JACKSON, Miss.—Amia Edwards, 8 years old at the time, gathered in the living room with her mother and siblings. It was movie night, and the night’s pick was “The Color Purple.” The movie arrived at the scene with Sophia’s monologue at the dinner table, where she had finally broken her silence after prison and abuse made her a shell of herself. It was in this scene that Sophia came alive and was born again.
The scene captivated Edwards in how Oprah Winfrey, playing Sophia, moved from laughing like a maniac to rocking back and forth, tears welling her in eyes as she recounted her life to Celie and thanked her for everything she had done for her.
“I memba that day I was in the sto’ with Miss Millie. I was feeling real down. I was feeling mighty bad. And when I seen you, I know there is a God. I know there is a God,” Sophia told Celie, crying.
Amia Edwards’ first movie role was in J. Lee Productions’ 2014 film “Karma,” which is an adaptation of his play “No Good Comes to Those Who Do Wrong.” Photo courtesy Amiable Productions
Sophia resonated with Amia Edwards. She was a full-figured Black woman who spoke her mind, and this scene showcased Winfrey’s range as an actress for the young viewer. Her mother watched the “The Oprah Winfrey Show” religiously—and in turn so did her daughter—but this scene allowed Edwards to recognize and appreciate the Mississippi native’s duality as a talk-show host and actress.
“I remember her talking about what it was like to be a plus-size person being an actor and how she was trying to lose weight, and Steven Spielberg called and told her, ‘Don’t drop a pound,’” Edwards told the Mississippi Free Press. “And so I secretly coveted
Jackson State University wants to use federal pandemic relief funds to study overhauling the campus water and sewer system, an investment that officials say is necessary to maintain health and safety as the city’s water emergency has upended the start of the fall semester.
But the Department of Finance and Administration – the state agency tasked with overseeing the $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated to Mississippi’s public university system – can’t say yet if it will fund JSU’s proposal.
Earlier this year, DFA invited all eight public universities to submit proposals that represent necessary investments in drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. The department is now evaluating projects for compliance.
“I think it’s safe to say that the goal is that everyone would get something, but that is certainly not a guarantee,” spokesperson Marcy Scoggins said.
JSU says that a new water system is so crucial, it will seek other state and federal funding if DFA does not approve its proposal.
“This is something that we’re gonna actively try to do,” President Thomas Hudson told students during a virtual town hall on Tuesday following a question about JSU’s water system. “We have been working with state legislators over the years to obtain the funding to do this type of project. Step one is to do a study … that process will begin very soon.”
The study also appears to have support from the Institutions of Higher Learning. IHL thinks the study falls under the parameters for this federal spending and anticipates it will be complete by the summer of 2023, spokesperson Caron Blanton wrote in an email.
“DFA will determine if ARPA funds can be used for this purpose once the study is complete,” Blanton wrote.
In May, DFA sent a letter to IHL, outlining preliminary ARPA funding that each of the eight universities could receive for projects overseen by the Bureau of Buildings, Grounds and Real Property Management. The letter requested each university submit proposals that outline scope, an engineering firm preference, and any additional funding amounts the schools would provide.
ARPA funds must be obligated by the end of 2024 and spent before the end of 2026.
JSU’s preliminary allocation, per the letter, was about $2.2 million, but the four projects that the university sought funding for totaled $5 million. All four of these plans, JSU’s proposal says, “must be completed regardless of funding by ARPA.”
JSU’s proposed projects and the amount of ARPA funding requested, in order of priority, are:
A water and sewer line assessment ($500,000)
Making a plan to move the university’s potable water system off of the city’s ($250,000)
Repairing and enlarging storm water pipes ($2,250,000)
Constructing a water filtration system ($2 million)
Installing a water filtration system will cost more than $2 million, but the proposal says that “without an adequate filtration system, JSU will continue to suffer from environmental and health alerts, boil water notices, and unexpected budgetary emergencies which impacts the ability to provide adequate maintenance.”
These are the stakes of JSU not receiving ARPA funding for these projects, as the university sees it:“If this project does not proceed, JSU will continue to suffer from unexpected water and sewer line failures with no ability to develop data-driven solutions to effectively establish short-term and long-term solutions.”
The proposal also says if the university is not able to procure funding for an isolated potable water system, the downside would be “required evacuation of over two thousand students as well as faculty and staff” as well as “loss of our fire protection systems.”
The four sections of the proposal paint a high-level look at the state of the water system at JSU.
The university pays for city water to support heating, cooling, potable and non-potable water on the historic campus, which is located in one of the first communities to be developed in Jackson, a neighborhood just a few minutes west of downtown.
The water lines that feed JSU are among the oldest in the city – more than 100 years old.
“Another aspect of these aged water lines would be the materials from which they were made,” the proposal says. “Some of these materials, which will include cast iron and lead, have become very brittle, fragile, and toxic.”
During heavy storms, water erodes the grounds and intrudes into buildings due to the inadequate capacity of the campus’s storm water lines.
“An improvement in this area will save us repair dollars for our structures,” the report says.
The goal of the water and sewer line assessment would be to create “a comprehensive capital plan” so that JSU can understand what aspects of the water infrastructure on campus needs to be repaired, replaced or upgraded. The proposal says this will help the university address “any potential concerns” related to deteriorating water lines, unreliable control system, or lead in the campus’s drinking water.
The instability of the water lines on campus also leads to water and sewer back-ups that cause odors and unsafe conditions, the proposal says, noting that a sewer line on Lynch Street recently collapsed.
