorrow could bring.

She credits her mother and grandmother with planting those seeds, fertilizing her imaginary adventures enriched by many hours in the library and many more hours with her head in a book, as she says, “imagining all the possibilities, because a book can take you away to wherever you’ve never been and wherever you want to go. And I’d write it all down.”

Thirty years later, the 44-year-old mother of four, wife and, now, children’s book author of “Bunny Lessons” sits on the steps of her rural Madison County home, surrounded by notebooks filled with ideas — those possibilities brought on by the vivid imagination swirling in her head, scribbling in notebooks, checking scraps of paper to connect one idea with a thought or plot, a spoken word, before it’s lost in the wind. 

Inspiration, she stated, is all around her, fueled by her family, dogs Apollo, Creed and, of course, Rocky — because the family loves the movie, “Rocky.” A myriad of cats dart about. One in particular, Kwob, is especially curious and attentive.

A neighbor’s rooster struts over, flaps to the hood of a vehicle and crows for no apparent reason; a young man on a black horse clops by, which sets off the dogs for a moment before they realize he’s no threat and settle back into a sleepy haze. Her husband Samuel, a mechanic, grooves to a 70s hit blaring from a radio as he works on a car, the music a fitting soundtrack to the flow and rhythm of her afternoon.

Banks writes it all down.

“Bunny Lessons,” published by Kingdom Trailblazers and available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, is a tale inspired by her children, the four bunnies in her book. “Teaching them life’s lessons; obey momma and daddy, eat your vegetables, do your homework and your chores. Simple things, yes. But teaching responsibility is always a parent’s goal to raising good, productive people,” said Banks. She pauses a moment in thought, Kwob saunters over, sits and stares in that haughty way cats have about them. 

Banks grabs a notebook and writes something down. 

“Back in the day, I was going through a major depression,” she says. “Trying to get away from an abusive relationship, I moved in with my mom and I’d take my kids to the park. I’d watch them play and there I was again, thinking and imagining. I’d have my notepad with me, and I’d write down bits and pieces. I’d write on anything I could get my hands on, really, putting these ideas and thoughts together.”

Her husband wanders over, teasing that he has an idea he wants to share and sits down next to her. They chat and laugh for a while before he heads back to his task at hand.

Banks begins to write in her notebook. She looks up, staring out across her property dotted with numerous vehicles that her husband uses for parts and reminisces…

“Sitting in that park back then, I watched my children. I watched the animals. I could hear my mom’s, my grandma’s and God’s voices in my head and the lessons they taught me. And really, this is how writing ‘Bunny Lessons’ came to be.

“My grandma had a garden, too,” she said. “As a little girl I worked in that garden and didn’t even want to be there. But I remember the things it taught me about taking care, responsibility and seeing how work pays off. There’re good lessons in working a garden. So, it’s lessons passed down from my grandma to my mom to me to my kids. And now, I’ve passed some of those lessons to others. 

“You see, it’s just like planting a garden. Those lessons, the thoughts, the… ideas, are the seeds. You nurture those planted seeds with life lessons and watch it grow. Next thing you know, family and friends encourage you, and the garden grows into a story you want to share. And it won’t be the last book either. I’ve got ideas,” Banks smiles, tickled at the possibilities.

The post Rosanna Banks, children’s book author sharing life’s lessons appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The state Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 2628 Tuesday afternoon, moving forward an effort to remove the city of Jackson’s long-term control of its water and sewer systems.

Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch, the bill’s author, presented a tweaked version of the legislation that passed out of the Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee last month. If enacted, the legislation would force Jackson into selling its water and sewer infrastructure to a new utility authority, which would operate as a corporate nonprofit. The new authority would be governed by a nine-person board, which would select a president to run day-to-day operations.

The new authority would assume control of the Jackson utilities once the current federally appointed manager of the water and sewer systems, Ted Henifin, leaves his post. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate, who is overseeing manager’s role, assigned Henifin to stay until at least 2027. The court order empowering Henifin, though, requires him to stay until Wingate determines that Jackson’s water system is in a stable enough condition.

In the updated proposal Parker offered Tuesday, the bill gives Jackson officials three board appointees. The original version gave left all appointees for the governor and lieutenant governor to choose. The updated bill, though, still leaves elected city officials with a minority of appointees, and gives Jackson one less appointee than in the version of this bill Parker presented last legislative session.

