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The Jackson City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to confirm RaShall Brackney as the new police chief. But shortly before the vote, after the meeting had been going for nearly an hour, council president Brian Grizzell said he had 35 questions.

“I’m not going to ask them all,” the Ward 4 council member said, teasing the crowd in the packed chamber at City Hall. 

Grizzell then asked Brackney, Mayor John Horhn’s nominee to lead the Jackson Police Department, to explain how she had “rebuilt trust” as chief of the Charlottesville Police Department in Virginia. 

“What specific reforms did you implement there and what measurable results did those reforms produce?” he asked. 

Brackney was hired to lead the force in Virginia in the wake of a 2017 white supremacist rally. But three years after she took the helm in Charlottesville, Brackney was abruptly fired in 2022 by the city manager – a position that doesn’t exist in Jackson city government. Council members did not publicly ask Brackney about this.  

During her Jackson confirmation hearing, Brackney said that as the only Black woman in the Charlottesville department – and its leader – she faced an entrenched culture of racism, sexism and homophobia. But she said she forced the department to be more transparent by posting every use-of-force incident and civilian complaint on the city’s website and hiring an analyst to determine if officers were conducting legal stops. 

“You make the standard clear: Corruption at any level will not exist at this organization, and I am willing to put my life on the line if that’s the case,” she said, describing her stance in Virginia. 

Brackney sued the Charlottesville Police Department over her firing. But the police department said her firing was the result of “chaos and upheaval” in the department and the “ongoing strained relationship between Brackney, City leadership, and community stakeholders,” VPM reported. The lawsuit was dismissed.

Brackney said she fired 10 police officers for inappropriate behavior while she led the department. 

“And I walked back through those doors every day during those investigations,” she added, garnering laughs and claps when she quipped “albeit gun in hand, but nonetheless, I walked back through those doors.” 

Only Ward 1 council member Ashby Foote voted against Brackney’s confirmation. Ward 3 council member Kenneth Stokes phoned into the meeting. 

“She’s much too educated and too charming to be police chief,” Foote told Mississippi Today after the vote. 

Brackney, a Pittsburgh native, spent most of her career as a police officer in the northeastern city. Like in Charlottesville, where she was also an outsider to the department, Brackney is moving to the city to take the reins at the Jackson Police Department – a force some on the council characterized as struggling with hallmarks of internal problems: Cliques, favoritism and low morale. 

In recent weeks, Grizzell’s brother, Vincent Grizzell, alleged that he was forced to resign from his position as an assistant chief in the department for political reasons, WLBT first reported, but he has not elaborated on what those reasons are. 

The disclosure of numerous exhibits by District Attorney Jody Owens as he fights federal bribery charges included FBI documents that contained allegations of corruption at JPD. A former JPD officer, Torrence Mayfield, told FBI agents in a field interview that they should investigate the department. Early last year, he pled guilty to federal charges of making false statements to a firearm dealer. 

Ward 6 council member Lashia Brown-Thomas, a former JPD officer, said during her 25 years in the department, she witnessed unfair promotions. She asked: “What is your plan to make the officer feel like if a promotion opportunity came back again that you would treat them right and be fair?” 

In Brackney’s answers to the council, she pledged to restore trust in the department and eliminate “those things that are cancerous to your culture.” 

One way to do it, she said, was by encouraging professional development and ensuring officers are fairly promoted. 

“What happens if you allow officers to dream big?” she said. 

The council will set Brackney’s salary at its next meeting but the mayor proposed paying her $150,000. Her confirmation comes after Jackson saw a significant decrease in homicides last year. 

But public safety remains a paramount concern for Jacksonians, multiple council members told Mississippi Today. Brackney said collaboration among local law enforcement could improve the perception of Jackson. 

“We all have the same goals,” she said, “to make this community safer … not only just from crime and disorder, but the fear of crime and disorder which is just as true and tangible as the actual data and number.” 

Horhn announced her nomination earlier this month. He selected Brackney from a list of four finalists after a months-long recruiting process that included community listening sessions. She will be the third woman to lead the department. 

“At the end of the day, she is as tough as nails, and I believe her leadership is exactly what Jackson and the citizens need right now,” said Horhn, who has been mayor since July. 

The search process came after Joseph Wade retired as police chief in September. Tyree Jones, the Hinds County sheriff, has been serving as Jackson Police Department’s interim chief since Wade left.

Some council members, including Ward 2’s Tina Clay, had said they preferred an internal candidate, citing Jackson and Missisisppi’s unique culture. Of the mayor’s four finalists, only one – Wendall Watts, an assistant chief who oversees criminal investigations – was an internal candidate. 

