OurTupelo

Christopher Boose, the subject of an October Mississippi Today article whose arm was amputated after he was allegedly denied timely treatment for a broken bone in a Mississippi prison, has settled a federal lawsuit with VitalCore Health Strategies.

Boose, 40, in June sued the Kansas-based company contracted to provide prison health care and reached out to Mississippi Today after the outlet began publishing its Behind Bars, Beyond Care series. The series has documented alleged denial of health care for people in Mississippi prisons. Boose and his attorneys say his story is a case study of how routine injuries in prison escalate into permanent harm.

For Boose, a one-year sentence for a Drug Court infraction became a lifetime sentence as an amputee after he fell off his bunk bed and developed sepsis at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, the Newton County man said in interviews and in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Southern District of Mississippi. Boose said he was denied treatment for a week, as sepsis spread through his arm and doctors had to amputate it after he almost died.

READ MORE: Cruel and unusual? Untreated broken arm in a Mississippi prison results in amputation

A VitalCore spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the settlement or the issues raised in the lawsuit.

Boose sought $5 million in damages in his initial complaint. He said he signed a nondisclosure agreement that precludes him from revealing how much he received from the settlement. But the 40-year-old Newton County man, who has been unable to work since leaving prison missing an arm, said the settlement was a relief. 

“I’m blessed,” Boose said.

In his lawsuit against VitalCore, Boose argued that systemic neglect gave way to “cruel and unusual punishment,” which violates the Eighth Amendment under the Constitution.

Based on recent legal data, Boose’s settlement could be an outlier. In 2024, Business Insider examined nearly 1,500 cases in federal appellate courts that involved Eighth Amendment claims. The news outlet found that only 1% of prisoner claims succeed, with almost half failing to meet the strict deliberate-indifference standard. 

In February of 2023, Boose, a Mississippi State University graduate and former Wells Fargo employee, was arrested for violating the terms of a Drug Court program. He was sentenced in Newton County Circuit Court to complete alcohol and drug treatment in prison, a sentence designed to be a one-year rehabilitative term, his attorney said.

But when Boose arrived for his sentence, it took months before he received any of the drug treatment mandated by the judge, he said in an interview.

On Dec. 15, 2023, Boose took a shower and returned to his cot in “quickbed” — a unit where inmates sleep on bunk beds in dormitory-style housing. While climbing up to his bed, he slipped and fell onto the floor, his side bearing the brunt of the impact.

Over the next week after his fall, Boose’s arm started to swell. He said he repeatedly asked for help, to no avail. As the swelling worsened, he periodically lost consciousness, prompting other inmates to ask guards for help on his behalf. 

Boose believes he would have died had it not been for a routine sweep by an officer with a dog searching for drugs. The officer saw the state of Boose’s arm and urged prison officials to take him to the hospital. Once there, doctors found “massive tissue and muscle damage from the bacterial infection” caused by the delay in treating Boose’s broken arm, his attorneys wrote in the complaint. His arm was amputated at the shoulder.

House Corrections Chairwoman Becky Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, has highlighted Mississippi Today’s report on Boose at legislative hearings and while advocating for House Bill 1740. The bill would require prisons to give prisoners access to communal kiosks where they could request medical attention. That bill died, but other measures to ensure prisoners receive necessary medical care are still alive in the 2026 legislative session.

“We don’t want people in a jail cell for one year to fall off a bunk accidentally, get no help and lose his arm,” Currie said. “It’s time for this to stop.” 

Introducing, Mississippi Explained: our weekly news quiz to test your knowledge of this week’s news 🧠

Lawmakers have until March 3 for committees to consider general bills and constitutional amendments that originated in the other chamber. Among the bills pending:

• Senate Bill 2522, which would create a program to help cover tuition and books for students seeking to earn an associate degree or credential that could lead to in-demand careers.
• Senate Bill 2445, which would require audits for community mental health centers and eliminate an office that provides independent oversight of the Department of Mental Health.