Specifically, the appointees would work as follows:

• The mayor of Jackson would have one, who would be a member of the clergy leading a place of worship in the city.
• The Jackson City Council would have two: an employee of a local nonprofit in the city, and an owner of a restaurant in the city.
• The governor would have three: an employee of a large nonhealthcare business in the city; a small business owner whose main location is in the city; and an at-large appointee who lives or works in the city.
• And the lieutenant governor would have the remaining three: an employee of a large health care facility in the city; an employee of a post-secondary institution in the city; and an at-large appointee who lives or works in the city.

Parker said he made the adjustment after hearing feedback from Jackson delegates as well as Henifin.

The bill also now requires the board to hold monthly meetings. Those meetings would be subject to the Open Meetings Act, and all records of the authority would be considered public records.

During Tuesday’s floor discussion, Sen. Hillman Terome Frazier and Sen. Sollie Norwood, both of whom represent Jackson, questioned Parker for not meeting with them individually before presenting the bill. Parker responded that neither came to his office to meet, and that he left notes about the legislation on their desks.

After the bill passed out of its committee last month, Jackson lawmakers criticized Parker, as well as Henifin who, shortly after, endorsed the proposal. The Jackson City Council also passed a resolution in opposition to the effort.

SB 2628 passed the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 35-14, and the bill will now head to the House. To stay alive, the proposal will have to pass out of a House committee by the April 2 deadline.

The post Senate passes bill removing Jackson’s future control of its water system appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Manufacturers Association voiced support for the House Medicaid expansion plan, which would make Mississippi the 41st state to expand Medicaid to cover the working poor, in a social media post. 

The group cited new economic development projects this year as a reason to expand Medicaid coverage in the state with the lowest workforce participation rate. 

“In late Feb., Jason White and the House passed Healthy MS Works, expanding healthcare access to 200,000 working Mississippians,” the Friday social media post read. “MMA supports improved access to quality healthcare, especially in rural areas, and efforts to promote a healthier workforce.”

A healthier workforce is a main reason many Republicans have cited for considering Medicaid expansion this year, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. 

The Senate Hosemann oversees says it is working on its own Medicaid expansion plan, but to date has only a “dummy bill,” with code sections required to change Medicaid coverage, but no details. Hosemann and other Senate leaders have said they will insist on a work requirement for expanded Medicaid coverage, which would require approval, or a “waiver,” from the federal government.

Experts from The Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which conducted an extensive study on expansion in Mississippi, said including a work requirement would be costly, difficult to implement, and would likely lead to coverage losses even for employed Mississippians. That’s in the unlikely case a work requirement was granted by the Biden administration. The administration has not granted states waivers for work requirements and has rescinded those previously granted during the Trump administration. 

The House bill in MMA’s social media post would expand Medicaid coverage in Mississippi whether or not the federal government approves a work requirement.

Authored by Speaker Jason White, R-West, and Medicaid Chairwoman Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, the House bill would expand Medicaid eligibility to 138% of the federal poverty level or about $20,000 annually for an individual. It would cover primarily the working poor, as well as those exempt from working due to disability or extenuating circumstances, and only a small number of unemployed and non-exempt adults. 

It passed the full House 98-20 in less than 15 minutes with no debate. The Senate has not taken any action on the House bill, and faces a Thursday deadline to take action on its own dummy bill. 

The post Mississippi manufacturers voice support for Medicaid expansion plan appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippians voted Tuesday in several contested party primaries for president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, and election results are below.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was expected to easily carry the Republican primary on Tuesday, while current President Joe Biden was unopposed on the Mississippi ballot for the Democratic nomination.

Senior U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker faced two little-known Republican primary challengers — Ghannon Burton and Dan Eubanks. All four of the state’s incumbent U.S. House members were on the ballot Tuesday, with just two of them having primary challengers.

READ MORE: Mississippi presidential, Senate and House primaries on Tuesday

See below for live primary election results, which the Associated Press will begin reporting after polls close at 7 p.m. CST.

U.S. Presidential Primary Election Results

U.S. Senate Primary Results

U.S. House Primary Results

People with questions about where they vote can contact their local circuit clerk or go to the Mississippi at the My Election Day portal at the Mississippi secretary of state’s website.

The post Mississippi election results: President, Senate, House primaries appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Two Mississippi State football legends were huge in the news over this past weekend. Within a 24-hour window, two blockbuster NFL stories shook the league.

