Mississippi

Justice Department: Trio of Mississippi prisons violating constitution – Mississippi's Best Community Newspaper

Published

2 years ago

February 28, 2024

Press Room

Justice Department: Trio of Mississippi prisons violating constitution

Published 11:04 am Wednesday, February 28, 2024

JACKSON – The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday The Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, as well as two other prisons in Mississippi, is violating the constitution.

The Justice Department announced findings that conditions of confinement at three Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) facilities violate the 8th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The Department’s 60-page report details its findings from a thorough investigation of the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, South Mississippi Correctional Institution, and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility. These three prisons currently house about 7,200 people.

The report concludes that MDOC routinely violates the constitutional rights of people incarcerated at all three facilities by failing to protect them from widespread physical violence. The state does not adequately supervise the incarcerated population, control the flow of contraband, adequately investigate incidents of serious harm, or provide adequate living conditions. These problems are exacerbated by chronic understaffing that has allowed gangs to exert improper influence inside the prisons.

The report also concludes that Mississippi unconstitutionally subjects persons at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility to prolonged restrictive housing under harsh conditions that places them at substantial risk of serious physical and psychological harm.

“People living in prisons and jails have a constitutional right to safe and adequate living conditions,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “Our investigation uncovered that people in these three facilities were subjected to violent and unsafe conditions, in violation of the Constitution. We look forward to working with Mississippi officials to remedy these violations and improve safety and living standards for people incarcerated in the state of Mississippi.”

“Every state is constitutionally obligated to protect the people it incarcerates from known, pervasive and deliberately unchecked violence, and to house people in conditions that do not pose a serious risk of physical and psychological harm,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Our investigation uncovered chronic, systemic deficiencies that create and perpetuate violent and unsafe environments for people incarcerated at these three Mississippi facilities. The unconstitutional conditions in Mississippi’s prisons have existed for far too long, and we hope that this announcement marks a turning point towards implementing sound, evidence-based solutions to these entrenched problems. The Justice Department stands ready to enforce the dictates of the Constitution that protect the safety and human dignity of all people housed at state prison facilities. Our work makes clear that people do not abandon their civil and constitutional rights at the jailhouse door.”

“Ensuring constitutional and humane conditions of confinement in our prisons is a key part of public safety,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner for the Northern District of Mississippi. “By allowing physical violence, illegal gang activity, and contraband to run rampant, Mississippi not only violates the rights of people incarcerated at these facilities, but also compromises the legitimacy of law enforcement efforts to protect our communities. Our office remains committed to upholding the rights of all our district’s residents. We look forward to working with the Mississippi Department of Corrections to protect the constitutional and civil rights of those incarcerated at these three Mississippi prison facilities.”

“The conclusion of the investigation and the issuance of findings is only the start of the work necessary to ensure that the state of Mississippi and the Mississippi Department of Corrections fulfill their constitutional obligations to the people it incarcerates,” said U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi. “The minimum remedial measures outlined in this report create the framework for what the state must do to reasonably protect people in these facilities from violence and prevent deprivation of fundamental physical and psychological needs. While this report makes clear that there is much work for the state to do, we are committed to working with state officials to ensure that Mississippi abides by its constitutional obligations.”

Today’s announcement follows the Department’s April 2022 report finding that conditions at the Mississippi State Penitentiary (known as Parchman) violated the constitutional rights of persons incarcerated there by subjecting them to violence, failing to provide adequate care for serious mental health needs, or adequate suicide prevention measures and using prolonged restrictive housing in a manner that poses a risk of serious harm.

The Justice Department launched its investigation of Parchman, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, South Mississippi Correctional Institution, and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in February 2020, under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). As required by CRIPA, the department provided the State of Mississippi with written notice of the supporting facts for its conclusions and the minimum remedial measures necessary to address the alleged violations.

The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi conducted the investigation.

For more information about the Civil Rights Division and the Special Litigation Section, please visit www.justice.gov/crt/special-litigation-section. You can also report civil rights violations to the section by completing the complaint form available at civilrights.justice.gov/. To provide information related to the Department’s investigation of the four Mississippi prisons, please call 1-833-591-0288 or email the department at Community.MSDoc@usdoj.gov.

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Mississippi

Desoto County native helps guide NASA’s Artemis II moon mission

Published

6 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Press Room

Desoto County native helps guide NASA’s Artemis II moon mission

From Mississippi to the moon.

That’s one way to characterize the career trajectory of Matthew Ramsey, a DeSoto County native who is helping to guide Artemis II, the NASA space mission now on its way to Earth’s natural satellite.

A veteran aerospace engineer and 1993 Mississippi State graduate who pitched for the university’s “Diamond Dawgs” baseball team while studying the science and design principles that would prove invaluable to NASA, Ramsey, who hails from Hernando, is “mission manager” for the expedition that is taking astronauts around the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Working largely out of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ramsey was responsible for ensuring the safety and efficiency of the hardware and technology for the flight, while also helping to define the priorities of the mission.

Launched April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Artemis II mission consists of four astronauts inside an Orion rocket on a 10-day, 685,000-mile “flyby” around the moon. The crew will test life-support systems, engineering maneuverability and other aspects of space travel in preparation for the return of astronauts to the lunar surface — and beyond.

“For me, it’s all about the crew and ensuring their safety as they venture to the Moon and come home,” said Ramsey, in a statement released by NASA. “Sending people thousands of miles from home and doing it in a way that sets the stage for long-term exploration and scientific discovery is an incredibly complex task.”

Referencing his college career with the Mississippi State Bulldogs, or “Diamond Dawgs,” he said: “There are a lot of similarities between mission management and pitching. You control many aspects of the tempo, and there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders.”