Quiz question: At what stage of the lawmaking process do most Mississippi legislative bills fail to advance?

Email your answer to newsletter@mississippitoday.org with your first name and last initial, and we’ll shout you out in the next quiz post on Monday, March 2.

Think you know the news? Take more quizzes like this one: sign up for The Today, our daily newsletter, and never miss a chance to test your knowledge.

Sens. Kamesha Mumford of Jackson and Justin Pope of Pope (yes, Pope) share their insight and experiences as freshmen lawmakers, at the halfway point of their first legislative session. The two say they’ve quickly realized legislating centers around relationships made at the Capitol and how one works with others.

When Mississippi officials informed Mary Anderson that her uncle died in prison, they told her he had suffered a heart attack.

“They mentioned nothing about anything else,” she said.

But now, the FBI is investigating the 2025 death of Melvin Cancer at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility as a homicide, and the guards as alleged perpetrators.

It is the first time in at least the last decade that officials have confirmed that an incarcerated person was killed by a use of force by prison security.

Information uncovered this month by Mississippi Today and The Marshall Project-Jackson revealed he died from blunt force trauma.

Cancer died shortly after being “involved in an altercation with Correctional Officers” at the Rankin County facility, according to a recent report the state Department of Public Safety sent to the U.S. Justice Department.

The death comes after fellow prisoners repeatedly complained about the 53-year-old’s lack of personal hygiene. On Jan. 22, 2025, several corrections officers went into Cancer’s cell to take him to the shower.

“He was transported to another building, where he collapsed in the shower area,” the report stated. “Cancer was transported to a medical facility where he was pronounced deceased.” 

Cancer had been serving eight years in prison after pleading guilty to a 2019 aggravated assault in Hinds County.

After prison officials’ initial mention of cardiac arrest as the reason for Cancer’s death, Anderson heard from other incarcerated people that her uncle was taken into the shower and beaten, she said. “The whole story started changing,” Anderson said. 

Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said Feb. 19 in a statement that, “The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has turned its files and findings over to the FBI regarding the case involving the in-custody death of Melvin Cancer.” 

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Corrections declined to comment on the death, citing an ongoing investigation. 

The federal probe into Cancer’s killing comes after a joint investigation by Mississippi Today, The Marshall Project-Jackson, Clarion Ledger, Hattiesburg American and The Mississippi Link found that prison understaffing and gang violence likely contributed to the killings of nearly 50 incarcerated people, including Cancer, since 2015. Only eight cases led to criminal convictions.

Of the 45 killed, 20 died by blunt force trauma. These include beatings at the hands of cellmates and other incarcerated people.

Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, said the bureau has only investigated one death caused by use of force by guards within state prisons since 2015.

Within the past decade, federal prosecutors have convicted at least seven former Mississippi Department of Corrections staffers for assaults on incarcerated people. Melvin Hilson, a former deputy warden with the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman’s K-9 division, was convicted and sentenced to 24 months in prison in 2022 after beating a man who was waiting to see a medical provider in 2016. 

Two former prison officers and a case manager were convicted in the 2019 beating of a woman at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. According to court documents, they punched, kicked and beat the woman with a pepper spray canister as she lay in a fetal position. Three former officers were also convicted in a 2016 beating at the same prison.

Following the news team’s 2025 investigation, state Rep. Becky Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, introduced a prison death oversight bill that passed the House unanimously on Feb. 10 and is now before the state Senate Corrections Committee. House Bill 1739 would require that an oversight task force review the deaths of state prisoners and make recommendations to prevent future deaths.

At least eight men have died in MDOC custody this year, according to news reports. 

Currie said earlier this month that prisoners often die under opaque circumstances, with no explanation from prison officials.

“One of the things I want us to look at is the deaths that happen. We had three deaths in the prison system last week. They were in their 20s and 30s,” Currie said. “Whatever it is that the inmate is dying at 20 and 30 years old every week from, this task force will look into that.”

