HATTIESBURG — Seconds after Tiffany Murray says she was sexually harassed by a man who dialed 1-800-Medicare, she was supposed to be ready for the next caller.
Murray, 37, said she didn’t have the time to collect herself after the first time he called. Or when he called again the next day.
He wanted to know how she looked in stockings, Murray recalled. He called her slurs. She said she heard him pleasuring himself on the other end.
“I had no time to recover from that,” she told Mississippi Today. “There is no time in between.”
Because when one call ends, another one is almost always waiting – no matter how cruel or inappropriate the previous customer was, according to Maximus call center workers who spoke with Mississippi Today.
Murray is one of hundreds of federally contracted workers employed by Maximus’ Hattiesburg office. She was also one of more than 200 workers who went on strike outside of the call center Tuesday. It was the fourth strike Maximus workers have held since the beginning of the year. Workers spent the morning calling for $25-an-hour pay, more support from supervisors, and better protection from abusive callers.
Tuesday marked the start of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, which is one of the main agencies for which Maximus workers take customer calls. That means workers are entering their busiest time of the year managing 50 to 100 callers or more a day.
Calls can last a few minutes or more than an hour.
“We are never supposed to just hang up on people,” Murray said, referring to abusive callers. “We have to make a continued effort to give them a chance to correct their behavior.”
Murray and other workers said they are directed to give three warnings before hanging up – something Maxius said in a statement is not required.
Murray said when she reported the man who was sexually inappropriate, her supervisor didn’t react. In a statement, Maximus said workers can end a call “immediately” if a caller is “persistently inappropriate or obscene.”
Workers want up to 30 minutes they can use over an eight-hour shift to take short breaks between calls – time to collect their thoughts, recover from an abusive caller, or take notes about a particular incident.
Maximus says its break schedule has enough flexibility as is: Workers are given two 15-minute breaks and a 30-minute lunch.
“Maximus respects the dignity and wellbeing of our employees,” the company said in its statement. “While we haven’t seen evidence of a growing trend in abusive or obscene calls, we have a very clear Standard Operating Procedure to protect our employees when we occasionally receive such calls.”
Zach Harper, a customer service representative (CSR), joined other Maximus CSR workers who went on strike today in Hattiesburg, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Maximus workers are not formally unionized but have been organizing on and off for the last several years. Efforts peaked this year, with Tuesday’s strike being their highest attended so far.
Keaira Mark, 23, is looking for a second job because her rent is about to go up $100 a month. The Hattiesburg resident has been working at Maximus for almost three years, handling phone calls for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If I miss even an hour of work (at Maximus), I’d be this close to missing rent and risk being evicted,” Mark said, while holding her pointer finger and thumb barely an inch apart.
She is seeking out a part-time food delivery job to supplement her income so she has at least a small cushion.
“I wish I could focus on bettering my career,” she said, “but I’m just trying to find another job to pay the bills.”
About 650 workers handed in pledges to strike across four Maximus locations Tuesday, according to the Call Center Workers of America union. Half of them signed in to strike in Hattiesburg, according to the union. Workers met outside the call center off Highway 49 to march at 8 a.m. before gathering near the office’s parking lot.
Some workers chanted from nearby parking lots, keeping guard of their vehicles as tow trucks lurked. One car was towed from the Maximus parking lot, dragged across the pavement in front of a wall of protestors dressed in red.
Workers have already had some success in pushing the company to lower health care deductibles – though most are still calling for better coverage.
“Maximus welcomes the opportunity to work directly with our employees and discuss and hopefully resolve their concerns,” the company said in a statement. “Over the past several years, Maximus has improved pay and compensation, reduced employees’ out-of-pocket health care expenses and improved work processes and safety. We continue to look for ways to assure that Maximus is an employer of choice.”
During the height of the pandemic, their hourly pay was bumped to $15 an hour. The pay hike came into effect just before President Joe Biden’s executive order required all federally contracted workers to be paid at that rate.
Workers say their job requires a set of skills deserving of a wage increase. Workers are regularly helping callers navigate complex government programs such as Medicare and the health insurance marketplace. They say they deserve wages that more closely match those of federal employees who aren’t working for contract companies – especially as inflation continues to push up the cost of living.
