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Terri Hill from Jones County has been working as a school attendance officer for 26 years. After taxes, she takes home about $28,000.

Legislation to increase the base salary for Hill and her colleagues — who were left out of teacher and state worker pay raises in recent years — passed the Senate unanimously but was killed last week by House Education Committee Chair Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach.

“He is a brick wall that we can’t get around,” said April Brewer, the school attendance officer for Lamar County. 

Brewer, a mother of seven, has been at the job for 11 years. But with a $30,000 salary, she’s had to consistently work two additional jobs.

Bennett did not return several Mississippi Today efforts to reach him for comment.

With such low pay, the Mississippi Department of Education has a hard time retaining these workers, who, when effective, play a significant role in the wellbeing of children in Mississippi.

READ MORE: State truancy officers face stagnant pay and ‘unmanageable caseloads’

The shortage of attendance officers in the state has resulted in massive, unmanageable caseloads, the officers say. In some counties, one officer is responsible for as many as 10,000 students. When this happens, officers get too many referrals for children missing school that they can’t adequately assess the problem and try to address the students’ needs.

These state workers are direct employees of MDE but work locally in each county. They work in different offices, some stationed inside school district buildings while others work out of local courthouses.

Spread out and tucked away, this is likely one reason the officers feel they’ve been so ignored.

Mississippi Today spoke with several school attendance officers in the fall who said MDE has not consistently supplied them with the materials they need: paper, ink, and stamps for the letters they’re required by law to send to the parents of truant children. They say they’ve also had trouble getting reimbursed for the travel expenses they incur making home visits to find out why kids are not in school. Brewer said these issues persist.

“The Mississippi Department of Education understands the Student Attendance Officers’ concerns and plans to continue working with the Legislature as it relates to overall agency funding,” MDE said to Mississippi Today in a statement Friday.

MDE has proposed the solution of moving school attendance officers to the local school districts. But bills to accomplish this also died this legislative session.

Brewer said that option, however, presents a possible conflict of interest. Part of a school attendance officer’s job is to ensure that the state’s truancy statutes are being followed — and that includes by schools. An example is the requirement that schools allow homeless students to enroll.

“How do we tell our superintendent, ‘You’re not complying with the law,’ when they can just say, ‘Hey, you work for me,’” Brewer said.

School attendance officers also work with kids outside the public school districts — homeschool and private school students — and Brewer worries that being employees of the school district could prevent officers from working in the best interest of all students.

Brenda Scott, longtime president of the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees workers union, is representing the officers at the legislature this session. She recognizes that it often takes years for lobbying efforts to bear fruit.

Currently, school attendance officers must have at least a bachelor’s degree and their salaries are set in statute. After 17 years, an officer with a bachelor’s degree can earn no more than $31,182. With a master’s degree, they can start out making $26,000 and cap out at $37,000 after 21 years.

“He (Rep. Bennett) thinks that they’re receiving adequate pay and I just don’t see how he could think that,” Scott said.

Their bill, Senate Bill 2777, would have increased the baseline pay for school attendance officers by $5,000, bringing the floor for workers with a bachelor up from $24,500 to $29,500.

With her 11 years, Brewer’s salary would increase to a minimum of $39,050. The starting pay for public school teachers is $41,500.

The bill also included a new $250,000 cap on the salary for the state superintendent, who currently earns $300,000.

Brewer said they had enough support in both the Education Committee and full House of Representatives to get the bill passed. But Bennett would not take up the bill in his committee. It’s still possible for the Senate to amend the existing House education appropriations bill to include the changes, but then the legislation would have to go to conference in the House, potentially meeting the same hurdle.

Brewer said that the school attendance officer in Bennett’s hometown, Long Beach, is “also in a county with over 30,000 students and there’s only two workers.”

“It’s not going to get better,” she said.

The post Lawmaker kills bill to raise truancy officer pay after it passed unanimously in the Senate appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Lawmakers backing House Bill 1020 say Hinds County’s backlog of cases is an emergency that justifies having five non-elected judges to pick up the slack.

Cliff Johnson, attorney and director of the MacArthur Justice Center, wants to know whether Hinds County really has the worst case backlog in the state. Bill author Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, has said the bill is a way to address crime in Jackson and the backlog in the Hinds court system. 