Clay asked Brackney if she had reviewed the department’s budget, prompting Brackney to say she was concerned about the department’s $800,000 to $1 million in overtime pay. 

“There is something going on where officers are being tasked in order to meet the needs of this community,” she said. “What is that strain doing to our officers?” 

The police chief sets the vision and direction for the department. When Wade led it, he often credited his leadership with rebuilding the department’s trust in Jackson and in metro-area law enforcement. As evidence, he pointed to JPD’s inclusion on federal task forces fighting violent crime in the city. 

Brackney said she had a similar task at her previous assignment in Charlottesville. 

Months before Brackney was fired in Charlottesville, she disbanded the department’s SWAT team following an internal report that showed officers were engaging in inappropriate behavior. In response, the local police union solicited a survey that showed rank-and-file officers were frustrated with her leadership. 

The survey’s findings were cited by the city manager in an op-ed about his firing of Brackney. She then sued the city for $10 million, citing race and gender discrimination. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2023. 

In recent years, she was also a finalist for Minneapolis police chief, with a local paper there noting that Brackney had a “reform-minded reputation.” 

Brackney holds a Ph.D. in instructional management and leadership and taught at George Mason University with a focus on “on police legitimacy, transparency, and reimagining public safety,” according to a city press release.

Foote said he had wanted to see a police chief who would confront gangs and perpetrators of violence crime in Jackson. 

“I think gangs are the ones that should be fearful of us,” he said.

As Hinds County continues to pay for the long-running problem of overcrowding at the Raymond Detention Center, a new coalition is hoping to convince county supervisors that higher salaries for public defenders could be one solution.

On Tuesday, members of Defend Mississippi – a statewide group receiving support from national criminal justice advocates – gathered in the county board room to make the case for why the Hinds County Board of Supervisors should appropriate $350,000 to the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office. 

The funding infusion would bring starting salaries for public defenders up to $80,000. The coalition argues the raise would lead to less turnover in the public defenders office, leading to faster-moving cases in a criminal justice system where most defendants cannot afford a private attorney. 

“I can tell you plainly, when public defense is properly resourced, the entire system functions,” said CJ Lawrence, an attorney and founder of the media company Black With No Chaser. “Cases move, taxpayers’ money is saved, constitutional rights are protected, communities are stronger.” 

Hinds County has one of the busiest criminal dockets in the state, with attorneys in the Hinds County Public Defender’s Office handling hundreds of cases at once. When they leave the office, another attorney has to take on the case, often requiring additional time to learn the file and resulting in the defendant spending more time in jail. 

Despite their crucial role, public defenders in Hinds County earn virtually half the salaries of their counterparts in the district attorney’s office, about $50,000 less. 

They also earn an average of $20,000 less than their counterparts statewide, according to the preliminary results of a study the Office of the State Public Defender is conducting. 

Why the gap? A huge factor, said State Public Defender Andre de Gruy, is that prosecutors’ salaries are state-funded, while counties must pay for assistant public defenders. 

But the push for more funding from Hinds County comes at a time when the board of supervisors is under pressure from outside entities to fix other persistent issues and finding few solutions that don’t require coughing up county funds. 

These external requests have led some supervisors to feel as if county outsiders – a federal receiver, state lawmakers – have snatched away control of their purse strings. 

Deborah Dixon, the district 3 supervisor who represents western Jackson, said she would love to pay public defenders more. But she insisted the county doesn’t have the money after it pays for the new jail and other obligations created by the Legislature. 

“They’re making new laws, but they ain’t sending new money with the laws,” she said. 

Dixon pointed to last year, whenlawmakers added a fifth judge to the Hinds County Circuit Court, a move mandated by judicial legislative redistricting. 

Dixon said the new judge came with more court employees that Hinds County must pay for, but she did not say how many or which positions. The state-funded Administrative Office of the Courts pays for judicial employees in circuit courts like court administrators, but counties pay for court reporters. 

Another demand on the county’s budget cited by Dixon comes from the board’s decision to build a new jail in an effort to comply with a 2016 federal consent decree to improve unconstitutional conditions at the Raymond Detention Center, including widespread violence, overcrowding and understaffing. 

Supervisors made the call in 2022, originally estimating the new detention center in south Jackson would cost $60 million. The county is still building the jail, with WLBT recently reporting the facility will actually cost $100 million. 

And last fall, a federal receiver finally took over operations of the Raymond Detention Center – including managing the jail’s budget. 

Defend Mississippi argues those factors – particularly the addition of another circuit court judge – mean greater investment in public defenders is necessary. 