During the legislative session, IHL requested more than $17 million in funds for water-related projects on JSU’s campus, but the Legislature did not fulfill those requests. Many of those initial requests are similar to the ones JSU included in its proposal to DFA, according to a funding request IHL provided to Mississippi Today, but others were more immediate – and expensive, like $2 million for the installation of water meters.
The city’s water issues have periods of low to no water pressure at JSU as far back as 2010.
At the town hall on Tuesday, Hudson asked students to be patient as the university seeks state and federal funding for a new water system.
“These things take time in order to happen,” he said.
One student asked if the plan to build a new water system would affect tuition. Hudson replied that it’s “far too early to tell” the financial impact of a new water system or of the water crisis.
Hudson added that while the university’s current water system “does bring costs,” because JSU pays the city for water, students won’t bear the cost of a new water system in the form of higher tuition.
“There are resources that can help us undertake such a massive project,” he said. “We’re not looking to pass these costs onto our students.”
If Corey Maurice McCarty Hughes stopped taking his medication, his family knew what to do. When he started to become paranoid or barricaded himself in a room, a family member would go down to the Forrest County chancery clerk’s office and file an affidavit stating that Hughes needed to be hospitalized. Then, sheriff’s deputies would pick him up and take him to get treatment.
The series of events had unfolded about 16 times before, and there was little reason to think it would be different when it happened again in mid-July of this year.
When family members sought to have him committed, they expected he would spend a few weeks or months at the state hospital in Purvis and then come home to Palmers Crossing in Hattiesburg, where he lived in a trailer a few hundred feet from his parents’ house.
On July 14, Forrest County deputies arrived at Hughes’ sister’s house to take him to the hospital. They killed him instead.
According to the incident report released to Mississippi Today by the sheriff’s office, Hughes struck a deputy with a “blunt object” before the deputy shot him in the torso.
Exactly what happened is still unclear: The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is investigating, as it does every time law enforcement officers kill someone in the state. The Bureau refused to turn over records except for an incident report until the investigation is over.
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The four deputies at the scene were not wearing body cameras; their department had begun buying the cameras only in June after receiving a federal grant. Forrest County Sheriff’s Office officials said they would not provide further information until MBI’s investigation is closed.
But to Hughes’ loved ones, the case is already a clear indictment of the state’s mental health and criminal justice systems, which are uniquely intertwined in a process called civil, or involuntary, commitment.
Every year, thousands of Mississippians and hundreds of thousands of Americans go through the civil commitment process. For some Mississippi families navigating a patchwork system of mental health services and care, having relatives forced into treatment is not just the option of last resort, but the only option.
Some Mississippians, like Hughes, go through the process more than a dozen times, cycling in and out of state hospitals without connecting to effective long-term treatment back home.
“Civil commitment is forcing someone to get mental health treatment,” said Sitaniel Wimbley, executive director of National Alliance on Mental Illness Mississippi. “Had that individual had someone to talk to … or they had been in a treatment plan, civil commitment may not be something that they ever have to see, because they would be aware of their mental health and what’s going on in the process to be able to get help for themselves.”
The state is the subject of a years-running federal lawsuit over its failure to provide adequate mental health services in communities, historically forcing people to spend years institutionalized in mental hospitals.
As in many states, Mississippi law specifically requires sheriff’s deputies to transport the person being committed, effectively forcing law enforcement to get involved in the care of people suffering from serious mental illness. The justification for this is that only law enforcement is equipped to physically force someone to get treatment against his or her will. But mental health advocates say the mere presence of a police officer – especially if they are not trained in helping people in a mental health crisis – can increase a person’s distress and agitation.
Hughes’ father, James Hughes, doesn’t understand why medical professionals were not on the scene – at the least to talk with his son before police pulled out a weapon. On other occasions when he didn’t want to go to the hospital, officers sometimes used their taser, but never a gun, he said.
“I’m under the impression, well, I’ll be going to Purvis to visit my son,” he said. “And then I have to bury him.”
A baby photo of Corey Maurice Hughes. Hughes was shot and killed by Forrest County Sheriff’s deputy after attempting to take him to a mental facility. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
‘That was my son’
When his son was at the hospital in Purvis, James and his wife visited every chance they could. He usually stayed there for a few months, once close to a year. The family would pick up food – Hughes loved chicken and pork chops – and eat together at a park before taking him back to the hospital.
“That was my son,” James said. “If we don’t support him, who is?”
Hughes, born Corey Maurice Hughes, spent his childhood fishing and hunting. The youngest boy in a family of seven siblings and half-siblings, he was a joker who liked to make people laugh.
When he was a kid, his dad bought him toy dump trucks, tractors, and Tonka trucks. After high school, he got a job driving 18-wheelers for a local trucking company. He drove as far as California and New York.
James said his son’s health problems began in the late 1990s, when he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“He had desires to go back to school, and he wanted to get back into trucking, but with his health issues, that wasn’t fixing to happen,” James said.
After he got sick, Hughes spent most of his time around his family. He lived independently in a white trailer just steps away from the house where he spent most of his childhood. From a chair on the concrete porch, he could see when someone stopped by his parents’ home, which happened often because James is a notary public. Hughes would walk over to check up on them.
“He was sick, but he wasn’t just crazy, crazy,” James said. “He was sick. Paranoid schizophrenia is a sickness.”
Hughes would tell his father about the voices he heard: usually women, sometimes cursing him out. He had insurance thanks to disability Medicaid and got treatment at Pine Belt Mental Health Services in Hattiesburg and from other doctors, but his father doesn’t think the medication did him much good.