Energy was high Tuesday. Even workers who didn’t strike drove by honking their horns in support.
Murray, the Medicare line worker, strolled around the gathered group with a portable microphone and speaker on wheels, hyping up coworkers. She encouraged them to share their own stories by chanting “let’s talk about it.”
“We want change,” Murray bellowed into her mic. “And we don’t mean pennies.”
All reader donations made Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to the generosity of the Maddox Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation’s education program. All grants have been made to help bolster Mississippi Today’s participation in NewsMatch, a national fundraising campaign to support local, nonprofit journalism.
“These three matching grants allow us to offer our largest match yet, $50,000, to help maximize the gifts of our loyal readers and fuel the work of our incredible team of reporters,” said Mary Margaret White, Mississippi Today CEO. “I’m so proud of our team and their hard work in 2022, and support from these three tremendous organizations further validates the value of local nonprofit news in Mississippi.”
Maddox Foundation was founded by Dan Maddox in 1968. He and his wife, Margaret Maddox, had a commitment to young people, a love of nature and a vision for making their corner of the world a better place. Maddox Foundation President Robin Hurdle has continued their legacy, which lives on through the current work of the foundation.
Maddox Foundation, located in Hernando, has made many signature investment grants into youth development. These investments include renovating and supporting the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA; putting an internet-connected computer in every public classroom in Mississippi; creating innovative places for children to learn and play; establishing the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi; and funding the Education Director position and the MTV exhibit at the Grammy Museum Mississippi.
The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation (JLFF), based in Berkeley, CA, supports organizations that advance social justice by promoting world-changing work in investigative journalism, the arts, documentary film and democracy. As a small foundation, JLFF’s investment in NewsMatch allows the Foundation to make a difference across the entire field of local investigative journalism.
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Founded in 2016 as the state’s first nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom, Mississippi Today’s roots in Capitol coverage have grown to encompass a myriad of beats beyond politics and policy, including education, public health, justice, environment, equity, and, yes, sports.
A former Baltimore jail warden and current criminal justice adjunct professor was appointed receiver of the Hinds County Detention Center, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves ruled Monday evening.
Wendell France Sr. was one of four people Reeves considered for the appointment. He began his role Tuesday but will not take operational control of the jail until Jan. 1, 2023.
“France’s diverse experience in corrections and criminal justice system leadership equip him with the tools to ensure RDC’s (Raymond Detention Center) compliance,” Reeves wrote in his order.
France worked at the now-closed Baltimore City Detention Center in the intake center and in pretrial detention and as deputy secretary of state for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. He was also an officer with the Baltimore Police Department.
France has also worked as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice and studied police departments through the Crime Control Act of 1994, according to court documents. He has also investigated and made recommendations on criminal justice, law enforcement and correctional issues in several states.
Currently, he is an adjunct professor at Bowie State University and Coppin State University – both in Maryland.
Reeves appointed France weeks after ordering federal takeover for the jail, which had previously been under a consent decree since 2016 to address unconstitutional conditions.
In his July order, Reeves wrote receivership is needed because there is a risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff. In 2021, seven detainees died and there have been other issues such as violence, understaffing, old infrastructure and contraband.
During a Monday news conference, Board of Supervisors President Credell Calhoun said the county would accept the judge’s decision and work with its legal team on next steps.
He added that the board has invested millions of dollars at the jail to make improvements, including getting doors that lock.
Hinds County is appealing the appointment of a receiver and Reeves’ decision to hold the county in contempt before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Within 120 days of appointment, the receiver will develop an action plan for how to achieve compliance with court orders, according to court documents. Within 75 days, the receiver will also establish a budget for the first year of jail operation.
France will receive $16,000 per month for services performed as jail receiver, according to Reeves’ order.
Reeves asked the county and the DOJ to present candidates for the jail receiver role. The county proposed one person, and the department recommended three, according to court documents.
The DOJ’s other candidates were Susan McCampbell, who has worked as a court monitor at jails and prisons in multiple states, and another person whose name was not mentioned in court records.
