The investigation, reported for Mississippi Today in partnership with the The Marshall Project, exposed Mississippi’s practice of forcing individuals convicted of low-level felony offenses to work off their fines and other court debts at low-wage jobs during the day while they are confined in locked facilities at night until the debts are paid.
“I’m grateful to know that readers were as stirred as I was by the experiences of Annita, Dixie, Gaylia and so many others in Mississippi’s disastrous prison system,” Ann Wolfe, Mississippi Today’s investigative reporter, said. “Thank you to the dozens of people who trusted us to tell their stories. None of this, none of the impact we hope to have through our reporting, is possible without their courage and vulnerability.”
The project was a five-part series reported over several months, reported by Joseph Neff and Alysia Santo of The Marshall Project, and Michelle Liu and Anna Wolfe of Mississippi Today. Data analysis was provided by The Marshall Project’s Andrew R. Calderon. Leslie Eaton of The Marshall Project and R.L. Nave of Mississippi Today (now at editor-in-chief at Reckon) edited the project. Liu, who was a reporter for Mississippi Today between 2018 and 2020, now works for The Associated Press.
“This reporting — among the most impactful government accountability journalism in Mississippi’s history — should be held up as a shining example of the power of newsroom collaboration,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today’s editor-in-chief. “Pairing Mississippi Today’s local, boots-on-the-ground reporting with the resources and renowned talent of the journalists at The Marshall Project allowed us to expose profound wrongs and change many lives for the better. We’re so proud to have been part of this project.”
This is the fifth national award the investigation has won. In April 2021, the investigation won the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. In March 2020, the project won the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim awards for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting. In February 2020, the reporting won the Sidney Award. In September 2020, it won the Online News Association’s Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award.
Tens of thousands of Mississippians who are at the highest risk for COVID-19 are now eligible for a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to help increase their protection against the virus.
There are three groups of people now eligible to receive a third dose at least six months after receiving their second dose.
People aged 65 years and older and residents in long-term care settings
People aged 18-64 years with certain underlying medical conditions
People aged 18-64 years who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional settings
In Mississippi, booster shots are now available at all county health departments. Appointments can be made online at https://covidvaccine.umc.edu or by calling the Mississippi Department of Health COVID-19 hotline at 877-978-6453.
Boosters for these groups were recommended by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on Sept. 24.
Regulators have not yet made additional recommendations about booster shots for those who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Moderna has applied for Food and Drug Administration authorization of booster shots, and the FDA is leaning towards authorizing half-dose booster shots, according to a report from Bloomberg. Johnson & Johnson has not submitted an application for boosters of its single-dose vaccine to the FDA, but has reported studies that show a second dose significantly increases the vaccine’s efficacy.
In August, FDA made a small number of people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients, who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines eligible for a third shot. These shots must be received at least four weeks after a second dose, and are not boosters, but instead a necessary component of immunization for these individuals.
Mississippi’s top doctor has “grave concerns” about the Legislature’s plan to fund a medical marijuana program.
On Tuesday, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the state Health Department’s role in the proposed program would cost millions of dollars a year, which could cut care for necessities the department provides.
The Legislature’s program would replace Initiative 65, a ballot proposal passed by a majority of voters last November that was turned over by the state Supreme Court in May over a constitutional technicality.
Under Initiative 65, Mississippi’s medical marijuana program would have been self-funded through fees on all parties involved in producing and selling the product, as well as patients. The legislative proposal contains no such mechanism, and instead places all sales and excise tax revenue from the program in the state general fund.
The proposal calls for the program to be regulated by MSDH, The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce (MDAC) and the Department of Revenue.
MSDH has estimated that the health department’s role in the program would cost the agency $3.5 million per year. This includes patient and physician registry, lab and product safety, as well as regulations over packaging and advertising. During a committee meeting of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, Dobbs said MSDH is ready to take on these duties since the majority of regulations had already been drafted by the health department in preparing for Initiative 65 to go into effect. What they don’t have, Dobbs said, is the money.
