Lawmakers hear concerns, ways to improve health outcomes in Mississippi’s prison system

Lawmakers hear reservations, ways to.

Key points

• FILE – In this July 21, 2010, photo, employees leave the front gate of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Miss.
• "The Department of Corrections was invited to this hearing, " House Public Health and Welfare Committee Chair State Rep.
• Jacob Graham with South Central Regional Medical Center to share stories he has seen personally of the lack of proper care in Mississippi prisons.
• A third patient, additionally diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2025, was identified to have prostate-specific antigen levels above 60.
• After four years, the contract changed hands four more times until in 2020 when the current provider, VitalCore, took over the contract under an emergency status.

Lawmakers hear reservations, ways to improve health outcomes in Mississippi's prison system. By: Jeremy Pittari – October 16, 2026.

FILE – In this July 21, 2010, photo, employees leave the front gate of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Miss. An inmate at the Mississippi prison that was a focus of recent deadly unrest was discovered hanging in his cell by two corrections officers over the weekend and pronounced dead, a coroner stated Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File).

According to It was, representatives with the Mississippi Department of Corrections were invited to attend the Joint Committee of Public Welfare and Corrections hearing held Thursday, but the agency did not show up to speak with the committee.

Reservations over the level of care inmates in state custody are receiving was the major topic during this week's Joint Committee of Public Welfare and Corrections hearing at the Mississippi Capitol.

During previous legislative sessions, reservations over how inmates are provided healthcare, if at all, have been topics of contention for State Rep. Becky Currie (R), chair of the House Corrections Committee. She has consistently expressed reservations on how the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the state's current inmate healthcare contractor has handled that task.

For years, Currie has remarked she receives calls from families who allege inmates are not receiving the care and medications they need.

During Thursday's hearing, a number of stories were shared with the committee of lawmakers concerning prisoners' limbs requiring amputation while incarcerated due to inadequate diabetic care and cancer diagnoses going untreated for inordinately long periods.

While the current contracted medical provider, VitalCore, did attend the session to address the matters raised, there was no representation from the Mississippi Department of Corrections present.

"The Department of Corrections was invited to this hearing, " House Public Health and Welfare Committee Chair State Rep. Samuel Creekmore (R) remarked. "We just wanted to have the answers to whatever questions this body asked, and they chose not to come. So we may not obtain all the answers today, but I think it needs to be observed that they were invited." Stories of a lack of care.

Currie brought in Dr. Jacob Graham with South Central Regional Medical Center to share stories he has seen personally of the lack of proper care in Mississippi prisons.

He informed of one inmate who was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The inmate had been denied treatment for so long the cancer reached his bones and caused the compression of his spinal cord, leading to paralysis in his lower extremities. Typically, spinal cord compression can result in permanent paralysis in as little as a day.

"What he reported to the neurosurgery team was a gradual development of a lower extremity weakness over the course of some months, and by the time he was evaluated at UMMC, he had progressed to a wheelchair requirement and inability to walk for a month and a half, " Graham described.

When that condition goes untreated for even a day, it is unlikely the person will ever regain the ability to walk.

"It's a time sensitive thing, " Graham explained. "This patient, he did get the second best thing to surgery, which surgery would have been too much to put him through with the low chance of it helping."

After receiving treatment through radiation and steroids the inmate was still left with a lifetime disability.

Another patient of Graham's diagnosed with lung cancer additionally the condition go untreated for a long period, resulting in his blood showing elevated amounts of calcium. Elevated calcium is a condition that can result in death within weeks or months. The University of Mississippi Medical Center took a biopsy and began treatment. After the patient was discharged from UMMC, MDOC was provided instructions for a follow-up within the next week.

"Unfortunately, we did not receive the referral on this patient for a month after his discharge, " Graham remarked.

Meanwhile, a third patient, additionally diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2025, was identified to have prostate-specific antigen levels above 60. Graham remarked a normal level is concerning 4. That inmate did not see a urologist for another eight weeks after diagnosis and a biopsy did not occur until April of this year. He received treatment this August.