The county recommended Frank Shaw, who served as interim administrator of the Hinds County Detention Center.
Reeves rejected Shaw as an option because his experience was in prisons rather than jails, according to court documents. Jails hold people who have not been convicted of a crime, while in prison, people held there have been convicted and are serving a sentence.
He also decided against Shaw because Shaw was in charge of a privately-run prison in Arizona where riots broke out, according to court documents.
Reeves said he interviewed two finalists for receiver and was confident that either could have taken on the role with integrity and been able to secure results for the people of Hinds County.
In a separate Tuesday order, Reeves outlined responsibilities of the receiver, which includes:
Day-to-day jail operations
Remedy for unconstitutional conditions by implementing the new injunction order
Determine the annual budget for the jail, including staff salaries and benefits, medical and mental health services, facility improvements and fire safety
All executive, management, leadership powers relating to the custody, care and supervision of jail detainees
The duty to control, oversee, supervise and direct administrative, personnel, financial, accounting, contractual and operational functions of the jail
The power take over personnel actions of staff who perform services related to jail operation
The authority to negotiate agreements with Sheriff’s Office, Board of Supervisors, other state, county, city officials or agencies not under the receiver’s direct control
The county and DOJ each outlined what kind of duties and responsibilities they wanted the receiver to have, which Reeves took into consideration when determining which to grant.
A decades-long court agreement to address unconstitutional conditions at the Hinds County youth detention center has ended, but advocates and county officials said work will continue to ensure the wellbeing of detainees.
“Our concern for children detained at Henley-Young continues, and we look forward to the next phase of the critical work of improving outcomes for youth in Hinds County,” Disability Rights of Mississippi and the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a joint statement Monday.
Disability Rights of Mississippi said this month all parties agreed to end the consent decree. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan approved termination of the decree Oct. 13.
The organizations sued the county over conditions and treatment of children at the center, including denial of mental health treatment and insufficient educational, rehabilitative and recreational programming. They settled and entered a consent decree in 2012, and that agreement has been amended three times and extended multiple times.
As a result of the consent decree, improvements have been made at the facility, including increased access to mental health care, staffing and education, officials and advocates said.
Hinds County officials gathered Monday at Henley-Young to celebrate the end of the consent decree.
“We’re not going to let up,” said Marshand Crisler, who has been the center’s executive director since January. “We will continue to implement the policies and procedures to keep this facility moving forward.”
He hopes the facility can become a model for other facilities in the Jackson area and across the state.
Since the consent decree ended, the county has increased its number of youth detainees to 45 from the 32-detainee cap set in the consent decree, Crisler said. He said the center has the staffing to meet that need, and that the facility has the capacity to house up to 80 detainees.
In its statement, Disability Rights of Mississippi expressed concern about the county’s intention to increase the number of youth at Henley-Young.
“We will not tolerate a regression of conditions or services due to an increased population in the facility, or for any other reason,” the organization said.
Crisler said 35 of the youth at Henley-Young have been charged as adults in the criminal court system. The others are under the jurisdiction of the county’s Youth Court.
Under the consent decree, the county began housing juveniles charged as adults at Henley-Young. Attorneys for the county argued that the detainee cap became hard to work with once the center started housing them, according to court documents.
Tony Gaylor, attorney for the Board of Supervisors, said the population rise is a concern at any of the county’s detention facilities and is related to crime. The county hopes to keep Henley-Young’s population down by working with the court system and district attorney, he said.
Hinds County Court Judge Carlyn Hicks, who oversees the Youth Court, said taxpayers can expect savings because the county will no longer have to pay attorney’s fees to manage the consent decree.
With the county no longer paying those fees, she hopes to see it reinvested in the community and diversion efforts that alleviate the need for young people to come to the detention center.
Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday announced he was calling lawmakers into special session Wednesday to approve incentives for what he called the largest economic development project in state history.
Reeves posted on social media: “Biggest economic development project in MS history coming to Golden Triangle: $2.5 billion capital investment (Nearly 2X larger than previous CapEx record), 1000 jobs, $93,000 average salary.”