“Whenever these big pots of money get into our state general fund, and there’s a cut, it ends up cutting care for pregnant women and babies, and these other things get fully funded,” Dobbs said. “So, I just want to make sure that we’re very cautious about how we budget this money so that it doesn’t harm the public health mission.”
Under Initiative 65, the entire program would have been operated under MSDH, an approach Gipson has continued to advocate for. If the bill were to pass as written, MDAC would be responsible for regulating the growing, processing and transportation of marijuana. Gipson estimates it would cost his agency $2.9 million a year to perform these duties, a massive undertaking for a department that currently operates under a $7.5 million budget.
“We don’t have anything in place today to do what this bill would require,” Gipson said.
Gipson also raised concerns over potential corruption within his own department. His inspectors make between $25,000-$35,000 per year, and Gipson said they could be enticed to take bribes for clearing inspections that do not meet regulatory standards.
It would also be inefficient to place duties on MDAC that could be better performed by other agencies, according to Gipson. He argued that the Department of Public Safety could more easily regulate transportation under existing programs, and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics would be better suited and equipped to handle disposal.
“I don’t think it’s a great idea for the Department of Agriculture to have to go out and buy equipment and things that other agencies are already doing,” Gipson said.
On Wednesday, Gov. Tate Reeves said he’ll call lawmakers into a special session on medical marijuana legislation “sooner rather than later,” and noted funding as one of the details that still needed to be worked out before a session is called.
Robin Stewart, an existing Mississippi Department of Employment Security head, will take over as the office’s interim director, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday.
Stewart will replace Jackie Turner, whose retirement is effective Sept. 30. In Stewart’s current role as deputy director of workforce programs, she oversees staff across the state’s more than 40 WIN Job Centers.
“Her over 30 years of service at MDES overseeing workforce programs makes her well-qualified and demonstrates the dedication she has for helping Mississippians get jobs,” Reeves said in a statement.
MDES handles the state’s unemployment payments and offers training and job placement services.
“I look forward to continuing to fulfill the agency’s mission of ‘Helping Mississippians Get Jobs,” Stewart said in a statement.
Stewart attended the University of Southern Mississippi, where she earned a degree in public administration. She has worked her way up through MDES, previously serving as a WIN Job Center manager and an area director for the centers.
Sergio Garcia, who last week became the winning-est player in Ryder Cup history, easily could have skipped this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, which begins Thursday at Country Club of Jackson.
Garcia, the Sanderson Farms defending champion, could have used exhaustion – both mental and physical – as an excuse. And, really, who would have blamed him? If you watched the Ryder Cup matches, you know how much of himself he poured into every match, every shot. And you know how well he played in a losing cause at demanding Whistling Straits, hard by Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shore.
Rick Cleveland
At 41, Garcia teamed with fellow Spaniard John Rahm to win three points for Europe, giving him 27.5 points in his 10 Ryder Cups. That enabled him to pass Sir Nick Faldo as the all-time leader. He long ago passed the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods. If there ever was a time to rest on his laurels, this was it.
But, no, Garcia was out at CCJ at daylight Wednesday, teeing it up in the Sanderson Farms pro-am and later he was in the interview room explaining why he really never considered skipping Mississippi’s lone tournament on the PGA Tour.
“Well, it’s quite simple. I try to defend my titles every time I can,” Garcia said.”I haven’t been able to do it every single time, but I love to do it every possibility I have.”
Good old-fashioned Mississippi hospitality also played a role, Garcia indicated.
“Second of all, the way everyone treated us here was just amazing,” he added. “And the golf course is just a great golf course, the kind that I enjoy coming back and playing, and I wish I could play more golf courses like this on tour.
“It’s the kind of golf course that make you think a little, but it’s not tricked up or anything like that….So it’s just a solid golf course and a great tournament and I am excited to be back.”
Garcia surely will be welcomed with open arms by Mississippi golf fans, who could not attend in person (because of COVID concerns) last year when Garcia utilized his skills as one of golf’s greatest ball strikers ever to shoot shoot a 72-hole total of 19-under par to win by a single shot. He almost holed a 172-yard 8-iron (into a breeze) to set up a 30-inch birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Earlier, he blasted an incredible 260-yard 5-wood shot to set up an eagle to begin his charge toward the victory.
