Mississippi PRIVATE PRISONS: Inmate Death, Medical Neglect, Serious Injury

Mississippi uses private corporations to generate profit in most areas, including corrections. The Mississippi Department of Corrections contracts with private medical providers and private prison operators to provide inmates with constitutionally required living conditions and humane treatment. These corporations generate millions of dollars in profit. Generally, medical services are provided through contracted for-profit companies to increase profits even with a steadily rising rate of imprisonment.

As the rate of imprisonment in Mississippi steadily rises, private prison operators and private medical contractors see green ($$). Private prison operators’ driving force is profit, which creates disturbing incentives and consequences.

Private corporations, such as Management & Training Corporation (MTC), usually get a certain, fixed amount per inmate per day, according to that inmate’s classification.

Cutting costs & corners = higher profits.

This financial structure often leads to:

• Dangerous understaffing levels;
• Inadequate training for correctional officers;
• Substandard medical care;
• Insufficient mental health services;
• Inferior quality food and basic necessities;
• Minimal rehabilitative programming.

When a Mississippi Prisoner Is Seriously Ill or Injured

Family members should understand that obtaining medical information about an incarcerated relative can be difficult. This can create a particularly difficult situation when the incarcerated person is unconscious, incapacitated, hospitalized, or otherwise unable to communicate with family members.

If you learn that a family member has suffered a serious injury or medical emergency in a Mississippi Private Prison, such as East Mississippi Correctional Facility (“EMCF”) or Wilkinson County Correctional Center (“WCCF”), the attorneys at Coxwell & Associates, PLLC, may assist you in obtaining justice and answers to questions regarding the person’s condition, their progression or worsening symptoms, and other information, which can be critical.

Important questions may include:

• When did prison officials first learn that something was wrong?
• Who discovered the incarcerated person?
• When was medical staff notified?
• What treatment was provided inside the facility?
• Was an ambulance called?
• Was the person transported to an outside hospital?
• Were there earlier complaints or requests for medical treatment?
• Was the person housed alone or with other incarcerated individuals?
• Were correctional officers conducting required security or welfare checks?
• Is there surveillance video showing what occurred?
• Was an incident report prepared?

What Happens When Someone Dies in a Mississippi Private Prison?

When a prisoner dies while under the care and control of a prison, Mississippi law requires the superintendent, warden, or other person responsible for the prisoner to immediately notify the county medical examiner or county medical examiner investigator in the county where the death occurred after the death of a prisoner. See Miss. Code Ann. § 47-5-151.[1]

The medical-examiner requirement is important because a death in custody should not simply be treated as an “internal” prison matter. An independent determination of the cause and manner of death may become critical. This is particularly true when the death follows a prison assault, suicide, drug overdose, brain injury, delayed medical treatment, unexplained injury, inadequate medical care, or other unusual circumstances.

How Is the Family Notified?

Families naturally expect that someone will contact them immediately when a loved one dies in prison. In practice, the process can be more complicated.

Correctional institutions generally maintain next-of-kin information for incarcerated individuals. The inmate handbook explains that inmates complete a Chaplaincy Information Form containing next-of-kin information used in connection with critical illness or death involving family members.

KEEP WRITTEN RECORD OF EVERYTHING!

If a family receives notification of a death, it is important to document exactly when the notification occurred, who provided it, what the family was told, and whether that explanation later changed. Those details may seem secondary during the immediate shock of losing a loved one, but they can become significant later.

A Death or Serious Injury in a MS Private Prison Deserves Answers

Not every death in prison results from wrongdoing. Incarcerated people suffer illnesses and medical emergencies just like people outside prison.

But incarceration changes one very important fact: The person cannot simply leave and obtain help somewhere else. An incarcerated person depends upon correctional staff and prison medical providers for protection, emergency response, medication, medical treatment, and access to outside hospitals. These rights apply to every prisoner under the United States Constitution.