Mississippi is on ?
Biggest economic development project in MS history coming to Golden Triangle:
$2.5 billion capital investment (Nearly 2X larger than previous CapEx record) 1000 jobs $93,000 average salary
Special session of MS Legislature at 10am Wednesday. @MDAWorks
Reeves did not name the company, but in a release said it includes a flat-rolled aluminum plant, “biocarbon production facilities and other industrial facilities” in the Golden Triangle area of the state, which spans from Starkville to West Point to Columbus.
Sources familiar with the project say it will be a major expansion of an aluminum or steel company already located in the Columbus area. The Legislature will be asked to provide between $150 million and $160 million in incentives to help with the construction of the plant.
Over the summer, Steel Dynamics, which has a plant in Columbus, announced it was planning to build three large facilities in North America to supply the automotive and packaging industries with recycled aluminum materials. In July, the company said it planned to build a flat-rolled aluminum mill in the Southeast as part of the expansion.
Typically, major economic development projects require legislative approval when the state spends large amounts of tax dollars on incentives — such as for infrastructure or on tax breaks.
Normally the Legislature issues debt to help with infrastructure needs for major economic development projects. But there most likely will be consideration of paying for the incentives with existing revenue instead of issuing bonds to be paid off over multiple years. The state currently has more than $2 billion in surplus revenue thanks in part to strong economic activity and influx of billions of federal dollars after the COVID-19 pandemic,
Reeves said he had briefed Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn and other legislative leaders on the development and that he is “Looking forward to full legislative bodies taking swift action for what could be a 1-day session.”
Hosemann on Monday said: “We are in the process of contacting senators to make sure they are available for Wednesday’s special session. Initial review of the summaries show this project will have a positive impact on the State.”
“Our team also continues to work on the other issues the Legislature will face in the Regular Session,” Hosemann said.
Reeves last week, at a speech at the state chamber of commerce’s annual “Hobnob” hinted at a major economic development project. He said that Mississippi has seen $3.5 billion in new capital investments in the state so far in 2022 and, “I’ve got a pretty good inkling it’s going to go a lot higher between now and Dec. 31.”
“It is an economic development project somewhere in northeast Mississippi,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the House minority leader. “I wish I could tell you more.”
Members of the Lowndes County legislative delegation were scheduled to meet with economic developers from the area later Monday.
“It is huge,” said Rep. Kabir Karriem, a Democrat who represents portions of Lowndes County.
House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, who most likely will handle the incentive package in the special session, said, “I am looking forward to adding jobs to the Mississippi economy.”
Other lawmakers appeared to know scant details.
“I heard this morning that there may be a special session,” said Rep. Manly Barton, R-Moss Point. “Economic development, that’s what I heard, but I haven’t heard anything else at this point.”
Johnson said it is great that an economic development project is coming to northeast Mississippi but said the Legislature should be doing more to help other areas of the state.
“You have the Greenwood hospital about to close in the Delta,” he said. “You have the water issues in Jackson.”
For over 20 years, Stephanie Mallette has served as a public defender working on part-time contracts with Oktibbeha and Webster counties in Mississippi.
Like most public defenders in Mississippi, Mallette was appointed by a judge. She represented an unlimited number of defendants for a fixed payment that often did not cover the cost of investigators or expert witnesses for the cases.
Many times when Mallette filed a motion for her client she said she thought twice to make sure she could prove to the judge she was not wasting time and money.
“My first priority is to my clients, but that is always balanced and tempered against how bad this is going to piss the judge off,” she said.
Mallette’s experience is not unique. In Mississippi, attorneys who represent the indigent in criminal cases have to deal with an underfunded public-defender system that lacks statewide funding and oversight. In an ideal criminal justice system, the three components, law enforcement, prosecution and defense would be balanced in order to work fairly. But Mississippi spends significantly less money on the public defender system than its counterpart, the district attorney’s offices.
This funding discrepancy results in a decentralized indigent defense system that fails to provide state oversight and ensure independence from the judiciary. Since the system allows judges in counties without a funded public defender’s office to have control over how attorneys are chosen and compensated, indigent defense attorneys might fear that when they push too hard, they will lose their job.