That’s part of why he sometimes stopped taking it, James said. When he was killed, it had been about three months since he had taken the medication.
James E. Hughes talks about the shooting death of his son, Corey Maurice Hughes, at his home in the Palmers Crossing community in Hattiesburg, Miss., Tuesday, August 16, 2022. Corey was shot and killed by a Forrest County Sheriff’s deputy as deputies attempted to transport him to a mental health facility. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Civil commitment, a controversial process, expanding around the country
Among mental health experts and providers, involuntary commitment is controversial. The legal process takes away someone’s freedoms of movement and bodily autonomy without ever charging them with a crime.
Because of patient privacy concerns, inconsistent recordkeeping and different processes across jurisdictions, the number of people who are forced into mental health treatment against their will every year in the United States is unclear.
Research suggests the rates vary widely across states, and that the number of involuntary commitments each year is on the rise. One study found that from 2011 to 2018, the rate of involuntary commitments grew three times faster than population growth across 25 states. (Mississippi was not included in the study.)
In Mississippi, chancery clerks handle the paperwork around civil commitment, and chancery judges determine whether someone will be forced into treatment. But the process historically has varied from county to county. Wimbley said some counties have charged different amounts of money for initiating the commitment process. Some judges are known for committing people based on limited medical evidence, said Melody Worsham, a long-time advocate for Mississippians with mental illness and a certified peer support specialist at the Mental Health Association of South Mississippi.
“Some judges will commit somebody just based on the word of a distant relative that says, ‘Hey, this guy is nuts. You need to lock up my relative,’” she said. “Then others are like, ‘No, you better present some serious evidence that this person needs to have his life taken from him.’”
As part of the federal lawsuit against the state, Mississippi is under pressure to reduce civil commitments. The Department of Mental Health is aiming to divert people from the state hospitals by trying to connect family members to resources so they don’t see commitment as the only option.
The lawsuit settlement agreement requires the state to bring consistency to the civil commitment process by establishing uniform guidelines and training chancery staff.
Roughly 5,000 Mississippians were committed in Fiscal Year 2021, according to data collected by the Office of the Coordinator of Mental Health Accessibility – a position created by the Legislature to oversee mental health programs in the state.
The number of commitments per capita varied widely around the state, from one per 290 people in Region 1 – Coahoma, Quitman, Tunica and Tallahatchie Counties – to one per 1,011 in Region 15 – Warren and Yazoo Counties.
Region 14, which includes 13 counties in south Mississippi, sits in the middle, at one per 554. In Forrest County, the rate was one per 422, with 177 commitments and 86 admissions to the state hospital.
Forrest County Chancery Clerk Lance Reid said families are often reluctant to turn to commitment. But sometimes, commitment is the only option they have.
He tells them: “You’re faced with putting your loved one in a facility, but the way you have to look at it is, that’s the best that we can offer in this state right now to try to get them some help, to try to get them some medications that can get them better, get them some treatment.”
The state hospitals are supposed to improve discharge planning, so that when someone’s civil commitment ends, the patient is immediately connected to resources and care in the community. But the first report produced by the special monitor charged with evaluating how well the state is complying with the federal settlement agreement found that that wasn’t happening at every state hospital.
That could be contributing to the high number of readmissions for people who are civilly committed – like Hughes.
“There’s a pretty big revolving door, for lack of a better word,” Reid said. “Yes, we see a lot of return patients … The fact of the matter is, they get out, even if they follow up with their local community mental health provider, they have that tendency to get back off their medicine and come back through the system again.”
James said he had no problems with the hospital at Purvis, where the staff were always respectful and professional. But his son wound up having to go back more years than not after his diagnosis.
In 2014, Hughes legally changed his name from Corey Maurice Hughes to Maurice McCarty Hughes. Sometimes he had to remind his parents to call him Maurice, not Corey. The most recent time he stopped taking his medication, he told his father it was because an employee at his doctor’s office in Poplarville had called him the wrong name.
“But you know, I don’t know if they have to have an excuse,” he said. “You don’t know what nobody’s mind is telling them.”
Corey Maurice Hughes’ funeral program. Hughes was shot and killed by Forrest County Sheriff’s deputy after attempting to take him to a mental health facility. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Unclear how many Mississippians have been killed by law enforcement during civil commitment
Sheriff’s deputies have killed at least two other Mississippians during a civil commitment in the last 12 years, according to records Mississippi Today requested from MBI.
But the true figure of people who have been killed when law enforcement was supposed to take them to mental health evaluation and treatment is not known: MBI’s records cover only those cases the agency investigated. Prior to last year, law enforcement agencies in Mississippi were not required to bring in MBI to conduct an independent investigation when their officers killed someone. That means any records of such events could be spread across the state’s 82 counties.
Jesse Jones, a 53-year-old Black man, was killed by deputies on April 27, 2010, when they arrived at his home in Carthage “to serve a lunacy warrant.”
“Victim pulled a weapon on deputies and was shot in yard by 1 deputy,” the sparse MBI report says. “Subject taken to Leake Memorial Hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead.”
The report contains no other details about Jones’ life or death.
At around 10 p.m. on May 14, 2020, Choctaw County deputies arrived at the home of John Beam, a 65-year-old white man, to serve both an arrest warrant for simple assault, stalking and trespassing and a writ to take custody for a mental health examination. Beam had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and, according to the MBI report, “complained about his medication not working and stopped taking said medication.” His daughter had begun the involuntary commitment process by filing an affidavit that he could harm himself or others.