Mississippi Today’s Michael Goldberg contributed to this report.

This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for its newsletters, and follow on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.

A former adviser to President Donald Trump took his first stab Monday at questioning Mississippi’s former welfare director, the federal government’s star witness in an ongoing trial of a former pro wrestler accused of theft. 

Eric Herschmann, the Austin-based ex-Trump adviser who recently took over as lead attorney for defendant Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., didn’t grill John Davis so much as paint the disgraced ex-welfare director as a well-meaning bureaucrat surrounded by enablers. 

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant nominated Davis to lead the Mississippi Department of Human Services in 2016 and the agency racked up $100 million in questioned purchases in a 2019 audit. Davis pleaded guilty to state and federal conspiracy charges in 2022 and he awaits sentencing as he cooperates with prosecutors in DiBiase’s case.

Herschmann asked Davis about requests he received from Gov. Bryant’s wife, Deborah Bryant, such as for help building a palliative care facility – a project that planners initially considered funding with welfare dollars and naming after the first lady but was later taken on by University of Mississippi Medical Center and named after a former state lawmaker. The lawyer evoked scenes of lawmakers calling on Davis to discuss ways to improve their communities.

“Sometimes you would listen to what they said?” Herschmann asked, “Because you thought it was the right thing to do?”

Yes, Davis responded, and Herschmann continued: “You always tried to do the right thing?”

“I don’t want to sit here and act like I’m an innocent person,” Davis said. “I tried to do my very best.”

Herschmann asked if Davis ever met alone with people who sought his agency’s support, and Davis said he always had attorneys in tow. “Because that way you have a witness,” Herschmann added.

In the government’s opening statements in the DiBiase trial last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Meynardie called Davis the “big villain in this case.” Davis was instrumental in pushing $3 million in federal funds from his agency to DiBiase through what prosecutors call  “sham contracts,” while DiBiase argues he was a lawful contractor. 

DiBiase, a WWE wrestler-turned-motivational-speaker, is facing 13 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, theft of federal funds and money laundering in a broader alleged scheme to raid the state’s federal public assistance agency. 

Meynardie said DiBiase showered affection on Davis, and in turn, Davis showered him with taxpayer money, most of which flowed through agreements with two nonprofits selected to privatize the state’s welfare delivery system. The prosecutor also said one of the nonprofit directors, Christie Webb, will testify that she only inked the deals with DiBiase under duress, and that when she finally pushed back, she was punished.

Webb hasn’t testified yet, but Davis rejected this telling on the stand Monday. Funding cuts to Webb’s organization were due to a government shutdown and other funding shortfalls, Davis said, and he never intended to retaliate against her. Davis also said Webb had secretly recorded him.

When the jig was up in June of 2019, Davis said the first call he got was from Republican Gov. Bryant, who summoned Davis to his office. Davis testified Monday that the governor told him the people of Mississippi would be disappointed, because they’d thought they’d had a “great Christian guy leading DHS.”

After that meeting, auditors began digging into Davis’ dealings, starting with his work with a couple of wrestlers – DiBiase and his younger brother Brett DiBiase, who pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge in 2023.

But Davis testified that he never received a kickback. Sure, the nonprofit directors once gave him a $500 gift card for Christmas, but “you weren’t soliciting” Herschmann asked, and Davis said no. 

The older DiBiase brother’s trial, which began Jan. 6, had a five-week delay after the lead defense attorney, Scott Gilbert, experienced a health issue on Jan. 14 while cross examining Davis. DiBiase’s team asked for a mistrial, and U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves rejected the request. 

Herschmann, who joined DiBiase’s case shortly before trial began, is familiar with the facts of the larger welfare scandal because he represents retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre in the welfare department’s ongoing civil lawsuit over the alleged misspending.