“Someone might say you need to Don Quixote everything,” Mallette said, “but if they’re gonna get rid of me, then I can’t help anybody.”
When facing charges that could lead to imprisonment, people have the constitutional right for legal counsel to represent them. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1963 ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright mandated that states provide free lawyers for indigent defendants in criminal cases.
Public defenders are appointed by the courts for defendants who cannot afford legal representation. Of the 82 counties in Mississippi, only eight have full-time public defender offices, while the vast majority of counties hire part-time contractors to provide legal representation. Meanwhile, a few counties appoint lawyers on a case-by-case basis and pay by an hourly rate.
Most of those charged with crimes in Mississippi can’t afford private attorneys. Indigent defendants in non-capital cases rely on a public defender system funded by local governments, many of which struggle to finance this service.
Since 1990 they also get “overhead”, said state public defender Andre de Gruy. “In practice the very few who get appointed under that statute get an hourly rate. Most people getting appointed are doing so under a flat fee contract or in an office. the vast majority of capital cases are NOT death penalty cases. That is, the (district attorney) is not seeking death,” he said.
The decentralized structure makes it hard to assess indigent defense services in Mississippi. “It’s out of view for most people, so people don’t see what’s happening,” said David Carroll, the executive director of the Boston-based Sixth Amendment Center, which compiled a report, The Right to Counsel in Mississippi: Evaluation of Adult Felony Trial Level Indigent Defense Services, on indigent defense services in Mississippi.
The report, published in 2018 at the request of the Mississippi Public Defender Task Force, found an absence of state standards and oversight to ensure local governments provide effective assistance of counsel to indigent defendants.
“The very first principle for an effective indigent defense system is that it must be independent from the judiciary,” Carroll said.
However, with most counties not having public defender offices, judges in Mississippi play a key role in selecting public defenders. Judges also approve the payment, which except in death penalty cases is capped at $1,000 per case, plus expenses allowed by the judge, regardless of the time required to defend the case.
This system can create incentives for attorneys to rush a client to plead guilty, the report reveals.
“People who are entitled to a defense are entitled to a full-time defense,” said Aisha Sanders, part-time public defender in Adams County. “They should be getting lawyers who can spend the same equal amount of time on their cases as the (district attorney) offices.”
One defendant had been in jail two and a half years when the judge reassigned his case to Sanders. She found out the previous lawyer had failed to file a single motion to move the case forward.
As soon as she saw the file, “I realized I see why he [the defendant] was upset.”
When she pushed for the trial, the district attorney dismissed the charges, she said. “We finally got them out.”
Some charges might be enough to get a preliminary hearing but not enough to secure a conviction, she said. “That happens quite often.”
‘They are underpaying us’
The lack of independence also manifests itself when private attorneys working with part-time contracts seek raises.
Sanders is one of the three Black public defenders serving in Adams County, where Black residents make up more than half the population.
Many defendants who come through the system are Black, and a lot of times they have a hard time trusting other attorneys who don’t come from the community, Sanders said. “I ended up getting a lot more cases.”
But in 2020, she found out that she and the other Black female public defender, Lydia Blackmon, failed to get a pay raise that others received. They ended up suing the county, and 13 months later, they finally received the equal pay.
Though most public defenders are underpaid, they say it’s difficult to ask for a raise if they are under part-time contracts. In Oktibbeha County, Mallette worked for 17 years without a raise until Judge James T. Kitchens went to the Board of Supervisors on their behalf in 2016 and lobbied on their behalf.
‘You wait in jail without a lawyer until you get indicted’
Attorneys working in counties with no public-defender offices often have little control over their defense processes because they can’t begin their work when the person is charged.
In Mississippi, the constitutional right to have an attorney doesn’t kick in until defendants are indicted. While some counties appoint lawyers only after indictment, most counties and cities appoint two sets of attorneys to specialize on cases at different court levels.
Duane Lake was in jail without a lawyer for almost three years before he got indicted. He eventually spent six years in Coahoma County jail for a murder he didn’t commit.