Around midnight, Beam pointed a pistol at the deputies and then began firing. The deputies fired back. Four hours later, they entered the house and found him lying dead on the floor.
Law enforcement often steps into the mental health services gap because they’re the only service people can or know how to call.So Mississippi has expanded crisis intervention team (CIT) training across the state, designed to teach officers how to respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis and connect them to treatment instead of taking them to jail.
The training requires 40 hours, a substantial commitment of time and resources for a law enforcement agency. Mississippi officers learn about mental illness and local resources and laws. They practice verbal de-escalation strategies and learn the procedures for connecting people to nearby mental health facilities. They speak with people who have firsthand experience with mental illness, and they spend hours role-playing with their classmates and trainers.
Nearly 700 law enforcement officers in Mississippi have participated in the training since mid-2018, according to the Department of Mental Health.
The Pine Belt region has been a leader in the training, thanks to a federal grant to the local community mental health center. Thirty-two Forrest County deputies have completed the training since 2017.
Mississippi law enforcement, mental health leaders and advocates agree the training is a powerful tool.
Wade Johnson, a retired police captain who has spent about a decade expanding CIT training around the state and now serves as the East Mississippi Training Coordinator, said sheriffs and police chiefs recognize the need to change the way law enforcement interacts with people in mental health crises.
“They don’t want their department to be front page news on how they had to deal with this particularly mentally ill subject that led to something very unfortunate,” he said. “They want their officers and deputies to get that training, that they can do a proper response to the mentally ill and get them help, keep them out of the jails, if that’s not the place for them.”
But nationally, there are questions about how effective the training is at reducing use of force against people experiencing mental health crises.
One 2016 analysis of studies on the program found that none of them found CIT significantly reduced the chances that an officer used force against a mentally ill person. One study found that it was actually associated with a significant increase in use of force.
The Forrest County Sheriff’s Office said all four officers who responded to Hughes’ home had gone through the training.
“That makes me sick to think about,” Worsham said.
Of their 25 current patrol personnel, 17 had completed the training as of late July, and the remaining will do so when there are classroom seats available, the department said.
Johnson said that nothing in the training teaches officers to disregard their departments’ use of force policies, which generally permit officers to use deadly force against someone they believe could kill or seriously injure the officer or another person.
“You go to a scene involving a mental health issue,” he said. “You get there, it explodes all over you. I don’t have time to deploy CIT. You gotta take care of the business as it’s unfolding in front of you.”
Corey Maurice Hughes was in the process of repairing these vehicles, shown here outside of his home in the Palmers Crossing community in Hattiesburg, Miss., Tuesday, August 16, 2022. One of Corey’s hobbies was repairing cars for racing. Corey was shot and killed by a Forrest County Sheriff’s deputy, as deputies attempted to transport him to a mental health facility. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
‘Nobody can love me how you did’
Mississippi Today obtained incident reports from MBI and the sheriff’s office. The agencies said they will withhold all other documents – including witness and officer interviews, forensic analysis, and photos – during the investigation.
When MBI finishes its investigation, it will turn over the files to the attorney general’s office, who will present the evidence to the grand jury thanks to a law that took effect two weeks before Hughes was killed. It could take months for this process to play out.
According to the Forrest County incident report, deputies got to Hughes’ sister’s house just after 6 p.m.
“Shortly after deputies arrived at the residence a male subject approached one of the deputies and an altercation ensued,” the summary says. “The deputy received an injury to the head from a blunt object and the subject received a gunshot wound to the torso.”
The deputy was taken to the hospital.
James said his son was carrying a hammer, a screwdriver and a pellet gun with no pellets. He doesn’t understand why the officers – who knew they were picking up a mentally ill person to force him to go to the hospital – got so close to his son that he could hit one of them with a hammer.
Hughes’ 14-year-old daughter was in the house when he was killed. She had come from Louisiana to be with her dad and his family for the summer. They had gone on a trip to Disney World and spent time cooking together. Now, her dad lay dead in front of his sister’s home.
James said his son’s body was left outside for nearly five hours after the shooting.
He believes a staff member from Pine Belt or another person with expertise in mental health should go on commitment calls, with deputies present for backup. A person with different training and tools could have handled the situation differently, he feels.
“If you ain’t got no gun, you can’t use no gun,” he said.
Hughes was buried on July 23. His funeral program included a note from his daughter, who remembered him teaching her how to cook eggs in the kitchen of his trailer.
“Nobody can love me how you did,” she wrote. “Just wish you were with me now chilling and listening to music as the days go by.”
Now, James remembers his son during quiet moments at home, cooking or folding laundry.
“I just think, if he’d have been here, he would be folding my clothes for me,” James said. “And I just think, gee, so many things he did to help me. And you know, I used to think, well, Corey will miss us when we’re gone. Then I’m missing him.”
Before he died, Hughes was working on fixing up two cars: a Ford Fairmont and a Chevrolet S-10. He wanted to turn them into race cars, his dad said. He’d ordered parts from a local mechanic but never got to use them. Soon, James will go by the shop to pick up the parts.
The cars, sagging a bit on their wheels, ready for a fresh coat of paint, still sit in the driveway outside the trailer where his son lived.
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Federal money is a political hot potato everywhere, but nobody’s playing the game right now like the people of Mississippi.
A firestorm of debate has erupted on social media in Mississippi following President Biden’s decision last week to forgive $10,000 of student loan debt for those who earn under $125,000 annually and $20,000 of debt for Pell Grant recipients.