“Our conclusion at this point is that the Legislature could not have made the decision to appoint five temporary judges to the Hinds County Circuit Court based on any meaningful analysis of that court’s dockets as compared to the dockets in any other circuit,” Johnson told Mississippi Today. 

The center began calculating the number of open criminal cases in each circuit court district between Jan. 1, 2013 and Feb. 26 before realizing Mississippi Electronic Courts — the only public-facing access to case information — doesn’t keep accurate information on pending cases. 

Only about half of all counties in the state use MEC. Without data on pending criminal cases, it is difficult to tell if there are case backlogs anywhere and be able to make comparisons, Johnson said. 

Hinds County could benefit from additional elected judges, Johnson said, but he couldn’t find the basis to determine the need to appoint five temporary judges — a number that is greater than the number of elected judges. 

Legislation passed in 2018 gives the Supreme Court chief justice the ability to appoint temporary judges “in the event of an emergency or overcrowded docket.” 

Johnson said it is unclear whether the Senate version of HB 1020 references this law to make temporary appointments or if the bill is a “novel attempt” to appoint judges without determining the existence of an emergency or an overcrowded docket. 

The Senate’s Judiciary A Committee passed HB 1020 with multiple changes: the elimination of a proposed separate, unelected judicial district within Jackson and the expansion of the Capitol Complex Improvement District where the Capitol Police operates. 

Hinds County, the Seventh Circuit Court District, had 2,508 pending cases, according to MEC data. That is a load of 627 cases each for four judges, according to the data. Over 230,000 people live in the county. 

The First Circuit Court District in the northeast part of the state has 8,522 pending cases. That district also has four judges, and its caseload calculated from MEC data is about 2,130 cases per judge. 

That district is made up of seven counties and most of the cases came from the largest, Lee County, which had 2,627 pending cases, according to MEC data. 

“As we began running reports on criminal dockets, it appeared to us that the backlog in Hinds County was not significantly worse than many other places in Mississippi,” Johnson said. “In fact, our research showed that according to MEC, even a small county like Lee County had more pending criminal cases than Hinds County.”

Staff from the Lee County Circuit Clerk’s Office and circuit court said Wednesday there is no way to know how many open criminal cases there are. Circuit Clerk Camille Roberts Dulaney did not respond to a request for comment.

The state’s Administrative Office of Courts tracks information about disposed cases across the state, but not current criminal cases, Johnson said. The office’s annual report shows disposition numbers for criminal cases and counts during a 10-year period. 

Spokesperson Beverly Kraft referred comment about case backlogs to Greg Snowden, director of the Administrative Office of Courts. He did not respond to a request for comment. 

Accurate caseload counts are among issues raised about HB 1020, which is seen by many Jacksonians as a takeover of local control.

“This bill would make Mississippi a model for red states with blue capital cities. At its core, this bill is about lawmakers giving themselves the ability to outmaneuver the federal government,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a statement. “So, by policy or through actually preventing people to vote, it still reflects the poorest version of Mississippi.”

The latest version of HB 1020 also gives the Capitol Police concurrent jurisdiction throughout Jackson and beyond the Capitol Complex Improvement District. It would require the city and the Department of Public Safety to sign a memorandum of understanding. 

Lumumba said the memorandum isn’t really an agreement between the two parties, and a spokesperson confirmed he would not sign one. 

The bill says failure to execute a memorandum of understanding will not affect Capitol Police’s jurisdiction within Jackson, and any disputes about law enforcement function of Capitol Police in the city would be resolved in favor of the DPS commissioner, who oversees the force. 

JXN Undivided, a coalition of community groups such as the People’s Advocacy Institute, One Voice and the Mississippi Center for Justice, is speaking out against HB 1020 and circulating a petition titled “Jackson is NOT for the Taking!” 

“What is happening in Jackson, Mississippi, is ruthless,” the petition reads. “It is racist. It is dangerously anti-democratic. And it must stop!”

As of Monday, the petition has received over 1,800 signatures and will be sent to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, the body that is set to vote on HB 1020. 

JXN Undivided also has an open survey for people to share information about their encounters with the Capitol Police, including how officers treated them and how many encounters they have had. 

To test how accurate MEC’s case information is, Mississippi Today reached out to the seven circuit court clerks in the First District. 