DiBiase primarily retained Herschmann to examine one witness, former deputy state auditor Stephanie Palmertree, whom the attorney has repeatedly alleged fabricated evidence to the government – which her lawyer denied. After Gilbert’s medical incident, Reeves appointed Herschmann as a court-funded fulltime lawyer for DiBiase.

Gilbert, who is seeking election for a circuit court judge seat in Rankin and Madison counties, was not in court Monday. Herschmann again argued for a mistrial, saying he had scheduling conflicts and that it would be impossible for another attorney to become familiar with the case any time soon. There are, after all, at least 6 million pages of evidence associated with the case.

“This case is pregnant with text messages. There’s text messages everywhere,” Reeves said at one point, referencing a dispute between parties over the formatting differences between documents gathered by each side.

In response to the defense’s mistrial attempt, the prosecution noted how many resources the court had already used to bring the case this far.

“Starting over is a big deal, and it’s going to be very hard to pick another jury,” U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Adrienne Rosen said. 

Reeves determined Herschmann and Gilbert’s co-counsel, Sidney Lampton, could adequately represent DiBiase for the remainder of trial beginning Monday. 

The prosecution said it hoped to finish with its witnesses by the end of this week, at which point the defense will have its turn. There could be more hiccups before the widely anticipated resolution of the DiBiase case – the only criminal case within the welfare scandal to go to trial so far. Herschmann said he had a planned religious trip to Israel next week, and Reeves is scheduled to be out the second week of March. 

Lawyers have said roughly 100 potential witnesses could be called. So far, the prosecution has only reached its fourth witness, Davis. He is expected to return to the stand Tuesday.

Two weekends into it, the college baseball season is but a puppy. Nevertheless, we can make at least one observation:

Our Mississippi teams have really high ceilings. They can play ball. Omaha is not out of the question for any of the three.

Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southern Miss, all nationally ranked in all polls, are a combined  22-1. State and Ole Miss are both 8-0, albeit against lesser competition. Southern Miss, playing top shelf foes early, is 6-1, has won six straight and this past weekend won the prestigious Round Rock Classic, knocking off Purdue, traditional powerhouse Oregon State and Baylor on consecutive days.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

State readies for big weekend

Brian O’Connor’s first Diamond Dogs came into the season with sky-high expectations and have done nothing to dash those. Led by slugging third baseman Ace Reese, the Bulldogs are hitting .341 as a team with eight home runs through eight games.

For his part, Reese is hitting .500 with two dingers and seven doubles. Perhaps the more pertinent news is that State pitching had one a much better job of throwing strikes in the early going, fanning 101 batters while walking only 22, a nearly 5-to-1 ratio. Opponents are hitting only .204

All this comes with this caveat: Troy, a traditionally strong program off to a disappointing 3-4 start, is by far the best foe the Bulldogs have played. State has sandwiched weekend sweeps of Hofstra and Delaware around midweek victories over Troy and Alcorn State.

The competition level rises exponentially this weekend when State goes to the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series at Arlington, Texas, to face Arizona State, Virginia Tech and No. 1 ranked UCLA on consecutive days. We will know much more then.

And then, two days after squaring off against No. 1, the Bulldogs will play Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. We’ll know even more.

State opens the SEC season March 13 at Arkansas.

Ole Miss has nation’s best albeit-too-early RPI

Badly underrated (at least in my opinion) in preseason polls, Ole Miss has started fast and even ranks No. 1 in much-too-early power ratings (ratings percentage index, or RPI). The Rebels have weekend sweeps of Nevada and a good Missouri State program and two mid-week wins over Arkansas State and Jackson State.

Similarly to State, the competition gets a lot better fast. The Rebels will play Baylor, Ohio State and Coastal Carolina in the Bruce Bolt College Classic this weekend in Houston. Yes, we’ll know a lot more about the Rebels, too.

What we know for certain now is that Ole Miss has left-handed ace Hunter Elliott back for Friday nights, and if he’s not the most accomplished college baseball lefty in the land, he’s in the first sentence of any discussion. 