Those same shot-making skills were on full display at the Ryder Cup last week, when he and Rahm provided just about the only highlights for the Europeans. Rahm showed why he is world’s No. 1 ranked player, and Garcia displayed the will and dogged competitiveness that have made him the Ryder Cup legend he is. Garcia and American Dustin Johnson won the inaugural Jack Nicklaus-Tony Jacklin Award, based on sportsmanship, teamwork and performance.
“I love the Ryder Cup,” Garcia said, in accepting the award. “…I try to play the game to the best of my ability, but always with respect and I enjoyed it.”
Garcia said it was important to show young players “that you can play with respect and have fun, even in defeat. I love my team. I’m so proud of all of them…. I love the guys in that room.”
Here at CCJ, the big question seems: How much of that competitiveness and energy will Garcia have left in his tank after that whirlwind week in Wisconsin, a return to his Austin home for not quite 48 hours, before traveling to Jackson Tuesday evening.
“I feel good,” Garcia said. “I’m not going to lie, obviously didn’t get much sleep on Sunday night. But Monday and Tuesday it’s been good, I was able to rest a little bit in Austin with the family, got here last night and I feel pretty good at the moment.
“Obviously you all know how much I love the Ryder Cup and even though, yes, there’s a lot of energy involved in it and that you put on it and stuff, I still love it every time I play it. So at the moment I feel quite good, I don’t think it has hit me yet and hopefully it won’t hit me until I get back to Austin next week, so I can have a good solid week here.”
To repeat here, Garcia must find enough energy to beat the best field in the Mississippi tournament’s 54-year history. Several recent major championship winners are involved including 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, Zach Johnson (2007 Masters and 2015 British Open), 2016 PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker and 2009 U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover. Also playing here are, 2011 FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker, 2017 Players Champion Is Woo Kim and 2021 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Will Zalatoris (Masters runner-up last April) and 2019 U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree, the Mississippian who was low amateur in the 2020 Masters.
Garcia, for one, is not surprised by the quality of the field.
Said he, “I think as people come and play and they see the quality of the golf course and the quality of the tournament it just goes from mouth to mouth and then probably more of the top guys want to come and play. It’s as simple as that.”
BEAUMONT — Sheran Watkins watched families drift past her tent under picked-clean pecan trees at Fulmer’s Farmstead and General Store. Watkins waved and said hello to attendees at the Mississippi Pecan Festival, but mostly she waited for someone, intrigued by the red-white-and-blue sign next to her, to approach.
Before long, a man walked up to her table. He inspected the shiny blue buttons and the stack of flyers that said: “Get the facts. Get the vaccine. Be a hero!”
“Hey, I’m vaccinated,” he said as he reached for a pamphlet. “Can I take some of these if I need information? I’m trying to get these guys at work vaccinated.”
“As many as you need,” Watkins replied.
When it comes to tabling at Mississippi festivals, Watkins is a seasoned pro, having worked for 26 years as an extension agent for Mississippi State University. In that role, she taught adult canning programs and cooking classes, and went to local high schools to teach food safety courses or host 4-H club meetings.
Watkins had been retired all of five months when, in July of this year, David Buys, the state health specialist at MSU Extension, gave her a call. MSU had received nearly $1 million in grant money to do vaccine outreach in 32 counties in eastern Mississippi. Buys needed someone who could hit the ground running, and he wanted Watkins to come on board to work on vaccine outreach.
“It’s so important because every one of us knows somebody that has passed away from COVID-19,” she said. “There has been nothing in my adult life that has affected the closing of the church in this way — it affects every aspect of our lives. If I can do one thing to try to help someone, I want to be on the frontline.”
Public health experts say it’s “abundantly clear” that vaccination is the only way out of the pandemic. In Mississippi, 44% of the population is fully vaccinated, and the vast majority of COVID deaths in the state were of people who did not receive a shot.
But it’s not that simple. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 25-32% of Mississippians are hesitant or unsure of the COVID-19 vaccine, with an earlier study conducted by the Mississippi State Department of Health finding most were concerned about the vaccine’s safety, potential side effects and effectiveness.