Tishomingo County, the smallest in the circuit court district, has 467 open criminal cases, according to MEC data. It’s a number that Circuit Clerk Josh McNatt said is fairly accurate, but may be “a little over exaggerated” but no more than 5 to 10%. 

He has been having conversations with the district attorney, judges and public defenders in the county about how to track case information better. 

“I’ve been keeping up with this myself because I’ve been concerned about caseloads,” McNatt said. 

The post Does a backlog in Hinds County courts justify appointing five judges? Other counties could be far worse appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Amid continued risk of closures, Mississippi hospitals are increasingly missing one critical piece of their staff: Nurses. 

Many of the state’s hospitals are emptying. Service lines are being discontinued, and full floors have been shuttered — for some, to preserve costs, but also because hospitals increasingly lack the staff. 

According to data from the Mississippi Hospital Association, registered nurse vacancies and turnover rates skyrocketed in the past year to their highest numbers in at least a decade.

Kim Hoover, an RN who also serves as the MHA’s Education Foundation CEO, said the pandemic took an unprecedented toll on already-stressed health care workers and hospitals. Nurse departures, fueled by burnout and higher pay elsewhere, have put Mississippi’s hospitals in further peril. 

“They’ve been running a tight ship,” she said. “So when you have something like the pandemic, which none of us could have ever imagined, it stresses the system that was really already on the brink.”

Statewide, Mississippi hospitals reported 3,038 open registered nurse positions in 2022. Of Mississippi’s hospitals, 82% responded to the MHA’s voluntary survey.

Mississippi hospitals in 2022 were missing a quarter of their total registered nurse staff, 21.4% of their licensed practical nurse staff and 21.3% of their certified nursing assistant staff. 

Between 2021 and 2022, RN vacancies shot up from 15.9% to 24.5%. RN vacancies were most evident in central and southwestern Mississippi, including the Jackson metro area. 

RN turnover rates statewide went from 23.5% to 31.9% from 2021 to 2022, meaning that almost a third of RNs left their jobs last year. 

While Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s plan to address the hospital crisis includes millions for a nurse loan repayment program and even more for a grant that would use federal funds to help community college nursing programs is in motion, those solutions might not make a difference for months. 

Senate Bill 2371, the grant for community college nursing programs, has passed the Senate and is awaiting a vote from the full House, while Senate Bill 2373, money for the nurse loan repayment program, has passed both chambers and is awaiting the governor’s signature. 

But hospital administrators and advocates say they need help now. 

‘I think the ultimate consequence of not doing something about this is that (hospitals) are going to close as they are right now,” Hoover said. “The doors are going to close.”

A report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform shows that 38% of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing. 

As of February, there were 200 open nursing jobs out of a staff of 3,000 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, according to Dr. Alan Jones, UMMC’s associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs.

Before COVID, UMMC’s open nursing positions would average closer to 30 at a time. 

UMMC communications director Patrice Guilfoyle said the hospital just eliminated its $4-an-hour temporary incentive pay program, established during the height of the COVID pandemic.

It’s unclear whether the withdrawal of that pay led to more nurses leaving.

“It should also be noted that we have more beds open than we’ve ever had so this change in nursing premium is unrelated to staffing,” she said in a statement. “(There) continues to be a nursing shortage statewide and nationally as well, so that’s really the real crux of the issue.”

Philadelphia’s only hospital, Neshoba County General Hospital, has closed one of its two nurse stations because staff is limited.

“There were times during the pandemic that we’d have 15-plus nursing positions posted, and we weren’t getting any applications,” CEO Lee McCall said in an interview. “And that’s a common theme out there.”

The data from the MHA shows that the Delta has been hit the hardest.

Nurse vacancies and turnovers in most categories were highest in that region, where rural hospitals are also especially at risk. 

Amy Walker, chief nursing officer at Delta Health System in Greenville, said the hospital’s daily census is down, but not because there aren’t people who need medical care. There are simply not enough nurses in the hospital to take care of any more patients. 

Teresa Malone, executive director of the Mississippi Nurses’ Association, said when hospitals are short on nurses, it puts patient safety at risk.