One, Kansas City Chiefs great Chris Jones, a Houston, Miss., native and former Bulldog, signed the most lucrative contract ever for a defensive lineman when the Chiefs agreed to pay him $158 million over the next five seasons. That’s roughly $31.8 million per season — about one hundred grand a year more than Los Angeles Rams superstar Aaron Donald makes.

Two, Yazoo City’s Fletcher Cox, another former Bulldog, announced his retirement from the Philadelphia Eagles, thus ending one of the most productive careers of any defensive lineman in pro football history.

Cox retires at age 33, still playing at an elite level, still double-teamed by any offense that cares anything at all about the health of its quarterbacks and running backs.

Jones signs one of the richest deals in NFL history at age 29. It says much about Jones’ worth that the Chiefs would pay that many millions for that many years when he will play his next next game at the ripe, old football page of 30.

Cox and Jones share many more attributes, besides the fact they have made enough money to buy their hometowns. To wit:

• Both are clearly the largest men on the field any time they step onto a field. In a sport that puts a premium on height, weight and muscle, both still stand out. Even on a TV screen, they make other huge men appear smallish. Jones is listed at 6 feet, 6 inches and 310 pounds. If anything, he appears even bigger. Same goes for Cox, listed at 6-4 and 310.
• Both are remarkably quick and fast for their girth. Both know how to use their long arms and strong hands to shed blockers. Both are athletic enough to play inside or on the edge.
• Both grew up in small-town Mississippi, where Friday night high school football is king, and where little boys grow up dreaming of being part of that royalty.
• Both stand as living, quarterback-ravaging proof of why defensive linemen have become among the highest paid position players in football, much more highly valued than touchdown-scoring running backs who once commanded the higher salaries. You see, if you do not assign two offensive linemen to block people like Cox and Jones, they blow up anything you try to do offensively. Two blockers sometimes aren’t enough. And, of course, when you use two of your players to block one of them, that usually frees up another defender to make the play.
• Both have been consistent Pro Bowlers and both own Super Bowl rings. Indeed, Jones now has three. Both are among the primary reasons their teams won it all.
• Both seem as easy-going and pleasant out of uniform as they are dominating and disruptive when they don the helmets and pads. In small-town Mississippi terminology, they are good folks. They were raised right.

Here’s a sample. In Yazoo City, the football facility is now called Fletcher Cox Stadium because of how he has given back to his high school alma mater. Last summer, Yazoo athletic director Tony Woolfolk remembered the first time he ever saw Cox. It was in the summer before Cox’s ninth grade year at Yazoo City High, where Woolfolk was then the head football coach.

Said Woolfolk, “There were a bunch of kids out on the field playing ball and one of them was at least a head taller and a whole lot faster than the rest of them. I pointed and said, ‘Who is that kid?’ Somebody said, ‘That’s Bug-eye Cox.’”

Bug-eye?

“Yeah, that’s what everybody called him back then. His granny named him that because his eyes kind of bulged,” Tony says. “It stuck. Over time, I shortened it to Bug. I still call him Bug, but I knew the first time I saw him, we had us one — a potential superstar. Even then, he was bigger than everybody else and he could really, really run. You know Bug ran the 4 x 100 relay in track for us.”

Imagine: A defensive tackle fast enough to run sprints. That pretty much says it all.

Funny thing: At first, Cox’s mama didn’t want him to play football because she was scared he would get hurt. Said Woolfolk, “I told her not to worry about that. The only worry was how many people he was gonna hurt.”

Jones, too, has given back to Houston High School, where he presented the Houston Hilltoppers athletic program a $200,000 check in 2022. 

“If I hadn’t have come from here, I wouldn’t have my attitude,” Jones once told a reporter when asked about the contribution. “If I were given a silver spoon, I’d probably be different. Your background kind of makes who you are. After you see the houses I grew up in, and the hardships I faced, it makes me almost more excited where I am today.

“It makes me want to give back more.”

One thing certain: With this new contract, the three-time Super Bowl champion has plenty more to give.

The post Why are D-linemen getting so rich? Chris Jones, Fletcher Cox show us appeared first on Mississippi Today.

March 12, 1998

Thirty-two years after Mississippi created a segregationist spy agency, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, its long secret records were finally opened to the public. 

State lawmakers created the agency in 1956 in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that ordered desegregation in public schools and gave the agency broad powers to fight federal “encroachment.” 