But some supervisors say they want solutions that don’t require paying more money.

“You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip,” said District 2 Supervisor Tony Smith, who was out of town the day of the press conference for a membership meeting of national county officials in Washington, D.C. He represents the county’s rural, westernmost district from Bolton to Utica. 

Smith said he is constantly hearing stories of people accused of non-violent offenses sitting in the Raymond jail because they can’t make bond: business burglars, car thieves, check fraudsters and those facing misdemeanor drug charges.

“You’ve got to get some of these people out that don’t need to be in jail,” he said. “Bottom line.” 

Then Smith acknowledged a problem with his own idea, noting that emptying the jail – and saving upwards of $50 per day for each person released – requires the blessing of county and circuit court judges. 

Meanwhile, the county faces a shrinking tax base as Jackson depopulates. 

“How many major grocery stores are in Jackson? You got Kroger, you got Walmart, you got Piggly Wiggly, and Cash and Carry,” Smith said. “I think that’s it. … How many department stores do we have? None. So where is our revenue coming from?” 

Gail Wright Lowery, the head public defender for Hinds County who is appointed by the senior circuit court judge, has requested raises for her staff in the past. 

“I can appreciate and recognize that funds are strained, but I also know that public defense is a smart investment,” she said in a statement shared by Defend Mississippi. “Studies show that across the country, counties that invest in public defense save millions each year because early, effective representation avoids the costs of unnecessary jail time and keeps our citizens working instead of being detained.”

Lawmakers added more support to the office when they passed House Bill 1020, which created the Capitol Complex Improvement District Court and added three state-supported positions to the Hinds County public defender’s office. 

The county previously used federal pandemic relief funds to supplement the salaries of the office’s 11 assistant public defenders. 

But it was a temporary solution. Those funds expired in 2023. Lowery’s subsequent efforts to seek a more permanent solution failed, with supervisors narrowly voting down a $20,000 raise for her staff.

The turnover has a human toll. A few years ago, the State Public Defender’s Office stepped in to fill the court’s backlog. De Gruy, who heads the office, recalled meeting with a man who had been jailed in Raymond for three years. 

“I told three people this story,” de Gruy recalls the man saying, voice laden with frustration. “I’m tired of telling y’all this story.” 

That man’s case was ultimately resolved – de Gruy couldn’t say how, due to attorney-client privilege – but many others weren’t, illustrating the limits of the temporary solution. 

Lowery will submit her request for additional funding at the board’s March 2 meeting. 

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

In celebration of America’s 250^th birthday, we must ensure that Mississippi’s students graduate with knowledge of and appreciation for the Declaration of Independence and our state and federal institutions it inspired. Civics knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors are not passed along through the gene pool, but must be built anew with each rising generation of citizens. 

To this end, I am proud to author Senate Bill 2292, legislation that would require civics courses in every public and charter school in Mississippi in order for students to graduate high school. 

Earlier this month, the Senate unanimously passed SB 2292 with strong bipartisan support. It’s now assigned to both the House Education and Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee, and I encourage my House colleagues to put aside “education politics” of the last couple of years and advance it to the House floor, teeing up its passage prior to our adjournment in April. 

Thirty-seven states plus D.C. require stand-alone civics courses for high school graduation, seven of them for a full year. If we pass this bill, beginning with the 2027-28 school year, Mississippi would proudly join this mix.

Civics knowledge is sadly lacking across our citizenry, perhaps most acutely among our students here in Mississippi. Nationally, only 22% of eighth graders achieved proficiency on the most recent NAEP civics assessment — the lowest performance of any tested subject outside U.S. History. For Mississippi students, who largely lack access to a dedicated civics course, the picture is likely no better. Mississippi students deserve better than that national floor.

But the national assessment also showed the power of civics courses.  Eighth graders who experienced a stand-alone civics course performed about 10% better on the NAEP assessment. More broadly, research shows that students who receive a comprehensive civics education are more likely to be informed and engaged voters and citizens.

Specific benefits include a high likelihood among students to talk about current public issues at home, to volunteer and work on community issues, and to complete college and develop employable skills like working collaboratively in a group or giving a public presentation.

SB 2292 elevates civics education above just the basic eighth grade government class. It ensures students will receive instruction on both the Mississippi Constitution and U.S. Constitution; the foundational principles of federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances; appreciation for free speech and civil discourse; and the intersection of these principles in our daily lives.  

The new civics courses will emphasize both historic and modern public debates, building students’ critical thinking skills along the way. This includes the ability to analyze various information sources and determine their reliability. These are not just civic virtues — they are workforce competencies Mississippi urgently needs.