“With the ever-continuing vacancies at facilities, patients are waiting longer in emergency departments, and obtaining transfers for patients to other facilities often takes longer than preferred,” she said. “The nursing crisis is adversely impacting all aspects of health care and is therefore adversely impacting patients.”

As for recruitment, Walker said it’s difficult to convince nurses to come to Mississippi, and even harder to convince them to come to the Delta. 

Paying nurses more than rates in Jackson or Memphis doesn’t always work, she said. 

“It’s always been a little bit worse for us,” Walker said. “It’s hard to get people to move here unless you’re from here, or you really have a servant’s heart.” 

During the pandemic, the hospital system lost almost half of its nursing workforce — to other states, travel nursing or retirement. Currently, they have a staff of 250 per diem nurses, down from 468 pre-pandemic. 

“And once they’re gone, we’re just not getting them back,” she said. 

Greenwood Leflore Hospital had 350 nurses at the start of the pandemic. Now, they have 150. 

Interim CEO Gary Marchand said the hospital can’t afford to pay competitive salaries because of how low reimbursement rates are in Mississippi. 

“That’s going to translate down to wages you can afford to pay,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise anyone that in a national emergency … that our nurses would flee to the other states.

“I don’t fault any of them for leaving for greener pastures.”

The following hospitals declined to provide specific nurse shortage numbers, but searching job postings on their websites revealed the following number of openings:

• St. Dominic Hospital, based in Jackson: 204
• Anderson Regional Medical Center, based in Meridian: 177
• Singing River Health System, based in Pascagoula: 183
• Forrest General Hospital, based in Hattiesburg: 200

The post ‘Leaving for greener pastures’: Mississippi’s nurse vacancy rates are their highest in at least a decade appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MARCH 6, 1857

In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld slavery in a 7-2 vote. Dred Scott and his family were enslaved, and when he tried to purchase their freedom, they were refused. He and his wife, Harriet, each filed separate lawsuits, calling for their freedom. They noted that they had lived for years in both free states and free territories. A jury ruled in favor of Scott and his family. But on appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that Black Americans, whether slave or free, had no right to sue. In a stinging dissent, Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis wrote that the claim Black Americans could not be citizens was baseless: 

“At the time of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, all free native-born inhabitants of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina, though descended from African slaves, were not only citizens of those States, but such of them as had the other necessary qualifications possessed the franchise of electors, on equal terms with other citizens.” 

He noted that the Declaration of Independence didn’t say that “the Creator of all men had endowed the white race, exclusively with the great natural rights.” The decision drew wrath from many, including future President Abraham Lincoln, who called it “erroneous.” 

Two months later, Scott won his freedom when the sons of his first owner, Peter Blow, purchased his emancipation, setting off celebrations in the North. The decision helped lead to the Civil War, and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted to counter the ruling. 

In 2017, on the 160th Anniversary of the Dred Scott decision, the great-great-grandnephew of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney apologized to Scott’s great-great-granddaughter and all Black Americans “for the terrible injustice of the Dred Scott decision.”

The post On this day in 1857 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s political team breaks down three major bills still pending in the 2023 legislative session — two of them very much expected, and the third a major surprise that no one saw coming.

The post Podcast: The major surprise of 2023 legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

There’s a preciseness to artist Ellen Langford’s movements as she works on multiple projects in the workplace studio she shares with other artists.

Langford, 55, of Jackson, has been selling her artwork since she was in her twenties. It has been her only source of income for the last 13 years. 

Her paintings set forever in time a simplicity often missed or taken for granted by the hustle and bustle of life — a silhouetted figure lost in somersaults, an angler with a dog enjoying a day of fishing or how colors combine to create the sun’s kiss making ordinary leaves extraordinary. 

A paused paintbrush is replaced by a gloved finger to smear on more color. 

A palette knife replaces the gloved finger, adding a swoosh of another color.

Her creative mind’s eye is three or four steps ahead, guiding brushstrokes effortlessly as she moves from one painting to the next. Not with the jarring quickness of indecision. There’s fluidity at work, like a honeybee darting from bloom-to-bloom sampling the vastness of possibilities that the next flower is as sweet and rewarding, if not sweeter and more rewarding than the next.

“I was a paramedic, which is pretty demanding, and I painted when I could. But after personal bumps in the road, doing my shifts became impossible,” said Langford. “So, I took a ‘leap of desperation,’ instead of faith. And, here I am,” she said with a smile and shrug of her shoulders.