What we also know is that the Rebels will continue to live and die with the long ball. You wouldn’t want to play them in Home Run Derby.

Ole Miss has already hit 15 dingers, led by Judd Uttermark’s six. That’s right: six, in eight games. The beer showers are coming early and often in Oxford. 

The Uber-strong Uttermark, who hit 22 homers last year, crushed one over the left-field wall Sunday into a howling north wind, a rare feat at Swayze Field. As Mike Bianco put it, “When he hit it I just stood there. Judd is a little different human being than most who play here.”

Ole Miss begins its SEC schedule March 13 at Texas.

Southern Miss sweeps at Round Rock

Chris Ostrander’s Golden Eagles lost their season opener to Cal-Santa Barbara and their All-American ace Jackson Flora. Since then, Southern Miss has reeled off six straight wins against formidable foes. At Round Rock, the Eagles toppled Purdue 5-4, No. 11 Oregon State (three national championships in the last two decades) 9-4 and Baylor 5-1. Five, if not all six, of the Eagles’ victories have come against teams likely to be playing in the post-season.

The early hitting star has been senior Joey Urban, who has used the whole field, from foul line to foul line, for a .458 average (with two homers and a triple) against mostly top-notch pitching. He leads the team in batting average, hits, slugging percentage and walks.

As Joe Paul, Southern Miss president and perhaps its No. 1 baseball fan, puts it: “Joey Urban is a professional hitter.”

The Golden Eagles are deep, both in the everyday lineup and on the mound. One stat Ostrander, a pitching guru, probably doesn’t like is that pitching has allowed 25 walks and hit nine batters in just the seven games. But, again, you have to consider the competition, which won’t get any easier any time soon.

Southern Miss was hosting Alabama on Monday night before heading to always-tough Louisiana Tech for a three-game weekend series, and then returning home to play Mississippi State on March 3. 

All these bouts against heavyweights should have the Eagles more than ready when the Sun Belt Conference season begins March 13 at Arkansas State. 

And there’s good baseball elsewhere…

Division II powerhouse Delta State has fired off to a 9-2 start, 6-0 in conference play, including a three-game road sweep rival Union University this past weekend. Coach Rodney Batts almost completely overhauled the Statesmen roster, bringing in 28 new players. Among those is relief pitcher Dawson Muenzenmay, formerly of Northwest Rankin High School and Hinds Community College, who has two victories and two saves in his first five appearances. He has not allowed a run and struck out 12 in eight innings.

William Carey has won five straight and 11 of its first 16 games under Bobby Halford, the winningest coach in Mississippi college baseball history. 

Pre-season SWAC favorite Jackson State, 3-4, faces an unusually busy week with a Tuesday double-header against Tougaloo and four games this weekend (Alcorn State on Friday, Mississippi Valley and UNC-Ashville on Saturday, and UNC-Ashville again on Sunday.) No doubt, the six-game week will stress Coach Omar Johnson’s pitching staff, which has struggled thus far.

A House bill aimed at increasing public school accountability in Mississippi awaits consideration in the Senate. 

House Bill 1234, authored by Republican Rep. Zachary Grady of D’Iberville, would require public schools to publish data in a dashboard on the Mississippi Department of Education’s website. 

Some of the required data would include monthly revenue and sources, vendor contracts, truancy and absenteeism rates, number of long-term substitute teachers and student-to-teacher ratios. Schools already regularly provide much of this information to the state education agency.

The bill to ramp up oversight of public schools comes as some lawmakers say they’re unwilling to impose extra accountability measures for private schools, even if they were to receive state money through school choice programs. 

READ MORE: School choice debate: Should private schools have to meet state standards if they take public money?

Proponents of the bill say that Mississippi public schools, in light of recent district takeovers and missing financial audits, need more oversight. But House Bill 1234 has drawn criticism from public school advocates, including Nancy Loome, leader of The Parents’ Campaign. She said the bill is especially egregious given House leaders’ stance opposing accountability measures for private schools and state leaders’ scrutiny of school administrative costs.

