Lawmaker: There is no outside oversight of medical care at Mississippi prisons
The House passed a bill Thursday that would direct the state Department of Health to conduct a sweeping review of the medical care provided to inmates at Mississippi prisons.
The legislation is necessary because the state Department of Corrections is policing its own provision of health care at prisons, where inmates are sometimes deprived of medical procedures, prevented access to medication and charged for seeking care, said House Corrections Chairwoman Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven.
Over the summer, Currie traveled to prisons around the state and spoke with inmates about the issues they faced when trying to receive medical care. She found that MDOC was not required to reveal information about the medical practices or health outcomes at prisons.
“When I went, I realized I wasn’t getting a lot of the information I needed. So I sat down with inmates,” Currie said. “When I went to look, I saw no oversight.”
Currie learned of numerous problems, including:
1. Female prisoners weren’t given pap smears and mammograms.
2. Inmates were often shuttled off to classes or work programs before medical contractors arrived at prison facilities, preventing them from accessing critical medication.
3. If inmates asked to see a doctor, they were charged $10 a visit if they received medicine and $6 a visit if they did not. Even if inmates didn’t end up seeing a doctor, they were still charged, Currie said.
4. Some prisons didn’t provide access to medical professionals overnight. In one instance, an inmate thought he was having a stroke, but there was no doctor at the facility where he was incarcerated. So the prison had to foot the bill for a $50,000 emergency helicopter trip to a hospital.
5. Inmates were often not provided with a formal process for scheduling medical appointments.
Currie said her bill would ensure that all inmates would receive care, even if they can’t afford the fees prisons charge.
“Last year we paid $109 million (for prison medical care) and this year it’s going to be $119 million,” Currie said. “And we’re asking someone who has no money to pay for health care. That will stop as soon as this bill passes.”
MDOC did not immediately respond to written questions.
Her bill would empower the Department of Health to investigate the quality of medical care at prisons, patient outcomes and inmate access to medical staff.
But the legislation faces an uncertain future. Currie said that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves wants to hire an out-of-state firm to conduct the review instead of the Department of Health.
“I just believe they want to keep everything in-house and at this point, I think that’s just a terrible idea,” Currie said.
The Department of Health has the expertise and independence to evaluate shortcomings at prisons and develop solutions, Currie added.
Mississippi prisons have attracted scrutiny from the federal government for maintaining poor conditions.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice published a 60-page report accusing the state of Mississippi of violating the constitutional rights of those held in four prisons: the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, the South Mississippi Correctional Institution and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.
In that report and earlier probes, the Justice Department found that Mississippi prisoners were provided with inadequate medical care.
The Central Mississippi Correctional Facility faces an ongoing federal lawsuit alleging inmates were exposed to dangerous chemicals, with some later contracting late-stage cancer. In response, House lawmakers have advanced a bill this session that would require state prisons to provide inmates on work assignments with protective gear.
Currie’s proposal now goes to the Senate for consideration.
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This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.