Lake briefly had a lawyer to stand in for his preliminary hearing, but no attorney was appointed to represent him after that.
“It’s detrimental that you don’t have a lawyer,” he said.
Before he was indicted, he tried to file a motion on his own behalf, but the judge never acknowledged that motion.
Cliff Johnson, the director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, referred to this lengthy period Lake experienced without representation as the “dead zone” that would impair the quality of defense.
“You do get a lawyer, but you just get them for a very brief period of time,” said Johnson. “That lawyer disappears. You wait in jail without a lawyer until you get indicted.”
According to Johnson, Mississippi is one of the very few states where there is no time limit between the date of arrest and the date of indictment, meaning that people could spend an indefinite amount of time in jail without indictment.
During this time, as prosecutors gather evidence to make cases for a trial, there is no public defender investigating on the behalf of the defendant, he said. When Lake finally got appointed to a state public defender for the death penalty three years later, some potential witnesses who could help prove his innocence had passed away.
If the people arrested can hire a private attorney, “the lawyers for a person with money will stay with you through this time,” Johnson said. “They would be talking to witnesses or gathering documents.”
After the court dropped the death penalty charge, Lake was appointed three part-time public defenders until the court finally dropped all of his charges. The trial took so long his lawyer ended up retiring because his contract with the county was up.
“The system is not designed for you to win,” Lake said.
Within each county, the defense system may be different, depending on the resources a county can allocate for indigent defense. Public defenders, who often deal with heavy caseloads and limited resources, also bear the most blame of the incompetent system.
In Webster County, Mallette goes to some of the lower court hearings, though she relies on the help of another contracted attorney to handle preliminary hearings. But since Eupora in Webster County has another public defender, she doesn’t know anything about the cases from that city until they move to the Circuit Court after indictment.
In Oktibbeha County, where Mallette also serves, she can have consistency from the time her clients are charged until their cases are resolved. While Mallette agrees that consistency leads to more efficiency, she also bears a greater burden because she is handling these cases without assistants and investigators.
Many times, the court clerk notifies her that she has been appointed to a case in which all she knows is the defendant’s name and charges, she said. “I have no idea who I represent right now. I’ve got no clue. I’ve got 50 emails, but I don’t know who’s in jail.”
She said she ends up with more responsibility and lacks the support she needs to do her job well.
Johnson sees inequality as the problem. Most rural counties in Mississippi don’t have a public defender office.
State Public Defender André de Gruy explained that counties that have lower tax revenues risk more social problems because they have less industry and fewer jobs. Those counties also are not able to sufficiently fund a public defender system.
“I get calls to the state defender asking, ‘Well, who’s the lawyer on the case?’” de Gruy said, “because people are just trying to find out who represents their loved one and they assume the public defender would do that.”
The authors of the Sixth Amendment report warn that Mississippi risks being sued over its provision of indigent defense services.
Between 2009 and 2017, they note, courts in six states allowed civil class action lawsuits to go forward over allegations that indigent criminal defendants were being systematically denied their right to counsel based on the same criteria used in this assessment of Mississippi. In each case, the courts ruled the defendants don’t have to wait until their cases are over to prove they received ineffective assistance of counsel. The defendants instead “may seek to vindicate their right to counsel before it is denied to them in the first place.”
National NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson discusses Jackson’s water crisis and the NAACP’s Title VI discrimination complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency calling for an investigation into whether the state of Mississippi has over years diverted federal funds that should have gone to help the city’s infrastructure.
Jackson was alive this weekend with happy JSU and Southern fans spending their money in Jackson’s beleaguered restaurants. It was a welcome pick-me-up.
In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Extra Table’s Executive Director Martha Allen to talk about Extra Table’s mission, the many facets of hunger in Mississippi and how you can sponsor a TURKEY as a part of their Tackle Hunger Holiday Campaign for $15. A single donation will put a 10-12 pound Jennie-O turkey on the table of a family in need this holiday season.
Founded in 2009 by restauranteur Robert St. John, Extra Table has helped fight hunger by stocking food pantries across the state of Mississippi by lowering the cost of food — every dollar provides 5.9 meals.