"And this PSA is so high, you think almost certainly the patient's going to have metastatic disease, " Graham remarked. "So you're talking roughly a year delay on treatment on something that should have been treated as an urgent situation from the initial PSA."

That inmate did not have metastatic disease and did survive, but Graham remarked he was lucky.

"My understanding of our prison healthcare system is it's a capitated, fixed payment, system and that kind of system can negatively incentivize a service provider from ensuring timely diagnoses and treatment of cancer, unless you have robust quality metrics and oversight, " Graham remarked.

Lawmakers and family additionally shared stories of inmates not receiving proper treatment.

State Rep. Elliot Burch (R) was contacted by a family concerned regarding the care their relative received while in state custody. That inmate had undergone at least two to three amputations for complications due to diabetes.

Burch was unsure of how plenty of amputations occurred while the man was incarcerated but did describe who when he met with the inmate after his release, the man was housed in a motel and could not walk. It was created clear the inmate had diabetes prior to being incarcerated, but his condition worsened due to a lack of proper diet and other factors. When he was published, the man was not provided with a proper place to stay and was not provided with the means to test his blood sugar, while he was tested multiple times a day while in state custody.

Tupelo resident Pearly White shared the story of her son who was incarcerated with medical needs due to an amputation of one arm. He required specific nerve pain and mental health medications, both of which she claims her son was denied during his time in prison. White continued that the judge additionally ordered her son to undergo alcohol and drug treatment. It he did not receive. He is out of prison now and back with his mother.

"Physically, he is there. Mentally, he is so angry or he just doesn't know how to control what goes on actually right now. I have holes in my walls at home, " White described. "So instead of hitting me he hit the wall."

Over the course of a number of decades there have been a number of contracted health providers for the state's prison system.

Ted Booth, Deputy Director of the Mississippi Joint Legislative PEER Committee, informed the legislative committee that Mississippi moved to a contract model for that service in 1999 after lawsuits ensued under the state employee model. UMMC was the first contractor, providing care at a cost to the state of regarding $5.07 per inmate per day.

After four years, the contract changed hands four more times until in 2020 when the current provider, VitalCore, took over the contract under an emergency status. The contract now has a rate of $17.85 per inmate per day, remarked VitalCore advisor Brian Collier.

Despite the complaints lodged earlier in the session, VitalCore President Viola Riggin stated her organization took over the contract since it was in dire straits. They came in during the aftermath of riots occurring at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, additionally known as Parchman. She remarked her business took the contract since it has a record of turning such situations around since 2015.

"Care was dire when we came in, honestly. And it is one of the better run systems in the nation right now, " Riggins contends. "We may have failed in letting you know what's going on."

She believes the stories informed on Thursday are the lingering results of deficiencies from the previous contractors.

"And what you're hearing today are some of the residuals of some of those things, " Riggin remarked. "And we say to you six years later that we are trying to make sure that what you have is a great system that does several things."

She argued that her firm is now doing the work that was not done previously, such as regular checkups, intake screening for HIV and Hepatitis C, and mammograms. She additionally stated the nerve pain medication, gabapentin, White noted her son did not receive, is available under her business.

"We do physical exams every single year. We began that, " Riggin stated. "That was not done. We do provide gabapentin in our system. We do have mammography in our system. We do provide HIV treatment to every single patient. We have a high quality of care."

Within the last couple of years, VitalCore ramped up efforts to treat inmates with Stage 3 or 4 Hepatitis C.

She additionally went on that efforts are being created to ensure sufficient staffing within the contract's specifications.

Under the contract, the firm is required to be at 85% within the required nursing staff numbers and 95% compliant in the number of doctors. At present, the business is at 100% in one criteria and 97% in the other. Riggin did not clarify which statistic correlated with those positions.

"We don't have open positions on purpose, we do not, " Riggins continued. "And as a matter of fact we put in additional positions where we believed clinically it's needed, and have not been reimbursed for that." Current state of the prison population.

For now, lawmakers hear concerns, ways to improve health outcomes in Mississippi’ s prison system remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.