MSU’s efforts are part of the Mississippi RIVER Project, a larger endeavor by DHA to increase vaccination rates among rural and low-income communities, and communities of color (“RIVER” stands for recognizing important vaccine and education resources). With about $10 million in funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, a federal agency focused on expanding health care for rural and low-income communities, the Mississippi RIVER Project is working with colleges and universities around the state.
For MSU’s part, its work is operating from the premise that people who are vaccine hesitant can be convinced: The more accurate information people get, the more likely they are to get vaccinated. Watkins, one of eight organizers on the project, is not a health worker, but she’s worked in rural Mississippi for decades. Buys hopes that Watkins and other organizers can leverage their ties to rural and agricultural communities to reach vaccine hesitant communities and convince them to get the shot.
“We have a special focus and concentration on agricultural-related work in the state, so the health and safety of our farm families is of utmost concern for us,” Buys said. “We try to stay in our lane but do some education where we can, reach the folks we have trust with and leverage our trust to get them science-based information so they can make the best decision for their family.”
Other universities in the state are utilizing similar partnerships to do COVID vaccine education. At the University of Southern Mississippi, Susan Johnson, an associate professor of public health, spearheaded an initiative called the “Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities,” also known as “CEAL.” With funding from the National Institutes of Health,Johnson created a six-week curriculum to train people interested in becoming community health advisors, or CHAs.
At the end of the course, the newly minted CHAs organized events to spread vaccine awareness. In Hattisburg, a CHA whom Johnson trained held a “vaccination block party” at DeWitt Sullivan park where volunteers gave out popsicles and watermelon.
“In every community, there are people who naturally, when they tell you something, you just believe them,” Johnson said. “With this initiative, we were looking at people who you know in your family, in your neighbor, in your churches, at your workplace — if we can get (them) the right information, (they) will naturally share that information with other people and help to dispel those myths.”
Community health workers sometimes have to tread carefully, though, because the vaccine “is so politicized in Mississippi,” Buys said.
That’s why Buys turned to retired extension agents, like Watkins, as opposed to agents actively working in the field.
“We’re having to be very cautious,” he continued. “We’ve already got relationships built, people that trust us, that we trust, and that we work with, and we recognize that our relationships in those cases are of high, high, high importance. If we burn those bridges, those relationships, then what do we have?”
Rather than run away from politicization, DHA decided to tackle vaccine outreach like it is a political campaign.
“Political campaigns focus on GOTV, ‘get out the vote,’” Buys said. “Well, this is ‘get out the shot.’”
And just like with political campaigns, there’s a script, which DHA based on research from the World Health Organization, the De Beaumont Foundation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and other health groups. It goes like this: First, educators are instructed to open the door to a conversation with an open-ended question, such as “You may be hearing a lot about COVID vaccines. Tell me what you think about them?” Then, validate their concerns — without playing into misinformation. That’s done by utilizing what’s called the “truth sandwich” approach: Start with the truth, acknowledge misinformation, then return to reality. DHA advises COVID educators to emphasize the benefits people will gain from getting vaccinated, such as the ability to gather safely with family.
Finally, educators help people make a plan to get vaccinated, much like a canvasser would help a voter identify their polling place.
Rather than run away from politicization, Delta Health Alliance decided to tackle vaccine outreach like it is a political campaign. Credit: Molly Minta/ Mississippi Today
At the Pecan Festival in Perry County, Watkins didn’t have time to walk people through her script. In that kind of environment, her work was more about listening to the folks who chose to come up to talk to her, like one family of five, who asked about taking some of the pamphlets home.
“We’re trying to get my parents to get vaccinated,” the dad told Watkins.
“Make sure they know it’s ‘cause you love them and you want them to be around,” Watkins said.
“Yeah that’s what I say,” he replied.
As the family walked away, one of the kids told Watkins, “You have a good time and I hope you don’t get corona!”
On Saturday, just one person who wasn’t vaccinated came up to Watkins, a woman who wanted to say that she wasn’t going to get vaccinated. “That’s your choice,” Watkins told her.
