×
You've used up your 3 free articles for this month. Subscribe today.
The “Lunacy Zone:” How Mississippi Jails 700 Mentally Ill People a Year Without Charges
Loaded on Jan. 1, 2024
published in Prison Legal News
January, 2024, page 55
A Mississippi Today article published on July 24, 2023, examined why the Magnolia State jails the mentally ill without charges for longer than any other state. As in every other state, Mississippians picked up by police who believe they require mental health services must go through civil commitment, which …
Full article and associated cases available to subscribers.
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login
More from this issue:
- See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Treat No Evil: Centurion and the Curse of For-Profit Prison Healthcare, by J.D. Schmidt
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- $7.75 Million Paid by San Diego County After Jail Detainee Severely Injured in Fall from Top Bunk
- Alabama DOC Proves Truly “Heartless”
- Misadventures in Mail Censorship, by Robert Schaeffer
- Hear Us Now? Hearing Impaired Tennessee Prisoners Secure Injunction
- Private Prisons Hold Almost 100,000 Prisoners, 8% of Total U.S. Prison Population
- Fifth BOP Employee Sentenced in California “Rape Club,” Another Lawsuit Filed
- Another Report Verifies That Prison Deaths Soared During COVID-19 Pandemic
- Record-Setting $7 Million Settlement Caps LaSalle’s Legacy at Texarkana Jail, by Matthew Clarke
- 153 Killed in Custody in Salvadorian Gang Crackdown
- Washington Agencies Sanctioned for Discovery Violations Reach $3.1 Million Settlement with Disabled Woman Allegedly Abused at State Sanctioned Home
- Former L.A. County Jail Detainees Denied Promised Sentence Credits
- N.H.’s First Black Sheriff Charged With Embezzling $19,000
- Former Florida Guard Gets Five Years for Fatal Assault on Mentally Ill Prisoner
- Hurdles to Voting for Ex-Felons Rise in Tennessee and Virginia, Fall in Mississippi
- “Brushed It Under the Rug”: Investigation Refutes Florida Sheriff’s Story About Jail Detainee’s Death
- Corizon Health Bankruptcy Delayed by Revelation of Attorney’s Affair With Mediator
- Virginia Leads the Nation in K-9 Attacks on Prisoners
- Nearly $75 Million Class-Action Settlement Reached For Delayed Releases from N.Y.C. Jails
- Officials of Pennsylvania Guards Union Charged with Theft
- $10,000 Verdict for Fired Guard’s Failure to Protect Louisiana Prisoner From Stabbing, by David Reutter
- $9,000 Settlement for Florida Prisoner’s Retaliation and Excessive Force Claims Against Guards, by David Reutter
- Wisconsin Supreme Court: Jail Time Must Be Credited When Charge Causing Jailing Read in At Sentencing, by Matthew Clarke
- The Good That Prisoner Rights Lawyers Do
- Oklahoma Prisoner Uses COVID-19 Stimulus Check to Overturn Conviction
- New Head of “Constitutional Sheriffs” Calls MLK a “Thug”
- Eleventh Circuit Addresses First Amendment, Due Process Interests in Georgia Prisoner Emails
- Second Circuit Strips Qualified Immunity from Connecticut Officials Who Ignored Prisoner’s Scalp Lesions, by David Reutter
- Long Waits for Montana Jail Detainees Needing Competency Restoration Services
- West Virginia Pretrial Detainee’s Lawsuit for Sexual Abuse Survives Dismissal Stage, by David Reutter
- Eighth Circuit Says Arkansas Prisoner’s Medical Incapacity May Excuse PLRA Exhaustion Failure
- Deaths While Incarcerated Up 18% in Louisiana
- Despite “Ban the Box” Laws, Most Prisoners Still Unemployed a Year After Release
- Seventh Circuit Reinstates Illinois Prisoner’s Claim Against Kitchen Supervisor for Scalding From Spilled Hot Water
- George Floyd’s Killer Stabbed 22 Times in Federal Prison in Arizona
- Former New Mexico Guard Convicted of Sexually Assaulting Prisoner, Suit Filed
- Ed Mead: Rest in Power, by Paul Wright
- Multiple Staffers Arrested at Georgia’s Clayton County Jail
- The “Lunacy Zone:” How Mississippi Jails 700 Mentally Ill People a Year Without Charges
- Second Circuit Revives N.Y. Prisoner’s Suit Over Sing Sing Fire, 11 Other Prisoners Split $220,000 Settlement
- Maine Ends Prison Gerrymandering
- Fifth Circuit Revives Suit Against Texas Jailers Who Tasered Detainee Suffering Epileptic Seizure, by Douglas Ankney
- West Virginia High Court Decides Medical Practice Liability Act Not Applicable to Prison System, by David Reutter
- Nevada Prisoner Wins Injunction Requiring DOC to Provide Exercise Despite Guard Shortage
- Seventh Circuit Slams Illinois Civil Commitment Program but Reverses Injunction
- Florida Prisoners Not Required to File Rulemaking Petition to Satisfy PLRA Exhaustion Requirement, by David Reutter
- News in Brief
More from these topics:
- BOP Denies Providing Substandard Dialysis Treatment Despite Prisoners’ Deaths, Court Filings, Understaffing and Lack of Oversight, Sept. 1, 2026. Systemic Medical Neglect, Private Contractors, Failure to Treat, Staffing, Inadequate Health Care Facilities.
- Mississippi DOC Held Mentally Unwell Prisoners in Solitary, Many Died Because of It, Sept. 1, 2026. Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides, Staff Training, Deliberate Indifference.
- $800,000 Settlement Reached in Hawai‘i Jail Suicide Case, Sept. 1, 2026. Staffing, Failure to Train/Supervise, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides.
- $5.4 Million Jury Verdict Against Riverside County in Suit Over Jail Fentanyl Death, Sept. 1, 2026. Failure to Treat, Drug Overdose, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Monell Liability, Deliberate Indifference.
- New Jersey Court Rules That Denial of Transgender Prisoner’s Transfer Request Violates Neither Discrimination Law nor Equal Protection Clause, Sept. 1, 2026. Transfers, Civil Commitment, Discrimination (Transgender), Equal Protection Clause/Claims, Sexually Dangerous Persons/Sexual Violent Predators.
- Rising Deaths in Los Angeles County Jail Linked to Longer Stays, Sept. 1, 2026. Systemic Medical Neglect, Drug Overdose, Statistics/Trends, Suicides, Reduction of Prison Population.
- Isolation and Medical Neglect at Illinois’ Joliet Treatment Center Drive Prisoners to Set Fatal Fires, Sept. 1, 2026. Systemic Medical Neglect, Security Systems, Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness).
- Court Shuts Down Arizona Attempt to Fill Medical Staff Vacancies with Under-Qualified Providers, Sept. 1, 2026. Systemic Medical Neglect, Staffing, Injunctions, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness).
- Federal Court Upholds Consultants’ Finding that Oklahoma Is Not Honoring Its Consent Decree to Provide Mental Health Treatment, Sept. 1, 2026. Consent Decrees, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Pretrial Detention and Detainees, Competency Hearing, Inadequate Health Care Facilities.
- Warden Out, Nineteen Guards Administratively Charged in Maryland Prisoner’s Death, Aug. 1, 2026. Guard Misconduct, Prison/Jail Murders, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Failure to Protect (Staff).