The firestorm seems to have been ignited in part by Gov. Tate Reeves, who commented on social media that the student loan forgiveness plan proves Democrats hate working people. The governor warned that “welders, plumbers, laborers & other Mississippians” will pay for the educations of Harvard doctoral students who are majoring in gender education and living in California. Governor Reeves announced on August 30th that he plans to tax recipients of student loan forgiveness.
The resulting online debate examines a number of questions: Who should receive federal money and who shouldn’t? Does it help recipients or sap them of motivation? Is federal funding good or bad for the state of Mississippi?
Gov. Tate Reeves Statement of Economic Interest (click to enlarge)
A family-owned business started by Reeves’ father received loan forgiveness for thousands of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was created to help small business owners keep their workforces employed during the Covid-19 pandemic. A 2020 Clarion Ledger article first revealed that PPP loan, as well as another loan to Coker and Palmer insurance company, which employs Gov. Reeve’s wife, Elee.
Through his then-spokesman, Gov. Reeves stated that he and his brother, Todd Reeves, are minority shareholders in the air conditioning business, located in Pearl, and have no “day-to-day” role. However, the governor described himself as owner of Southern Air & Supply, Inc., on the Statement of Economic Interest filed during his campaign. His name does not appear on company documents filed with the Secretary of State.
Ultimately, Southern Air Conditioning & Supply, Inc., received $191,216.87 in PPP loan forgiveness, and Coker & Palmer received $346,256 in loan forgiveness. The 2020 Clarion Ledger article states that Reeves said he was “not aware of any more PPP loans for businesses where his relatives work.”
As it happens, at least three other family companies have received PPP loan forgiveness, which total an additional $1,171,256.97. They are as follows:
(1) Climate Masters, Inc., electrical and wiring contractors, received PPP loan forgiveness of $915,188.54. Documents filed with the Secretary of State’s office indicate Terry Reeves is the director, president, and treasurer, while Todd Reeves is the registered agent and vice president.
(2) Snapshot Publishing, LLC, in Flowood received loan forgiveness of $60,552.84. Lee Reeves, Todd’s wife, is the registered agent and member, according to paperwork filed with the Secretary of State.
(3) Todd Reeves is listed as member on documents for Columbus HIX Lodging, LLC. The company received two loans, with loan forgiveness of $113,548.27 and 81,967.32.
Elected officials were permitted to apply for and receive PPP loans.
IT’S COMPLICATED
To be fair, Gov. Reeves’ social media comments about student loan forgiveness are not the only reason hot potatoes are flying in Mississippi. Other events here have contributed to the firestorm, including:
(1) The governor’s recent decision to halt the Rental Assistance Program, which provided funds to help Mississippians who lost their jobs during the pandemic pay rent and utilities.
(2) The alleged theft and fraudulent spending of some $77 million in welfare funds intended to help needy families.
Gov. Reeves’s decision to halt rental assistance on August 3rd echoes the actions of at least 25 other Republican governors, who contend that federal financial help is the reason unemployed citizens are not returning to work. So far, Mississippi is the only state to return remaining funds. In the August 3 press conference, Gov. Reeves called rental assistance and other “socialist” programs cruel, saying “they trap Mississippians in a cycle of dependency, like a loan shark or a bookie….”
The governor also has said he is responsible for the controversial firing of former U.S. attorney Brad Pigott, who was investigating the welfare fraud and trying to recoup stolen and misspent funds. The firing occurred shortly after Pigott subpoenaed records from the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation regarding $5 million in federal money that was used to build a volleyball facility on campus. That donation allegedly was disguised as a lease agreement.
The Department of Human Services has hired the Jones Walker firm to try to recover the missing millions.
The governor oversees the Mississippi Department of Human Services, which has heavily restricted the scope of a forensic audit that the state will use in court cases related to the welfare fraud. The restrictions protect former governor Phil Bryant, who was in position to influence spending; members of the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation, many of them donors to Reeves’ campaigns; retired football stars Bret Favre and Marcus DuPree; and Gov. Reeves, who as Lt. Gov. is said to have played a significant role in obtaining welfare funds for his trainer, Paul Victor Lacoste. None of these people have been charged with any crimes.
Days after an emergency was declared over Jackson’s water system, Hinds County’s youth detention center located in the city is getting by with bottled water for drinking and water brought in to flush toilets.
“I don’t think we’re having problems at this time at Henley-Young,” Board of Supervisors President Credell Calhoun said Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t think it has gotten that bad, maybe it was for a short while.”
The Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center houses boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 17 who have been accused of a misdemeanor or felony. It is also a temporary place for those awaiting a hearing, placement in another youth facility or transfer to another jurisdiction or agency, according to the facility’s page on the Hinds County website.
The facility has a capacity of 84 beds, but Calhoun said it has been operating at a reduced capacity and about 30 juveniles are currently there.
Henley-Young Interim Executive Director Marshand Crisler said Wednesday morning the water situation at the facility is fine, but he didn’t provide details and referred comment to County Administrator Kenny Wayne Jones. Jones declined to comment through a staff member.
District 5 Supervisor Bobby McGowan, whose district includes Henley-Young, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The Hinds County Detention Center and Work Center, which serve adults, are located in Raymond and are not experiencing impacts from Jackson’s water crisis. Sheriff Tyree Jones said Monday the facilities, which are part of Raymond’s water system, have full water capacity and detainees have access to water.
Henley-Young is not under the purview of the sheriff’s office.