With Mississippi having more than 70,000 job openings and a job openings rate above the national average, the Legislature is already investing in solutions, including new pathways through community colleges to equip workers with skills for high-demand industries. But workforce readiness begins before community college.

A student who graduates high school understanding how institutions work, how to evaluate information, how to present ideas publicly and how to collaborate effectively is a student ready to succeed in those pathways — and to stay in Mississippi to build a career.

Perhaps most importantly, students will emerge with a better understanding of how national, state and local institutions operate. Ultimately, Mississippi graduates will better understand how they can contribute to the civic life of our communities.

Considering average voting participation rates hover around 20% or less in non-presidential elections, having more graduates who understand the importance of voting, and then who actually vote regularly, would be an improvement over the status quo.

Ensuring that our students have the civics education they need to become future knowledgeable and productive citizens should be a priority no matter the politics of our present day. 

Today’s kindergartner will celebrate our semiquincentennial this summer, and will graduate in 2038, the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution’s ratification. Let’s ensure that they graduate with the civics knowledge and commitments necessary to sustain and strengthen our democratic republic, here at home in Mississippi and across the country, for another 250 years.

Republican Sen. Brice Wiggins represents District 52 covering south Jackson County, including the cities of Pascagoula, Gautier and Ocean Springs. Wiggins, an attorney, has been serving in the state Senate since 2012.

Mississippi Supreme Court Justice David Ishee was unable to qualify for reelection this year because of a federal court order preventing the state from using the existing Mississippi Supreme Court district map in future elections. 

Liz Jonson, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Michael Watson, told Mississippi Today in a statement that Ishee was unable to qualify by the Feb. 2 deadline because U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock issued an August 2025 order that found the state Supreme Court districts violate the federal Voting Rights Act. 

Aycock’s order, which stems from a federal lawsuit where plaintiffs argued that the state’s current Supreme Court districts illegally dilute Black voting strength, enjoined the state from using the existing map in future elections.

But the federal ruling does not mean Ishee, who is elected from south Mississippi, would have to vacate his seat soon. His term doesn’t expire until January 2028, which should give Mississippi lawmakers and the federal court time to adopt a new map.  

Ishee is the only high court justice up for reelection this year, and he was the only candidate who attempted to qualify for the election, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Ishee told Mississippi Today that whenever the Legislature adopts a new map, he intends to run for reelection. 

“I’m definitely running as soon as I get the opportunity,” Ishee said. 

Current state law establishes three distinct Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the Northern, Central and Southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each of these districts to make up the nine-member court. 

The Central District, which includes much of the majority-Black Delta and Jackson metro areas, was a central focus of the federal litigation. Aycock ruled that the plaintiffs showed their configuration weakens Black voting strength.

State officials have appealed Aycock’s ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, but they did not ask Aycock to pause lower-court proceedings while the appeal plays out.  

The 5th Circuit, however, did pause its appellate proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in the Louisiana v. Callais decision, a case that could upend the Voting Rights Act and redistricting across the country. 

Until the appellate courts rule differently, Aycock’s order barring the state from using the current map remains in effect. Because of that injunction, the secretary of state’s office has concluded that no candidate, including Ishee, may qualify for a seat under the now-unenforceable district boundaries. 

Aycock allowed the Legislature to redraw the districts during its 2026 session, which is currently ongoing. Legislative leaders have advanced placeholder measures to meet legislative deadlines while the Legislature continues negotiations. Lawmakers have not unveiled a new map for the districts. 

Leaders in both chambers have stated that they intend to comply with the federal court’s order, but they have also signaled that they are closely monitoring developments at the U.S. Supreme Court with the Louisiana case. 

Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula who is the lead Senate negotiator on redrawing the court districts, said that he and other lawmakers are moving towards having a new map by the end of the legislative session.

University of Mississippi Medical Center clinics across the state will remain closed and elective procedures are canceled through Wednesday as officials respond to a cyberattack that targeted the state’s only academic medical center.

Patients across Mississippi have missed health care appointments and surgeries since the cyberattack, which occurred Feb. 19 and compromised the health care system’s IT network, forcing the shutdown of computer systems that hold patients’ electronic health records.

The medical center has released few details about when it expects to resume normal operations, how extensive the attack was, what the attacker has demanded or whether any data was compromised. Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for the medical center, confirmed the attacker has made financial demands in a Tuesday interview with SuperTalk. 

“Our highest concern is getting our services back open to be able to take care of our patients,” Woodward said. “But very quickly right after that is the integrity of our patient data.”

