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The post Marshall Ramsey: Mind Trick appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A reworked version of a controversial House bill that will add a total of five appointed judges to the Hinds County court system and expand Capitol Police presence throughout Jackson passed by a majority vote in the Senate Tuesday. 

“The Legislature has said it wants to help Jackson,” said Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson. “Well, help and don’t hurt. If you want to help, sit down and communicate with us.”

The vote, which fell mostly along party lines, was 34 to 15 after three hours of debate. Every Democrat representing the city of Jackson voted against it after underscoring several times that they and their House counterparts from Jackson have not been at the table for the legislative process.

Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who chairs the Judiciary A Committee and defended the legislation on the floor, called it the “Jackson bill” and said the committee’s goal of redoing the bill was to make the city safe. That echoes what bill author Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, has said about HB 1020’s intent. 

“That’s all we’ve been trying to do,” Wiggins said. 

Senators drastically amended the original House bill, removing controversial House provisions including a proposed separate court system within the city, an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District and permanent appointed judges. 

The amended bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday would approve five state-funded judges who would be appointed by the Supreme Court chief justice to serve until December 2025. The Senate bill would also give existing Capitol Police department jurisdiction throughout the entire city of Jackson, and it would provide funding for positions in the Hinds County court system including legal assistants.

READ MORE: ‘Only in Mississippi’: House vote to create white-appointed court system for Blackest city in America

Attorney Cliff Johnson of the MacArthur Justice Center has questioned the Legislature’s basis for having five appointed judges for Hinds County. The center attempted to analyze the number of pending criminal cases in circuit court districts across the state using Mississippi Electronic Courts, but found that system doesn’t contain accurate information. 

During debate, Horhn asked whether an analysis of court caseloads and backlogs could be completed to determine whether additional judges are needed. 

He cited data showing Hinds County Circuit Court judges closed nearly 2,700 cases last year and gave the breakdown of open cases versus disposed ones by judge. He said that the special appointed judges handled about 230 cases last year, which is about 7% of jury trials in 2022. (Horhn acknowledged that the judges didn’t get started until the fall.)

Wiggins said judicial redistricting is upcoming and information about case load and backlogs would help make decisions about whether additional judges are needed.

“What is clear is that redistricting of any kind will be focused on caseload,” Wiggins said. “We certainly know there is a backlog.” 

Wiggins agreed with Horhn that certain cases, such as violent offenses, take more time and resources to move through the court compared to misdemeanors. Horhn said case type should also be factored into consideration when adding judges. 

Wiggins proposed an amendment that would divert about $300,000 proposed to fund three additional assistant district attorneys for Hinds County. Instead, that money will go to the Crime Lab. 

House and Senate lawmakers have said backlogs within the Crime Lab impact the ability for prosecutors across the state, including in Hinds County, to receive evidence and for judges to clear cases. 

Wiggins said he made the amendment after hearing Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens say at a Monday public hearing that he doesn’t want the funding for his office. 

Horhn and Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, both called Owens from the Senate floor on Tuesday after Wiggins introduced his amendment. Blount said Owens clarified that he wants the funding for the ADAs, but backlogs with the Crime Lab and other parts of the criminal justice system need to be addressed, too. 

That amendment passed in a 32-17 roll call vote, even after Horhn and Blount urged senators to vote against it. 

A reverse repealer, which ensures the bill must return to the Senate before it can be enacted, was also added and approved. 

Several other amendments were proposed but did not pass. 

Two amendments by Sens. Barbara Blackmon of Canton and Derrick Simmons of Greenville proposed eliminating the appointed judges and adding two elected judges to the 7th Circuit Court District of Hinds County, but they failed. 

Blount proposed an amendment that would mandate the state attorney general’s office designate an independent investigator for officer-involved shootings by Capitol Police. This is because the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which looks into all law enforcement shootings except those by troopers, and Capitol Police are under the same agency.  

Wiggins said the amendment was not relevant to the bill, so it was thrown out. 

The post Senate passes House Bill 1020 over opposition from Jackson lawmakers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Years after a federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of a mentally ill Mississippi man jailed in Clay County for 11 years, the case was settled this week. 

Steven Jessie Harris, now 42, was charged with murder, kidnapping and other offenses in 2005. He is accused of fatally shooting his 72-year-old father, Malichi Randle, in West Point before allegedly committing other crimes and running from police. 

In 2007, doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield diagnosed Harris with schizophrenia, and a year later he was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, but Harris was not released from the Clay County Detention Center until 2017, according to his attorney. All charges against him have been dismissed. 

After his release, Harris went to East Mississippi State Hospital but is now home with family.

Harris’ guardian and family member, Rachel Harris, filed a federal lawsuit on his behalf in the Northern District of Mississippi in 2018 against Clay County, former sheriff Laddie Huffman and current Sheriff Eddie Scott and other officials. The demand was $11 million for the years Steven spent in jail in violation of his 14th Amendment right. 