“This will be a big administrative cost,” she said. 

Under the proposed bill, districts would have to publish this information in the dashboard by September 30, 2026.

Districts that fail to report the data timely could have state funding withheld, according to the bill. 

House Bill 1234 has been referred to the Senate Education Committee, the same committee that killed a similar bill last year.

After numerous hearings over the last year, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, as acting chief executive officer of Jackson’s historically troubled water and sewer system, granted a 12% rate increase sought by the third-party manager he appointed. 

Depending on usage, residential customers’ bills may increase by an average of $8 to $10. The average bill for a household of four is currently a little under $80 a month, according to JXN Water. 

In the Monday order, Wingate granted JXN Water’s requested hike while also ordering the utility to pursue some of the alternative collection methods proposed by Jackson officials and other opponents of the rate increase. Opponents had called the increase unaffordable for a city where 1 in 4 residents live in poverty. 

But the rate increase is necessary, Wingate wrote, to cover the water utility’s $1.2 million monthly shortfall. 

“We, the Court and the citizenry of Jackson, nonetheless, are in a tragic Catch-22,” he wrote. “Without the revenue from paying customers today, JXN Water cannot obtain the resources to fix the billing system and identify the ‘free riders’ tomorrow.”

In a press release, Jackson Mayor John Horhn noted a delay in federal funds reallocated to JXN Water last year is forcing the city to pay $1.5 million in bond debt service. 

“Our position is simple,” Horhn said. “Jackson residents deserve a water system that is funded fairly, not on the backs of the people who can least afford it. We will meet our legal obligations, but we will also keep pushing for solutions that use existing tools like better collections, honest billing, and already-approved federal funds before asking every household to pay more each month.”  

Wingate wrote in the order he was also troubled that rate-paying customers were shouldering the utility’s quest for financial stability. So he directed his court-appointed manager, Ted Henifin, to pursue several “needed structural reforms.” 

“Where a system is operating in violation of federal mandates, the remedy is compliance, not delay,” he wrote. 

The potential reforms include expediting the billing of 4,000 unmetered properties throughout the city of Jackson, opening an in-person service site where residents can discuss their bills, creating a publicly available “sample bill” to help Jacksonians understand their charges, and enhancing the debt collection of more than $74 million in outstanding arrears. 

Wingate also directed Henifin to study whether it is possible to pursue tiered billing, so that customers can save on their water bill by using less water. JXN Water has previously said this could pose issues for renters who live in apartment buildings with a single meter. 

In an effort to help Jacksonians afford the rate increase, JXN Water’s spokesperson Aisha Carson said the utility is opening more kiosks throughout the city where residents can pay without added service fees. There is already a kiosk at the Jackson Medical Mall. 

JXN Water has been financially buoyed by $150 million in federal subsidies since it was created in the wake of the city’s 2022 water crisis. The dissipation of those funds was one reason Henifin began arguing for the rate increase. 

Some have questioned how Henifin spent the federal subsidies. Wingate also wrote that he is going to conduct a “forensic analysis” of JXN Water’s expenditures. 

READ MORE: Shutoffs loomed in third year of receivership. Can Jackson afford its own water system?

To address Mississippi’s workforce shortage, some lawmakers are considering a bill that would create a program to help eligible students better afford an associate degree or professional credential in in-demand industries at the state’s community colleges. 

Senate Bill 2522 would create the UPSKILL Mississippi Grant Program, a state-funded initiative that would provide last-dollar scholarships, which would cover the remaining balance owed after all other financial aid and scholarships are applied. UPSKILL would also provide a $500 annual stipend for books, transportation, child care and other materials. The Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid would oversee the program. 

So far, there is bipartisan support for the effort, which passed the Senate on Feb. 9 and awaits consideration in two House committees before a March 3 deadline — Universities and Colleges; and Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency.