Ransomware, or malicious software that holds computer systems or data hostage in demand for a payment, has increasingly targeted health care organizations with the aim of garnering large payouts by disrupting critical infrastructure, said Dr. Christian Dameff, an associate professor and co-director of the Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity at the University of California San Diego. 

Recovering hospital computer systems is often a labor and time-intensive process that involves rebuilding infrastructure, patching security gaps and ensuring that infiltrators no longer have access to the system, Dameff said. He said the breach at UMMC appears similar to other sophisticated attacks, which typically take more time to rebuild. 

“It’s not uncommon to see a ransomware attack like this last weeks to months,” Dameff said. He added that the impact of a cyberattack can persist for years after the intrusion. 

A 2020 cyberattack on the University of Vermont Medical Center resulted in the academic medical center losing access to its electronic medical record system for 28 days and cost the system about $65 million, according to Vermont Public. Like the attack on UMMC, it led to canceled health appointments and impeded residents’ access to specialized care.

Ashly Thompson is a Forest resident with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes benign tumors to grow on nerve endings. She underwent surgery at UMMC on Feb. 11 to remove tumors on her arms, legs, face and stomach, a procedure that required a skin graft. 

Thompson was scheduled for follow-up appointments Feb. 19 — the first day of the cyberattack — and the following Wednesday, but both appointments were canceled. On Monday, she told Mississippi Today that her skin was growing over her stitches, a complication that has resulted in infection in the past, and that she had run out of pain medication. 

She went to a separate, local emergency department Monday, but staff told her they could not remove the stitches and recommended she return to her surgeon, which she said caused her anxiety because she did not know when she would be able to have her stitches removed or pain medication refilled. 

UMMC contacted Thompson Tuesday morning to inform her she is scheduled for a post-operative care appointment on Friday as a part of the medical center’s effort to schedule time-sensitive appointments. 

The public hospital system is operating a triage line as of Monday to field calls from patients, such as requests for medication refills or postoperative care visits, according to a hospital social media post. The call line, which can be reached at 601-815-0000, will prioritize time-sensitive needs. 

“Teams are working around the clock to restore full operations and help as many people as quickly as we possibly can,” said the hospital’s statement. 

Large-scale attacks can also affect nearby hospitals that aren’t under attack, creating what Dameff called a cyberattack “blast radius.” His 2021 study of a month-long ransomware attack on a single San Diego hospital found that emergency rooms at two nearby hospitals saw higher patient volumes, longer wait times, more stroke patients and more instances where patients left the hospital without seeing a doctor. 

This is not the first time a cyberattack has affected hospitals in Mississippi. In December, Singing River Health System on the Gulf Coast shut down some computer systems after identifying a “potential cyber incident.” In 2023, separate attacks affected Singing River Health System and OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville.

There are few clear national standards for responding to cyberattacks on health care organizations, Dameff said. Plans for responding to the infiltrations are often not comprehensive enough or drilled in advance, and almost all hospitals struggle during the recovery process. 

Some states have made efforts to increase hospital security against cybersecurity intrusions. In 2024, the New York State Department of Health imposed new cybersecurity regulations for all general hospitals. Maine lawmakers are currently considering legislation that would require hospitals to develop plans for cybersecurity attacks after cyberattacks last summer shut down several Maine hospitals, according to the Maine Wire. 

A comprehensive plan to respond to cybersecurity attacks requires both preventive measures and preparation for the worst, Dameff said. 

“We need to spend time and money trying to prevent these attacks,” he said. “But, we have to prepare for when we go down, because that is inevitable.”

Cyberattackers frequently employ “double extortion” tactics, meaning they demand payment not only to restore access to a hospital’s computer system but also to prevent the release of stolen data, Dameff said. Paying the ransom does not necessarily accelerate the recovery of computer systems, he said, yet organizations sometimes choose to pay in order to avert a potential data breach.

Federal agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have been assisting UMMC in the recovery process. 

UMMC facilities include seven hospitals and 35 clinics statewide, and it operates the state’s only Level 1 trauma center. Roughly 10,000 people work for UMMC, making the health care provider one of the state’s largest employers, and UMMC’s annual budget amounts to about $2 billion. 

Emergency departments at UMMC hospitals in Jackson, Grenada, Madison County and Holmes County remain open, according to a Saturday statement from the hospital. 

The shutdown also disrupted county health departments, which rely on the same electronic health record system. Although the system was taken offline as a precaution, health departments continue to accept patients as usual, said Mississippi State Department of Health spokesperson Greg Flynn.

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.