Hinds County is looking to build a new jail to house adult detainees next to Henley-Young in Jackson. Calhoun said it is a way to come into compliance with issues identified by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Part of that plan is to build a water tower and pump that would hook into Jackson’s water system.
“It should be able to help alleviate low water pressure in South Jackson,” Calhoun said.
The county has not begun construction on the jail yet, he said, but now that a land disposition and lease have been completed, the board of supervisors can make plans when to break ground.
Thousands of Jacksonians with kidney failure rely on clean water to power the dialysis treatments that keep them alive. As the city’s water system collapses, dialysis providers have brought in tanker trucks full of water to ensure patients don’t have to miss their treatment.
Lack of access to clean water also creates risks for patients who perform their dialysis treatments at home– and puts kidney patients at greater danger of health consequences from impure water.
On Tuesday afternoon, Derek Whitaker pulled into the parking lot of the Jackson Medical Mall, towing a 6,000 gallon tank full of water from Broussard, Louisiana. A tanker truck from Missouri was already hooked up to a pump that was delivering water into the mall, which houses a dialysis unit.
Whitaker, who works with the disaster response company Macro, has traveled the country providing relief after hurricanes and tornadoes. Now, he and at least two colleagues have come to Jackson to deliver life’s most basic necessity – and one that is even more essential for people with kidney failure.
One dialysis nurse told Mississippi Today that about six weeks ago, her clinic brought in a tanker truck full of water because of pressure fluctuations. The dialysis process requires about 10 gallons a minute, she said. The clinic first needed to use the tanker truck about two weeks ago.
“They need this in order to live,” said the nurse, who requested not to be identified by name because she was not authorized to speak to the media. “And they would not live more than—some people a few days, some a week without dialysis … to have a city that doesn’t have water is just unconscionable to me. I don’t understand how it ever got to that.”
Mississippi has one of the country’s highest rates of kidney failure. More than 9,000 Mississippians are living with end-stage kidney disease, meaning their kidneys have essentially stopped functioning. Black Americans are roughly three times likelier than white Americans to develop kidney failure.
In Jackson, the rate of kidney disease is 26% higher than the national average, according to the Mississippi Kidney Foundation. And Mississippians have the highest mortality rate from chronic kidney disease of any state in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dialysis is a medical procedure that acts as an artificial kidney. The patient’s blood is diverted into a machine where it passes through membranes that remove waste before returning it to the body. Patients can do dialysis at home after they have been trained in the process, or visit a clinic or hospital three times a week for about four hours.
A reliable water source is generally essential for dialysis, which can require 300 to 600 liters of ultra-clean water during a single week. The filtration systems clean the water – ordinary tap water isn’t clean enough for the process – but if the local water source isn’t producing water quickly enough, the process can’t work.
According to the health department, no dialysis centers in Jackson have had to close as of Wednesday. But almost all of them have had to make costly adjustments to continue operating. On Tuesday afternoon, officials said it still wasn’t clear when Jackson will have clean, abundant drinking water.
Fresenius Medical Care, the largest dialysis company in the city with four Jackson locations providing in-center treatment, said it had brought in tanker trucks for three of their facilities. At its southwest Jackson location, the truck has been in place for about a month or longer because of issues with water quality and pressure, said Richi Lesley, Mississippi regional vice president.
“It comes at a great expense,” he said. “The resources of getting a tanker truck in place, getting the tanker truck filled, having them on-site for the hours to set and support – when you do think about in terms of how many shifts we’re operating at each of the facilities and each individual patient shift is normally around four hours, so it’s a lot of water.”
Lesley declined to specify how much each truck costs the company.
“If we gave the number, I think a lot of people would be running out trying to get in the tanker truck business,” he said.
The north Jackson Fresenius location still has water, he added, but a tanker truck is in position in case that changes.
A fourth Fresenius facility located inside St. Dominic Memorial Hospital uses the hospital’s independent water system.
Fresenius serves 500 to 600 patients in Jackson, Lesley said.
DaVita, Inc. operates three Jackson locations, two of which have been affected by the water crisis, said Chris Price, division vice president at DaVita, who oversees Mississippi operations. The company implemented “emergency water solutions” on Tuesday morning.
“These solutions include water from sources outside of Jackson that will remain subject to our full treatment and quality testing procedures,” Price said. “We will keep these emergency measures in place until confidence in the reliability of city water sources is restored.”
The water crisis also threatens Jacksonians’ ability to safely access dialysis at home because that process requires careful attention to hygiene, said TJ Mayfield, executive director of the Mississippi Kidney Foundation. Mayfield is a former dialysis patient who received a kidney transplant in 2019.
“If you don’t have water to flush, if you don’t have water to drain out your dialysis that you’re doing overnight or home dialysis, how do you clean it properly?” Mayfield said. “How do you make sure you wash your hands properly so that you don’t catch an infection? All of that plays a large factor into home dialysis.”
Mayfield said clean drinking water is critical for people with kidney conditions — and to ensure healthy people don’t develop kidney issues. When clean drinking water isn’t available or costs the same as soda, he pointed out, people are likelier to choose sugary drinks. He is working to distribute bottled water to dialysis patients in Jackson.
Valerie Bailey, a nurse practitioner with more than a decade of experience working with kidney patients in Jackson, said people with kidney issues are also more vulnerable to health problems from unclean water.
“Any renal patient has to be extremely diligent about keeping up with their fluid intake, because their kidneys are unable to properly filter out excess fluids,” Bailey said. “If they do not have clean water, then their body, their kidneys are not going to be able to filter out those impurities in the contaminated water, like a normally functioning kidney might be able to.”