Ramsey worked in both private and government sectors of the tech industry before joining the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2002, working on the design of guidance, navigation and control systems for various rocket programs. For Artemis I, the uncrewed moon-orbiting mission of 2022, he coordinated the work of multiple engineering teams.

Ramsey and his colleagues already are preparing for Artemis III, which will conduct tests in Earth’s orbit, and Artemis IV, scheduled for the spring of 2028, which will return astronauts to the lunar surface.

As a NASA press release states, Ramsey is helping to get the space agency “primed for what lies ahead: sending humans back to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years and laying the foundation for future missions that will ultimately enable human exploration of Mars.”

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Mississippi

Mississippi judges could receive pay raises exceeding $10,000

Published

18 hours ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Mississippi judges could receive pay raises exceeding ,000

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – More than 100 judges could soon receive pay raises exceeding $10,000 under legislation now awaiting the governor’s signature.

In all, 128 judges would receive raises ranging from $11,404 to $13,877.

“We’re doing that for judges to retain good judges, to attract better lawyers to the bench to serve as judges,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, who voted in favor of the pay raise.

Proposed raises by position

Circuit and chancery court judges would receive a pay raise of $13,063, bringing their new salary to $171,063.

Presiding justices of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $13,877, bringing their new salary to $190,614.

Associate justices of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $13,825, bringing their new salary to $187,625.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court would receive a pay raise of $12,680, bringing the new salary to $194,171.

The chief judge of the Court of Appeals would receive a pay raise of $13,275, bringing the new salary to $182,624.

Associate judges of the Court of Appeals would receive a pay raise of $11,404, bringing their new salary to $179,871.

“We want the best people in those jobs. To attract them, you got to pay them,” Johnson said.

Teacher pay comparison

While Johnson supported the judicial pay raises, he said teachers should have also received a significant pay increase.

Lawmakers approved giving teachers and assistant teachers a $2,000 raise.

Special education teachers would get an additional $2,000, for a total raise of $4,000.

Mississippi ranks last in the country when it comes to teacher pay.

According to the National Education Association, the average teacher salary in Mississippi is $53,704.

Johnson said state leaders should find funding to give educators a thriving wage, the same way they did for judges.

“We ought to have that same philosophy, and I have that same philosophy, and I think most people do with teachers, we need to do the same thing,” Johnson said. “Now, arguably, a teacher pay raise I’m talking about would be 10 to 20 times larger because there are more teachers than there are judges. But the philosophy is the same. If you want to attract the best people, you’ve got to pay the best people.”

The bill now heads to the governor’s desk. If signed into law, the new raises would take effect July 1.

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Mississippi

Lawmakers look to “Strengthen Mississippi Homes” with new mitigation program

Published

1 day ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Lawmakers look to “Strengthen Mississippi Homes” with new mitigation program

(Photo from Shutterstock)

Mitigation grants could soon be available for Mississippi homeowners looking to fortify their roofs. The grants are not to exceed $10,000 and awards will be made through a lottery.

The Legislature has sent a bill to the governor that establishes the “Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program” to aid homeowners across the state in retrofitting insurable property to resist loss due to hurricane, tornado, hail, or other catastrophic windstorm events.

Both the state Senate and House unanimously passed the conference report creating the mitigation program on Wednesday.

The program outlined in SB 2409 will be administered by the Mississippi Insurance Department. It will provide grants to retrofit dwellings to resist loss from windstorms. The retrofits must meet or exceed the FORTIFIED roof standard of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS).

While the program is being established for homeowners in all areas of the state, the Coast delegation was a driving force behind the measure authored by State Senator Walter Michel (R), chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee.

Jackson County State Senator Jeremy England (R) celebrated the legislation late Tuesday after it cleared his chamber, saying the goal of the bill is to lower insurance costs not only on the Coast, but for all of Mississippi.

“Today, we sent a bill to the Governor setting up a program that will allow incentives to homeowners to fortify to new requirements to ‘mitigate’ damage from wind storms (like stronger roofing and water protection),” England shared on social media. “Once enough homes on our coast and in our state take advantage of this program, we will see insurance rates start to drop.”

England added that the program is one “we all should be very proud of, and that we all should take advantage of.”

State Senator Scott DeLano (R) played a key role in getting the program through the Legislature. His Coast colleague England said DeLano “led the way” as he planned meetings with engineers and specialists in preparation for the legislation and setting up the grant program.

Eligible dwellings to be considered for a retrofit grant from the Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program must be a single-family residence, not a condominium or manufactured home. The dwelling must be the applicant’s primary residence and it must be insured for windstorm loss, and if necessary, flood loss. In addition, the dwelling must be in “good repair” and has not previously been retrofitted to meet the IBHS FORTIFIED roof standard. An inspection will be performed to verify the application and condition of the dwelling.

Grants are not to exceed $10,000 per recipient and awards will be made “through a lottery or other allocation mechanism established by the Mississippi Department of Insurance for eligibility requirements by source of funds and subject to the availability of funds.”

The state Insurance Department is allowed to contract out the implementation and management of the program at a cost of no more than 5% of annual deposits into the Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program Fund. An annual report on the program is to be submitted by the department to the governor and the Legislature each December 1.

Lawmakers also established an advisory council to meet three times a year “for the purpose of advising the Mississippi Department of Insurance in performance, efficiency, and operations of the Strengthen Mississippi Homes Program.” The advisory council will consist of three state senators, three members of the state House of Representatives, and the Executive Director of the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriters Association.

“Lower insurance rates for homeowners are right around the corner,” Senator England said. “This is going to be one of the unheralded wins of the 2026 legislative session.”

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