A state senator says she is unlikely to advance bills aimed at improving medical care in Mississippi prisons and redirecting control of the state prison health care contract.

Corrections Committee Vice Chairwoman Lydia Chassaniol, a Republican from Winona, called a committee meeting on Thursday and advanced only two House bills. She told Mississippi Today that she was unlikely to call another meeting ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for committees to pass general bills from the other chamber.

Chassaniol is running the committee while Corrections Chairman Juan Barnett, a Democrat from Heidelberg, is out with an illness. She said Barnett only requested two bills be passed, and that she planned to honor his wishes even if it meant the House proposals, which passed that chamber 120-0, would die.

“Well, too bad. Too bad. I mean, I was trying to, it’s very important to me to show respect for our chairman, and that’s what he asked us to bring forward, so I’m basically a stand-in for Chairman Barnett, who was unable to be here today because he’s ill,” Chassaniol said.

The proposals Chassaniol is poised to let die include a bill to require the creation of a hepatitis C program and an HIV program aimed at improving the treatment to prisoners. An Mississippi Today report in October revealed that only a fraction of Mississippi prisoners diagnosed with hepatitis C receive treatment, which has allowed the treatable infection to develop into a life-threatening illness. Additionally, the bill would require the state to develop a plan focused on improving the health of female prisoners.

Another bill Chassaniol declined to take up would take the power to award health contracts away from the Department of Corrections and task the Department of Finance and Administration with soliciting proposals for a new medical contractor. The current medical contractor, Kansas-based VitalCore Health Strategies, was awarded over $315 million in emergency, no-bid state contracts by the Department of Corrections from 2020 to 2024. It has since faced legal challenges and allegations that it routinely denies or provides inadequate care inside Mississippi’s prisons.

​​Those bills, which follow an ongoing investigative series from Mississippi Today on the alleged denial of care in state prisons, are part of a reform package spearheaded by Rep. Becky Currie, the Republican House Corrections chairwoman from Brookhaven.

Chassaniol did advance a bill authored by Rep. Justis Gibbs, a Democrat from Jackson, that would require MDOC to develop policies for supplying protective equipment when incarcerated people use strong cleaning chemicals. Gibbs introduced the legislation, which also passed the House last year but died in the Senate, in response to the case of Susan Balfour, a woman who developed terminal breast cancer after she came into contact with raw industrial chemicals during cleaning duty. Balfour died in August. 

The other measure passed by the Senate panel on Thursday would create more oversight of prison deaths. The bill would direct and empower the Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force to look into “unexpected” deaths using information provided by coroners’ reports and MDOC. 

Prison understaffing and gang violence likely led to the killings of nearly 50 people since 2015, according to an investigation by Mississippi Today, The Marshall-Project Jackson, the Clarion Ledger, the Hattiesburg American and The Mississippi Link.

Both of the prison health measures that haven’t advanced were double-referred, which means they would need to pass out of an additional committee on top of the Corrections Committee. When a bill is double-referred, it’s sometimes a sign that it lacks the support of the chamber’s leadership.

A spokesperson for Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann did not respond to a request about whether Hosemann supports the prison reform measures or whether he would urge Chassaniol to call another meeting to pass more bills ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.

Chassaniol said she would only call another meeting at Barnett’s request.

“I have been directed by Chairman (Juan) Barnett, whose wishes I’m trying to comply with.”