Dialysis providers who spoke with Mississippi Today said they are experienced in disaster response, not only because industry standards require it, but also because Jackson has seen this before.
During the 2021 ice storm that crippled the city’s water system, Fresenius worked with Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) to ensure tanker trucks full of water could reach their clinics.
Whitaker, who came to the Medical Mall from Louisiana with the water tanker, drove around southern Louisiana after Hurricane Ida and to Kentucky after the devastating tornadoes earlier this year. The combat veteran often carries fuel to help people power generators after losing power.
“We kind of get out and see the countryside a little bit when there’s a disaster,” he said. He didn’t think much about the nature of the disaster — long-running and manmade — that had brought him to the mall parking lot.
“To me, it’s my job,” he said.
Whitaker said he doesn’t know how long he will be in Jackson. He’ll sleep in his truck and shower at the facility where he will refill the tanker, somewhere outside of town.
Mississippi Today’s data and environment reporter Alex Rozier talked with Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd about recent developments in the Jackson water crisis that have left thousands with little to no drinking water. Find our full coverage here.
One month before the city of Jackson water system began failing, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assessment team flagged numerous system problems in a July 2022 report.
The report, obtained by Mississippi Today, documents a litany of problems contributing to the capital city’s long-running and ongoing water crisis, which threatens the health and livelihoods of its residents.
The report was written following the latest independent assessment of Jackson’s water system and was compiled jointly with the EPA and Mississippi State Department of Health. The state Department of Health is tasked with enforcing EPA safe water regulations.
For several years, the EPA has documented many problems with the Jackson water system and has entered into several binding legal agreements with the city to improve the system’s safety and reliability. Since then, federal assessment teams have checked in on the system to determine whether the city is complying with the federal agreements.
In an April 2020 emergency order, the EPA found that the Jackson water system “presented an imminent and substantial endangerment to the health of persons served by the system.”
A 2021 agreement between the EPA and city of Jackson sought to correct the problems with the quality of the water. But this summer, amid continuous boil water notices and culminating with the governor issuing the state of emergency this week to try to address problems with the capital city’s water system, indications are the improvements outlined in the agreement have not been achieved.
The problems highlighted in the July 2022 report include:
Poor administration, lack of staff
The report notes the utilities manager position was vacant, which the city said was because of budget limitations. The system has no succession plan for management.
There are insufficient operators to consistently staff three shifts, seven days a week, and staff are unable to take time off without forcing remaining staff to work extra hours. Supervisors are working shifts in addition to their management responsibilities and lack of distribution system workers doesn’t allow for preventive maintenance.
Operator turnover is high, with some reporting working 75 hours a week without overtime pay.
Finances are in shambles
The report said the city was unable to provide a complete list of customers when inspectors visited, and explained that some customers receive no bills, while others receive large bills. The city could not calculate its collection rate, and said this issue isn’t expected to be resolved until late 2024.
The report said malfunctioning water meters have contributed to a 32-percent decrease in revenue. In March, the report said, the city reported 14,000 bills were “stranded,” or not sent to or received by customers. The city reported that about 50% of the water put out is “non-revenue,” and that it is unclear how much is due to meter issues or water loss.
Customer complaints
Data from 2011 through 2022 shows discolored water complaints have been reduced in recent years, but there has been an increase in pressure complaints since 2014 and odor complaints since 2016.
Lack of routine monitoring and maintenance
In part due to lack of staff, the report says, the city fails to collect and record continuous pressure data, which could identify problems spots and prevent contamination in the system. Routine flushing of the system is not performed and valves and hydrants are not maintained.
Water in storage tanks isn’t cycled
The report says water hasn’t been cycled in and out of tanks frequently to maintain adequate chlorine levels. The report said that the Maddox and Spring Hill tanks “were not evaluated because the tank levels never change (i.e. water was not draining from or filling the tanks). The Byram water tank, the report said, “has never filled as expected,” likely because a bottling plant near the tank increased demand.
Frequent line breaks
The report said that from 2017 through 2021, the system saw average annual line breaks of 55 per 100 miles of line — far exceeding the 15 breaks per 100 miles a year that is considered safe. The study showed some areas, such as the North Jackson and Seneca Street areas have extremely high frequency of line breaks because they still use aged, small diameter cast-iron pipe.
The July 2022 report says the EPA, using federal pandemic stimulus money, has contracted with the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina to assess the financial status and operations of Jackson’s water system. The EPA report said the assessment team will consider whether it would be better for the system to be governed by an entity other than the Jackson City Council “to determine whether another model would be successful.”
Discussions about whether the city is equipped to continue to manage its water system are ongoing at the Mississippi State Capitol.
At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the city has been trying to follow the recommendations of the EPA. Responding to questions Tuesday from Mississippi Free Press reporter Nick Judin, who wrote about EPA concerns with the city’s recruitment of water system managers, the mayor said several steps have been taken to find additional operators for the city’s water treatment system.
Those efforts, the mayor said, having included trying to recruit people who can earn their certification as an operator, trying to contract with a third party to provide operators, entering into a national association that could provide help and bringing back retired operators on a part-time basis.
“We have committed every dollar we could find to resolve this problem,” Lumumba said.
The drinking water system in Jackson — Mississippi’s largest city and home to more than 160,000 residents — is failing, state officials announced on Monday.