The proposal focuses on helping working adults or non-traditional students, a population with few resources or support outside of federal financial aid, said Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford and chair of the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee.

“We have so many working Mississippians and adults that don’t have a certificate or some compilation of skills or a college degree to help them,” said Boyd, who authored the bill. “And with this specific population of individuals, those last dollars are critical.” 

UPSKILL would benefit adults interested in “high-demand, high priority” careers such as plumbing, HVAC technicians and construction, said Courtney Taylor, executive director of Accelerate MS, the state’s workforce development agency. Accelerate MS would be responsible for identifying a list of eligible training programs.

“We really need to have a mechanism that encourages more individuals to go into a job,” Taylor said. “So officials have been working behind the scenes to understand how this potential opportunity could work with federal and state resources to ensure we’re helping people get into these jobs we have available right now.” 

Since December, Mississippi lawmakers and higher education officials have been discussing ways to encourage more residents to earn a degree or credential to boost the state’s workforce and, eventually, the economy. About 12% of Mississippi residents have some college experience but no degree. 

If SB 2522 becomes law, the pilot UPSKILL program would roll out at a few community colleges in spring 2027. 

Lawmakers modeled the proposed bill after similar initiatives in states across the country, Boyd said. 

Tennessee established the Tennessee Reconnect grant in 2018, a last-dollar tuition scholarship program for adults returning to community or technical college.The program helped increase college enrollment by 45.1% compared to the previous year among adults who returned to college through the program, and upped credential completion 15.2%, according to 2025 data from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. 

In 2021, Michigan established a similar program that significantly increased adult community college enrollment by 38%, or roughly 620 students, in its  first year, according to researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

States’ recent efforts to invest in tuition-free college signify a growing push to provide residents a free path to higher education or training, said Brad Hershbien, senior economist and deputy director of research at the W.E Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

“Ultimately, this work requires time, effort and patience,” Hershbien said.

For Mississippi lawmakers and education officials, a pilot program may not be a sufficient way to gauge UPSKILL’s initial impact if it is created. Lawmakers and higher education officials should be aware of limits to collecting data for a pilot program, said Michelle Miller-Adams, a senior researcher at the Upjohn Institute. 

SB 2522 calls for students to enroll into specific programs of study to be eligible for the last-dollar scholarship. Those restrictions could make it difficult to track data if a student switches careers or course of study — challenges that could also pose an administrative burden for college officials who are tracking the data, Miller-Adams said.

“It requires a lot of thought and planning and understanding where the barriers and difficulties are, and making sure that you’re working to resolve them,” Miller-Adams said. “That means involving the logistics of a lot of the parties. In our years of research, we’ve learned the simpler the program, the better.”

We saw another busy week as the 2026 Mississippi legislative session crossed its (hopefully) midway point. Some highlights:

Budget work starts early. Can House, Senate agree?

Lawmakers have begun to focus on setting a more than $7-billion state budget. This is a couple of weeks earlier than usual, with the House passing most of its 50 or so bills that make up half the budget, and the Senate doing likewise with its half. Now they have to reach agreements on the numbers. Most folks at the Capitol are anxiously watching this process, and wondering if it will crash and burn like it did last year. Fighting between House and Senate Republican leaders on most major issues over the last few years has created a dysfunction junction. Last year fighting over tax cuts and increases produced an epic standoff, with lawmakers ending their regular session without setting a budget. Gov. Tate Reeves called them back into a special session to set a budget, but many other initiatives, including a local projects, or “Christmas tree” bill to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars to local governments, died. Many lawmakers, local government leaders and lobbyists fear a repeat.