She stands for a moment with brush in hand, wearing paint-splattered coveralls, scrutinizing three paintings in progress. Then, she begins again, on all three.

“The process of painting is this middle space between thought and color you lose yourself in,” said Langford, as she dabs a stroke of paint on canvas before moving to another. “Painting speaks to people, and I want my paintings to be ever-evolving to continue the conversation.”

The post Photo essay: Jackson artist Ellen Langford appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MARCH 4, 1908

Dr. T.R.M. Howard was born in Murray, Kentucky. His mother worked as a cook for Dr. Will Mason, a White physician so impressed with the young Howard that he helped pay for much of Howard’s medical education.

After getting involved in civil rights issues, he moved to the all-Black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, where he became the first chief surgeon at the hospital. In 1951, he founded the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and mentored young civil rights activists Medgar Evers and Aaron Henry. The council carried out a successful boycott of service stations that refused to let Black patrons use the restrooms, blanketing the area with bumper stickers that read, “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Restroom.” As many as 10,000 attended their annual rallies, where Thurgood Marshall and other national figures spoke. 

Howard also fought the credit squeeze by the white Citizens’ Council on those who dared to get involved in the civil rights movement. In 1955, he drew national attention when he became involved in investigating the Emmett Till murder. His compound became a safe place, and he escorted witnesses to the trial, including Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, through a heavily armed caravan. After the all-white jury acquitted Till’s killers, Howard spoke across the nation, including an overflow crowd on Nov. 27, 1955, at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks heard the speech and four days later refused to give up her seat. She was quoted later as saying she was thinking the whole time about Emmett Till. 

Howard later spoke to 20,000 at Madison Square Garden alongside Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Before the year ended, the death threats and economic pressure became too much, and Howard moved with his family to Chicago. 

In 1956, the Chicago Defender put him on the top spot on its national honor roll, and he served as president of the National Medical Association. In 1971, Jesse Jackson formed Operation PUSH in Howard’s home, and a year later, Howard founded the Friendship Medical Center, the largest privately owned Black clinic in Chicago. He died in 1976, and Jackson presided at his funeral. Historians David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito have written the definitive book on his life, T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer. Both the Till movie and ABC’s Women of the Movement featured Howard in the series.

The post On this day in 1908 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Just seconds remained. Louisville’s girls led Pontotoc 36-35. The State Class 4A Championship was the prize. Fans on both sides of Mississippi Coliseum were yelling themselves hoarse. Pontotoc had the ball, holding for the last shot.

Your dutiful reporter glanced up in the Louisville cheering section and there was Biggersville coach Cliff Little stomping his feet, clapping his hands and hollering “DEE-fense” right along with the Louisville fans.

Earlier Thursday afternoon, Little’s own Biggersville team had lost 53-38 to powerhouse Ingomar for the Class 1A championship. Most coaches, having lost the biggest game of the year several hours earlier, would have been long gone from the Big House, probably crying in their beer. You didn’t have to be an intrepid reporter to know there’s had to be a story here.

Back to the game: Pontotoc, playing for the last shot, looks to have a winning layup until Louisville’s MVP, Jacylin Houston, bounds in, leaps high and blocks the shot out of bounds. Seconds later, the final horn sounds and Louisville has won. And now Little really is crying  — big ol’ tears of joy.

And, yes, there is a story here. Got a couple minutes?

Fourteen years ago this week, East Webster defeated Durant for the State 1A boys championship. It was Little’s first state title as a coach. He has won four more since. Mitchell McCurry, now the Louisville coach, scored 36 points for East Webster that night.

Turns out, McCurry was much more than Little’s star player and tournament MVP that night 14 years ago. He was more like Little’s son. Still is.

Back to Thursday night: As soon as McCurry had the opportunity amid the postgame celebrating, he trotted over to the sidelines where he and Little shared a long embrace, both in tears. Again, Little has won five of these state championships, including two (boys and girls) last year. It’s difficult to imagine any of those meant more than watching McCurry win his first.

Asked about the relationship, Little said this: “I’m not sure I have the words. Mitchell was just such a special, special kid.”