“That was the right thing to say,” she replied before walking away.
Watkins shrugged off the encounter: Her goal is to provide information, not judge people who don’t want to get vaccinated.
“Sometimes people just don’t know,” Watkins said. “To me, you can’t blame them for those things they just don’t know.”
“Being an extension agent for so many years,” she continued, “you learn that you’re gonna hear a lot, you’re gonna deal with a lot. There’s no reason for me to get upset at someone who got themselves in a financial mess — they’ve still got to take that class to get out of that mess.”
Watkins knows her job is not without risk. She is in communities weekly meeting new people where the risk of transmission is high, and she worries about bringing the disease home to her husband who has heart stents. Still, Watkins wants to help.
“It does still make you nervous because COVID is real and people have died,” she said. “Sometimes you have to put that in the back of your mind to try to share the information and let people know there are resources.”
“But again, it is about being safe,” she added. “I put on a seatbelt and think nothing about it, because it’s for my good. … We’ve been vaccinated all our lives. What’s one more?”
Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday said he’ll call lawmakers into special session on medical marijuana legislation “sooner rather than later,” but would not speculate a date or whether he’ll also let legislators tackle pandemic pay for nurses or other COVID-19 measures they’re proposing.
Reeves said there are still details — such as funding for a medical marijuana program — to be worked out, and indicated a session would be in coming weeks, but not this week as lawmakers had requested.
“There is no update on exactly when, but I do anticipate we are going to have one sooner rather than later,” Reeves said at a press conference on workforce training on Wednesday. He said he spoke on Monday with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn.
“We are a long way towards getting a final agreement, but not all the way there yet,” Reeves said. “At this point it’s jut a matter of working out the final details … things such as funding, an appropriation bill, what that would look like.”
After months of negotiations, Gunn and Hosemann announced a House-Senate agreement last week on a medical marijuana program to replace the one adopted by voters last year but shot down by the state Supreme Court on a constitutional technicality. Gunn and Hosemann said they have the votes to pass the measure and asked Reeves to call a special session for Friday.
The draft medical marijuana bill legislative leaders have agreed to would levy the state’s sales tax, currently at 7%, on marijuana, and a $15 per ounce excise. But the bill does not specify funding for the Departments of Health, Revenue and Agriculture to run and regulate it. The bill routes the marijuana revenue into the general fund. This has prompted concern from state health and agriculture leaders that lawmakers would not adequately fund the agencies to stand up such a program.
Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, who said he opposes his agency being involved in marijuana regulations, said the Legislature is “notorious” for creating new programs or duties for agencies without providing extra funding or staff. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs expressed similar funding concerns this week.
Reeves has sole authority to call lawmakers into special session and set the agenda.
They want to give federal American Rescue Plan Act money to hospitals to pay nurses extra to help with what some health officials said is a shortage statewide of 2,000 nurses during the pandemic.
Gunn and Hosemann also want to change wording in a law that would allow families of first responders to receive death benefits if the first responder dies from COVID-19. Public safety officials have determined that a 2016 law that provides $100,000 in benefits to families of those who die in the line of duty does not cover COVID-19 deaths.
Hosemann and Gunn also want to provide emergency funding from federal ARPA funds to child abuse and domestic violence shelters and programs, who have lost regular sources of funding due to the pandemic, while cases of abuse have increased.
Reeves has had a rocky relationship with the Legislature, and has clashed particularly with his fellow GOP legislative leaders over control of spending federal pandemic stimulus money. Reeves has also said he doesn’t want lawmakers tied up at length in a special session, which would cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars a day.
Golf professional and Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Randy Watkins joins the Cleveland boys to discuss the Ryder Cup and the Sanderson Farms Invitational, which is played this week at the Country Club. As it happens, all-time Ryder Cup match-winner Sergio Garcia will defend his title, coming off the American’s record-setting victory over the Europeans at Whistling Straits. Watkins, an Ole Miss man, also has an opinion on Saturday’s Ole Miss-Alabama football showdown. You know the Cleveland boys do, too.