Lawmakers ponder ice storm aid

Lawmakers from areas hardest hit by the deadly Winter Storm Fern gathered last week for a briefing and to discuss federal and state aid. Mississippi Emergency Management officials advised they are still working on damage assessments, which will be required to apply for more federal assistance. Lawmakers said many residents are calling for federal individual assistance to help repair their homes, but officials said a decision on such a federal declaration could still be weeks away. Lawmakers are considering financial aid to help local governments pay their share of cleanup and recover, and even the potential for state aid to homeowners. One lawmaker called for an “after-action review” of the state’s response to the storm, which has received some criticism.

ABC problems create alcohol crisis

The House State Affairs Committee held a hearing last week on what has become a wine and liquor crisis in Mississippi. Problems at the state Alcoholic Beverage Control warehouse have resulted in empty shelves at package stores, restaurants and bars across the state, and officials told lawmakers resolving the issue will take weeks at the least. Some business owners say they are worried about staying afloat as orders are not delivered or only partially delivered. Some say ABC is still billing for orders it’s not fulfilling, creating even more problems for business owners. The problem has revived the long-running discussion of privatizing wine and liquor sales and distribution in Mississippi.

Quote of the Week

“Welcome to your Capitol, we’re burning through a few billion dollars real quick.” – House Speaker Jason White, addressing spectators in the House gallery on Thursday as his chamber passed over 50 bills to fund state agencies, part of a more than $7 billion state budget.

In Brief

Lawmakers want SOS to give prompt election results

The House recently passed a measure that would require Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office to create a website to track election results after polls close on Election Day.

No House member voted against the measure, and it heads to the Senate for consideration. Watson’s office has said it supports the measure.

Other than the media, no government entity provides real-time updates for statewide election results after polls close. If the measure passes, election results would still only be certified after they are approved by local election officials. – Taylor Vance

Speaker believes Senate supports online gambling

House Speaker Jason White believes that a House proposal to legalize mobile sports betting and pump $600 million into the state’s pension system would have the votes to pass if it came up for a vote. But White told Mississippi Today he wasn’t sure Senate leaders would allow a vote on the measure.

“We think it makes common sense and business to do it because (mobile sports betting) is already happening illegally, it’s better to regulate it and capture that tax revenue while looking for a dedicated stream of revenue to address the PERS (public pension) deficit,” White said. “I hope they will finally see it that way.”

Senate Gaming Chairman David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson, did not bring up a bill to legalize mobile sports betting in his committee and argued it didn’t make financial sense given the rise of prediction markets. The Senate has also sent a bill to the House to put $500 million of the state’s current surplus into PERS, in addition to putting in $50 million a year over the next decade. – Michael Goldberg

Bills would aid career-tech training in schools

The House and Senate are considering two similar bills that would allow school districts to purchase equipment for industry certification programs using career and technical education grants from the Department of Education.

Certified programs have included construction, business, welding and early childhood education. House Bill 1204 has been referred to the Senate Education and Senate Economic and Workforce Development Committees. Senate Bill 2288 has been referred to the House Workforce Development Committee.

The bills are part of a broader push this legislative session to fund career and technical education at all levels of education. – Katherine Lin

By the Numbers

90.8%

Mississippi’s graduation rate for the 2024-2025 school year, up from 89.2% the year before. The state’s dropout rate has fallen to 7% from 8.5%. Both metrics have been trending in positive directions in recent years, which state Superintendent Lance Evans said reflects “the hard work of teachers, administrators, parents, and, of course, students” and continued support of the Legislature with funding.

More Legislative Coverage

House tax credit bill would send more public dollars to private schools

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, has introduced a bill that would increase the tax credits available to the state’s private schools through the “Children’s Promise Act.” Read the story.

Legislators working to keep local opioid settlement money from being misspent

House Public Health and Human Services Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, and Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, have both sponsored bills that would change the state’s opioid settlement laws. Read the story.

Secretary of State Michael Watson says Mississippi needs campaign finance reform

Secretary of State Michael Watson discusses his push for lawmakers to enact campaign finance reform, including transparency and searchability of reports for the public. Watson says he knows such legislation is a tough sell with lawmakers. Listen to the podcast.