McCurry was a special player, too. Little moved him up to East Webster varsity when he was an eighth grader and he was a key player then. But it was more about what was going on off the court than on it that drew the coach and player so close.

“My father was never part of my life,” McCurry said. “I lost my mother when I was young and my grandmother, who I lived with, died when I was seven.”

For much of his younger life, McCurry lived with other relatives and even with friends of his family. Little, he said, was like the father he never had. “Coach Little showed me true, genuine love. He taught me how to love again. Not that I wasn’t loved, but he taught me how to feel it.

“Coach Little inspired me to be a coach. I saw the way he cared for his players — not just me but all of us. That’s how I want to be for my players. I want to be there for them, just like he was for me and my teammates.”

When the final horn sounded Thursday night, Little embraced Johnthan Banks, another of his former East Webster players. Yes, that Johnthan Banks, the one who became a football All-American at Mississippi State and then played five years in the NFL. In that state championship game 14 years ago, McCurry and Banks scored 56 of East Webster’s 65 points.

Ever since McCurry and Little have remained close. They talk often, and not just about basketball. The Littles were there when McCurry’s first child was born. McCurry has attended all four of Little’s state championships since he helped win the first one.

Said McCurry of Little, “I wouldn’t be here if not for him.”

Said Little of McCurry, “I’m so proud of him, I…” He didn’t finish. He couldn’t.

He didn’t have to.

•••

From last year: Biggersville wins twice

The post When coach becomes cheerleader, and a sad day turns joyful appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The family of a Jackson homicide victim said they want answers and for members of the criminal justice system to be held accountable for releasing the man accused of killing their son from prison this week. 

Anthony Tyrone Lindsey Jr. allegedly was shot to death on June 3, 2021, by Jocquiez Williams, who was on parole and on house arrest at the time of the shooting, according to Lindsey’s family. Williams later returned to prison to serve time for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

Lindsey’s parents said Thursday that Jackson police, the Hinds County district attorney’s office and the Department of Corrections all played a role in Williams’ release. 

“You had him in your custody but you just let him go,” said Anthony Tyrone Lindsey Sr. “It’s more than one person who dropped the ball.”

Williams, 24, had been in custody at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility to serve a sentence for a different crime, according to a Thursday statement by Corrections  Commissioner Burl Cain. 

He was released Wednesday, but MDOC cannot hold a person after they complete their sentence unless a detainer is attached to their file, which usually happens if they are accused of another crime. Policy allows MDOC to hold a person with a detainer up to 48 hours, and then MDOC would release them into the custody of the authorities who asked for the detainer. 

“In Mr. Williams’ case, there was no detainer or warrant in Williams’ file. Without such detainer or warrant, MDOC could not lawfully detain Mr. Williams,” Cain said in the statement. 

Spokespeople from Jackson police and the Hinds County district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

On Wednesday after Williams’ release, Hinds County Senior Circuit Court Judge Winston Kidd issued a bench warrant asking for Williams to be found and taken into custody from his last known address in Lexington. 

“Jocquiez Williams was released inadvertently by MDOC and was not returned to the Hinds County Detention Center as proper protocol,” Kidd wrote. 

Once found, Kidd said Williams will be held at the Raymond jail until he is brought before a judge to address the unindicted charges relating to Lindsey’s shooting death.

Williams has not been indicted for murder in Lindsey’s death or additional charges for the alleged kidnapping of a woman and her son and possession of a weapon as a convicted felon, according to court records. The woman, a former girlfriend of Williams and Lindsey, and her son were later found safe, local media reported. 

In Mississippi, there is no timeline for a district attorney to seek indictment by a grand jury. 

A spokesperson from the Hinds County District Attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment about why it had not sought to indict Williams.  

When he died, Lindsey Jr. had just celebrated his 24th birthday about a week earlier and was applying for jobs as a recent graduate of truck driving school. 

Carolyn Lindsey said her son was the youngest of five children and the only boy. He liked to spend time with family, and he liked to ride horses and his four wheeler. Her son was kind and didn’t have a mean heart. 

She said justice won’t bring her son back, but it could potentially bring closure for her family. 

“He will be truly missed,” Carolyn Lindsey said. “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.”

The post Alleged killer released from state custody: ‘You just let him go,’ says victim’s father appeared first on Mississippi Today.