That is why certain circumstances surrounding a Private Prison death deserve careful investigation. Warning signs may include a death following:

• an assault by another incarcerated person;
• complaints that the person was threatened or in danger;
• significant understaffing in the housing unit;
• missed security or welfare checks;
• an unexplained delay in discovering the person;
• repeated requests for medical treatment;
• failure to provide prescribed medications;
• an apparent suicide despite known suicide risks;
• an overdose involving drugs or contraband inside the facility;
• unexplained injuries;
• delayed transportation to a hospital;
• inconsistent explanations concerning what happened; or
• missing surveillance video or other records.

In those situations, the family's questions should not necessarily end with the prison's initial explanation of the death.

Evidence Can Disappear Quickly After a Prison Death

One of the most important things families should understand is that evidence inside correctional facilities may not be preserved indefinitely.

Depending upon the circumstances, relevant evidence can include surveillance video, body-worn-camera footage, housing-unit logs, electronic security rounds, incident reports, photographs, medical records, emergency-response records, staffing rosters, radio communications, emails, text messages, disciplinary records, investigative files, and records concerning other incidents in the same housing unit. Surveillance video can be particularly important.

Many correctional surveillance systems automatically overwrite recorded footage after a certain period of time. If a family believes a death may have resulted from violence, inadequate medical treatment, failure to protect, suicide, or another preventable event, a written request to preserve evidence should be made as quickly as possible.

Once litigation is reasonably foreseeable, the preservation of relevant evidence can become an important legal issue.

Private Prison Deaths & Federal Civil-Rights Issues

The Constitution does not stop at the prison gate.Depending upon whether the individual was a convicted prisoner or a pretrial detainee and the circumstances surrounding the death, a claim may arise under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when unconstitutional conduct contributes to serious injury or death.

Potential cases can involve allegations concerning:

• Failure to Protect. Private prison officials may not deliberately disregard a substantial risk that an incarcerated person will suffer serious harm from another prisoner.

• Inadequate Medical Care. Serious constitutional concerns can arise when private prison officials or medical providers disregard serious medical needs.

• Suicide Prevention.A death by suicide may require investigation into what private prison officials knew about the person's condition and whether appropriate precautions were taken.

• Dangerous Prison Conditions. Chronic understaffing, uncontrolled violence, inadequate supervision, broken locks, failure to conduct required rounds, or other systemic problems may become relevant when determining why a death occurred in a private prison.

These cases are highly fact specific. Just because someone died incarcerated does not, by itself, establish a constitutional violation. The question is what happened before the death, what prison officials knew, what they did or failed to do, and whether those actions violated the law.

What Should a Family Do After a Death in Custody?

The priority is taking care of your family. However, if the circumstances surrounding your loved one’s death are unclear or concerning, someone in the family should begin keeping records as soon as possible.

**Save every letter, email, text message, voicemail, photograph, and document relating to the death. Write down the names of prison employees, investigators, medical personnel, or others who speak with the family. Record the dates and substance of those conversations. **

**Request the death certificate and, when available, the autopsy report. **

**Most importantly, if there is reason to believe the death may have been preventable, consider contacting an attorney familiar with correctional civil-rights litigation before potentially important evidence is lost, destroyed, or routinely discarded. **

Questions About a Death or Serious Injury in a Mississippi Private Prison?

Coxwell & Associates, PLLC represents individuals and families in serious civil-rights cases involving Mississippi private prisons and jails, including claims involving inmate assaults, failure to protect, inadequate medical care, serious injuries, and deaths in custody.

Private prison-death cases can involve multiple entities including MTC and its officials, county officials, private prison operators, correctional officers, medical contractors, and individual medical providers, and determining what happened frequently requires obtaining records and evidence that families cannot readily access themselves.

If your loved one died or suffered a catastrophic injury while incarcerated in a Mississippi private prison or jail and you have questions about what happened, contact Coxwell & Associates, PLLC to discuss the circumstances of the case.

This article provides general information concerning Mississippi correctional facilities and civil-rights law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.