Under the direction of Gov. Ross Barnett, the commission promoted propaganda, sending white and Black speakers up North to talk about how wonderful segregation was. The commission also hired informants, infiltrated civil rights groups, smeared civil rights workers and got them fired from their jobs. 

The commission collected spy files on more than 10,000 people, including such people as Elvis Presley. In addition, the commission sent more than $193,000 of taxpayers’ money to the white Citizens’ Council — a practice that drew criticism from Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. 

In spring 1964, the commission spied on two young white civil rights workers, Mickey and Rita Schwerner, after they began to work in the movement in Meridian, Mississippi. The commission shared its spy report with the local police, which included the brother of Klansman Alton Wayne Roberts, who was involved in killing three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. 

In 1973, then Gov. Bill Waller vetoed the Mississippi Legislature’s appropriation to the commission, effectively shutting it down. In 1977, the Legislature abolished the agency and sealed the files for 50 years, but a lawsuit by the ACLU succeeded in opening those files.

The post On this day in 1998 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Polls will be open in Mississippi on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for Republican and Democratic primaries for president, a U.S. Senate post and U.S. House seats.

In the Republican primary, Sen. Roger Wicker of Tupelo, who was first elected to office in a 2008, faces two challengers: Ghannon Burton of Tishomingo County and state Rep. Dan Eubanks of DeSoto County.

While Wicker is a heavy favorite to capture another six-year term, it appears he is not taking his reelection for granted. He has been active on the campaign trail, running television and radio advertising since last fall.

Burton, a pilot, retired from the Marine Corps in 2021 with the rank of colonel. He said he retired because of the “wokeness” in the military. On his campaign website, he also cited “the stolen election,” referring to the 2020 presidential election.

Eubanks was elected to the state House in 2015. He has been affiliated with the most conservative wing of the Republican Party in the House.

Former Republican President Donald Trump has endorsed Wicker.

The winner of the Republican Primary will face Democrat Ty Pinkins in November. Pinkins, a civil rights attorney, is unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Democratic President Joe Biden also is unopposed in the primary.

On the Republican side, Trump will be on the ballot with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, a vocal conservative and entrepreneur. While all will be on the ballot, DeSantis and Ramaswamy have dropped out and Haley has suspended her campaign.

The only contested race in the Democratic primary is for the 1^st District congressional seat where Dianne Dodson Black and Bronco Williams are vying to advance to November and take on Republican incumbent Trent Kelly. The 1^st District includes much of north Mississippi.

All four U.S. House posts are up for reelection this year.

In the 2^nd, which consists of southwest Mississippi, parts of Jackson and the Delta, longtime Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson in November will face the winner of the Republican primary where Ron Eller, Andrew Scott Smith and Taylor Turcotte are on the ballot.

In the 3^rd District, which encompasses primarily central Mississippi and a portion of southwest Mississippi, Republican incumbent Michael Guest in unopposed in both his primary and the general election.

And in the 4^th District, which consists of much of south Mississippi, incumbent Mike Ezell is being challenged by Carl Boyanton and Michael McGill. Craig Elliott Raybon is running for the unopposed in the Democratic primary for the seat.

People with questions about where they vote can contact their local circuit clerk or go to the Mississippi at the My Election Day portal at the Mississippi secretary of state’s website.

The post Vote: Mississippi presidential, Senate and House primaries on Tuesday appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s investigation into Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign donors who later received state contracts was named a finalist for the 2024 Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting.

The investigation revealed that some of Reeves’ top political donors received at least $1.4 billion in state contracts from agencies he oversees. The newsroom also released the first publicly available, searchable database of Reeves’ campaign donations since he began his political career in 2003.

Mississippi Today’s Julia James led the newsroom’s data collection and presentation for the investigation, while Geoff Pender, Bobby Harrison, Taylor Vance and Adam Ganucheau contributed reporting.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves’ top political donors received $1.4 billion in state contracts from his agencies

The Toner Prizes, awarded annually by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, “recognize and reinforce quality, fact-based political reporting — work that illuminates the electoral process, reveals the politics of policy and engages the public in democracy,” according to the prize website. The prizes were established to honor Robin Toner, the first woman to serve as national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Other finalists for this year’s local journalism prize are The Texas Tribune, Miami Herald, WBEZ Chicago and Chicago Sun-Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, THE CITY, and The Coronado News. 

The winner will be announced at a March 25 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

READ MORE: How we reported our investigation into state contracts awarded to Gov. Tate Reeves’ top donors

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