“We believe Clay County won’t be able to do this again,” said Carlos Moore, one of Harris’ attorneys. 

Attorneys representing the county and the current and former sheriff did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. 

Moore said Harris and his family members are pleased that the case is over. 

The case had been set for trial today at the federal courthouse in Oxford. On Monday,  U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mills dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice because of the settlement. 

“The court retains complete jurisdiction to vacate this order and to reopen the action upon cause shown that settlement has not been completed and further litigation is necessary,” he wrote. 

Moore said the settlement was financial, but the amount is confidential.

In his criminal case, Steven Harris’ trial had been continued at least twice. After Whitfield doctors reiterated that he was not competent to stand trial, his case was transferred from circuit to county court, according to court documents. Then-Clay County District Attorney Forrest Allgood asked for Harris’ competency to be reevaluated, but that didn’t happen and neither did a trial. 

Over the years, several defendants were dismissed from the lawsuit. Trial was first set for 2021 but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Two stays were ordered in the case and the lawsuit went to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in June 2021 affirmed the district court’s judgment in part and dismissed the county’s appeal, saying “it it has long been the law that sheriffs can be held responsible for unlawful detentions, especially when a court order tells them that the
detainee should be released.”

Moore said attorneys for Clay County and the sheriffs had also petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court over the 5th Circuit’s ruling. 

Attorney James Bryant, who also represents Harris, said the 5th Circuit Court ruling set a precedent that it is unconstitutional to detain a mentally ill person after they have been ruled mentally incompetent and civilly committed to receive treatment at a state mental health hospital. 

Under qualified immunity, which states that a government employee can’t be sued if they were acting within the bounds of their job, clearly established law would be the way to hold them accountable for actions against citizens. Bryant said Harris’ case can be used to challenge law enforcement actions. 

“His name will always be the first case,” Bryant said. 

Before Harris’ case, Moore said he had never heard about someone being held in jail without a trial after being declared mentally incompetent. Now, there are other cases, such as that of Raffell Franklin, who had been at the Jasper County jail for five years, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting reported. 

Following that story, Disability Rights Mississippi was able to get Franklin transferred from jail to the Mississippi State Hospital and their counsel within 48 hours of asking for information on his case, MCIR reported. 

Moore said Franklin’s family has retained him as their attorney, and he plans to file a lawsuit addressing the man’s detention. 

The post Clay County settles lawsuit for jailing man with schizophrenia 11 years without trial appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A Delta health care center had to pay $201,000 in missing wages owed to its staff – including nurses – according to investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hours Division. 

The facility – North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville – owed money to 110 employees, according to the Labor Department. The health center calls itself the “health care hub of the Delta” and employs about 500 people. It did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

“Depriving healthcare workers (of) their full wages makes it hard for them to care for themselves and their families,” the Jackson division’s Wage and Hour Division District Director Audrey Hall said in a statement. “These people provide essential services to our community and must be paid every dollar they’ve earned.”

Federal investigators found the medical center was automatically deducting 30-minute lunch breaks from nurses without making sure they were free of work tasks during that time. Often, nurses were working through lunches to update patient records, according to the Labor Department.

Investigators also found the center failed to combine employees’ hours when they worked in different departments. That meant workers’ total number of hours worked to calculate were inaccurate, leading to missing or inaccurate over-time rates owed. 

Mississippi’s statewide nursing shortage is at an all-time high, putting all the more pressure on hospital and health care centers’ staff to do more with less. Registered nurse turnover rates in Mississippi went from 23.5% to 31.9% from 2021 to 2022, meaning almost a third of RNs left their jobs last year. 

In her statement, Hall reminded health care facilities that they could avoid costly errors by asking for help from the local Wage and Hour Division. 

Employees and employers can contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE, for questions or to report missing wages. 

The post Labor Department orders North Sunflower Medical Center to pay nurses missing wages appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Senate leaders announced Monday a plan to give an additional $181 million to K-12 public education and make changes to the state’s school funding formula so they can more easily “fully fund” it in coming years.

The funding formula used to allocate money to public schools, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, was established by the Legislature in 1997 and has been consistently underfunded every year since 2008. MAEP funding provides the state’s share of funding for the basic operations of local school districts, ranging from teacher salaries to textbooks to utilities.

“This is a continuation of the Senate, and hopefully the Legislature’s, emphasis on education,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. “The best thing we’ve got in Mississippi is a child’s brain.”

READ MORE: Senate leader wants to fully fund public education for just the third time since 2003

Hosemann and Senate leaders said that despite changes that reduce the amount the state has to add to fully fund MAEP, all schools will receive more money next year. They increased the minimum percentage more affluent districts have to pay into the formula from 27% to 29.5% — but said most districts are already paying more than the minimums in the formula require. They also changed the way inflation is calculated – using a 20-year average instead of current inflation rates – and reduced the amount of costs subject to inflation.

“By spreading it out over that period of time, (the inflation change) gives some certainty in funding to schools,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg. “It does a lot better job of helping (schools) understand about where they’re going to be.” 

Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leaksville, said under the current formula, it would take an additional $261 million above last year’s allocation to fully fund MAEP. Under the new version, the additional $181 million that the senate appropriations committee approved will get the program to full funding. The total appropriation for MAEP with the changes would be $2.8 billion. 

Hosemann denied the idea that the move to fully fund MAEP is coming because it is an election year, emphasizing that this change is possible because the Legislature has been “running this state like a business.” 

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, one of the original authors of the MAEP formula, was involved in process of making these changes and said Monday evening that he was satisfied with them. 

“For years, we’ve talked about ‘We want to fully fund MAEP, we all know it’s flawed, let’s make the changes,’” DeBar said. “So, we’re finally putting out money where our mouth is.” 

DeBar also said he has spoken to House leadership about this proposal and they were receptive to the changes. 

But on Monday evening, House Education Committee Chair Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, said he had not been contacted by the Senate.

“Something of this magnitude should have been brought forward earlier for proper vetting,” Bennett said. “Nevertheless, we’ll review the proposal and run the numbers when the amendment is available publicly.”

Nancy Loome, executive director of the public education advocacy group the Parents’ Campaign, said it was “very good news” that the Senate Appropriations committee had passed a bill fully funding MAEP, and that they have expressed a commitment to do so in the future. Loome also said she approved of the changes to the funding formula.

“Importantly, the Senate plan leaves intact the formula for the base student cost, which is the primary driver of public school funding,” said Loome.

To see how the changes would affect your school district, search the chart below:

The post Senate, Hosemann want to spend $181 million more to ‘fully fund’ public education in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Even heroes get tired.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Tired Heroes appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Jackson State University’s temporary acting president said she has no timeline for her appointment at an on-campus press conference Monday. 

Elayne Hayes-Anthony’s address to the media and campus community came as questions are still spinning about the circumstances that led the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees to suddenly place her predecessor, Thomas Hudson, on administrative leave with pay last week. 

“I’m going to be here as long as I’m needed,” Hayes-Anthony said. “I’ve not been given a timetable.” 

For now, Hayes-Anthony has limited hiring and firing powers. Decisions like that, she said, will be made in coordination with IHL Commissioner Al Rankins. 

“I am committed to upholding our operations at the highest possible standard,” she said.

But in other aspects, Hayes-Anthony is fully embracing her new role at the historically Black university in the capital city. The Jackson native and former chair of the university’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies emphasized her connection to Jackson State, her love of the university’s athletic teams and her commitment to academics. 

“I’m homegrown,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere. This is not something for me as a resume builder. I love this university, and I think it shows.” 

The IHL has been silent about its decision to place Hudson on leave due to a “personnel matter” though, in a press release last week, the board said it will “discuss the future leadership of Jackson State” at this month’s meeting. The stunning decision came about a month after IHL voted to renew Hudson’s contract through 2027. 

Any questions about Hudson, Hayes-Anthony said, were for IHL. But she did answer questions about the deep-rooted sense among many in Jackson State’s community that the IHL board does not look out for the university’s best interest — or even that trustees sabotage the university by appointing presidents who are not fit for the role. 

“We can really bridge and go over whatever we think are troubled waters,” she said. “I think it can be done. I think the community is ready for that to be done. And I think the people that serve Jackson State, like I do, will be ready for that to be done.” 

Hayes-Anthony said she planned to meet with students Monday afternoon. 

“I want to know what students need because a part of my mission is increasing enrollment, and you can’t do that without listening to students,” she said. 

She has also scheduled a meeting with the faculty senate later this week, said Dawn McLin, the faculty senate president, who attended the press conference. 

“The largest room in the world is the room for improvement,” McLin said. “I appreciated that she talked about trust. It’s earned. And she’s working hard to earn our trust and foster a culture of inclusiveness here at Jackson State University.” 

In January, the faculty senate voted no confidence in Hudson and four members of his administration, including Joseph Whitaker, the vice president of research and economic development; Michael Bolden, vice president of facilities and operations; Robin Pack, the executive director of human resources, and Brandi Newkirk-Turner, the associate provost. 

The resolution cited a “continuous pattern of failing to respect” shared governance and other professional norms of higher education from Hudson’s administration. 

Rico Jackson, a 21-year-old senior communications major, said he went to the press conference to “show some love” from his department because Hayes-Anthony has been a supportive leader.”

This semester, Jackson said that Hayes-Anthony made it possible for him to graduate on time by arranging for him to take two classes in tandem that are normally required to be taken apart. 

“She’s always been there to try to make whatever way that she can possible for you,” he said. 

Hayes-Anthony will be at the Capitol Wednesday to promote the university’s legislative agenda that includes requests for funding for new dormitories and improvements to its water system.

“Jackson State is one of the great pillars of the city of Jackson,” she said. 

The post ‘As long as I’m needed’: JSU acting president has no timetable from IHL for appointment appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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

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