Thousands of Jackson residents have no or little water pressure, and though local, state and federal officials are working to restore reliable service, they cannot yet say when that will happen.
Mississippi Today has compiled a list of answers to some commonly asked questions submitted by readers about the water crisis. This post will be updated.
What’s happening with the water in Jackson?
In late July, the state health department issued a city-wide boil water notice for Jackson because of turbidity, or cloudiness in the water. A couple weeks later in early August, city officials announced that some customers may experience low water pressure because of issues with the pumps at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said on Monday that flooding from the Pearl River forced plant operators to change how they were treating the water, and that the whole city could see low water pressure as a result. Gov. Tate Reeves later on Monday blamed the low pressure on the poor-performing pumps. Lumumba has since reiterated that the flooding is the main issue at hand, while Reeves has since said the low pressure results from a combination of the two problems.
Since Monday, many homes in Jackson have seen lower or no water pressure, and state and city officials have instructed the city not to consume the water without boiling it first.
Where can I go to get water?
Many organizations, along with the City of Jackson, are distributing water for free at locations across the city. Find a list of addresses here. For those with mobility issues, call the city’s constituent services or 311, although officials urge people to reserve that line for those who can’t get water otherwise.
If I have water, is it safe to use?
Water is not safe to consume unless boiled for one minute. Residents should also use boiled water for making ice, brushing their teeth, washing dishes and other food preparation, the state health department says. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said it is safe to use unboiled water for baths and showers as well as washing hands and clothes, but people should avoid letting water get in their mouths.
What are state and city leaders doing to fix this?
While Mayor Lumumba has said for the better part of two years that the drinking water system is in a constant state of emergency and that the city does not have the funds to fix it, Jackson has begun to use new federal funds on a number of projects to improve the system, such as building a new distribution line to alleviate pressure issues, as well as weatherizing the O.B.Curtis plant to help prevent shutdowns like what Jackson saw after the winter storms in 2021.
After reluctance to provide additional funding to the city, Gov. Tate Reeves has this week thrown state resources into Jackson to help diagnose and fix the problems at the treatment plant. State health department officials are now working from the plant in-person, and Reeves said the state will cover half the costs of emergency maintenance, repairs, and improvements.
Do you know how long it will be before the systems are back working?
Officials cannot say when things will be fixed, but have warned it’s not an immediate fix. Gov. Reeves and other officials have said as fixes are made at the plant, there is concern other things will break because of neglected maintenance — and the plant lacks “redundancy” and staff to maintain these repairs as well.
State, local and even federal officials are in talks of more permanent solutions.
Is raw water really flowing through the pipes in Jackson? How long will the water be unsafe to drink?
At a press conference Monday, Gov. Tate Reeves said “raw” water from the Ross Barnett Reservoir had been pumped through the drinking water system. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba later said this was inaccurate, and officials later clarified it is more accurate to say the water has not been optimally treated and is still not safe to drink.
Officials cannot say how long before water issues will be solved.
How long should I boil my water?
The Mississippi State Department of Health recommends Jacksonians boil water vigorously for one minute and let cool before consuming.
Can I bathe in this water? Wash my hands?
Health officials say the water is safe to use for bathing and handwashing, but should not be consumed without boiling first for one minute.
Can I use my dishwasher if I still have water pressure?
The Mississippi State Department of Health has said to use boiled water to clean dishes.
What can I do to help?
The Community Foundation for Mississippi has compiled a helpful resource page that includes information about how to give to organizations working to help Jacksonians. Visit their resource page here. People can also contact the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency on ways to help at [email protected].
How many people are impacted?
Officials don’t know how many households are impacted by low or no water pressure. Gov. Reeves said Tuesday it was impossible to say how many of the roughly 160,000 people served by the system are without water — that it depends on how close one is to a water tank, elevation and numerous other factors. But Jim Craig, director of health protection for the state health department, said that the O.B. Curtis plant, rated for 50 million gallons of water a day, on Tuesday was only pushing about 30 million gallons.
Most hospitals in Jackson are on their own water systems and mostly unaffected by the city’s water crisis — except for one.
The 319-bed facility Merit Health Central in south Jackson is currently operating with water tankers as a result of the crisis.
“I will say, we have been in this predicament quite frequently, so we do have processes, policies and methodologies in place that keeps us able to do what we need to do,” said Jana Fuss, director of marketing at the hospital.
Fuss said although the hospital has been able to continue services uninterrupted through the current water crisis, it comes at a “significant financial cost, and additional resources are required to keep the onsite water tanks full.”
The hospital has been using water from tankers since July 28, when a state-issued boil water notice went into effect.
She continued: “It is the hospital’s desire that the city will take quick action to identify the necessary solutions that will permanently resolve the water supply issues for our community.”
Hospital officials said the fire suppression system is “fine.”
Both St. Dominic Hospital and Mississippi Baptist Medical Center operate on their own systems, and patient care in the hospitals has not been affected, hospital representatives told Mississippi Today.
St. Dominic’s emergency response team was concerned about the impact of the water emergency to outpatient dialysis patients, but so far, the hospital has not seen an increase in people needing that care, according to Meredith Bailess, senior director of marketing and communications for the hospital.
Its fire suppression system remains in operation, she said.
Several other St. Dominic locations, such as its buildings on North Frontage Road off of I-55 and some clinic locations, are supplied by Jackson water.
Bailess said they are closely monitoring water pressure in these buildings and have thus far been able to continue operations.
Officials with Baptist say their clinics have been operating on the boil water notice for more than 30 days with “minimal impact” to patient care.
