From prisoners suffering amputations due to diabetes to a mother taking desperate measures to help her incarcerated son treat his debilitating pain, Mississippi lawmakers on Thursday heard stunning testimony in a more than three-hour hearing about inadequate healthcare in state prisons.
asserted
lawmakers → suffer → prisons
Lawmakers presiding over a joint meeting of the House and Senate Public Health and Corrections committees peppered the CEO of Mississippi’s prison medical contractor, Kansas-based VitalCore Health Strategies, with questions about allegations of systemic failure to stop preventable deaths and illness.
asserted
Lawmakers → preside → deaths
Their questions stemmed from stories that have poured in from their constituents, journalists and legislative watchdog reports.
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that → stem → constituents
Lawmakers also condemned the absence of the Mississippi Department of Corrections at the hearing, despite having sent the agency a letter urging its officials to attend.
asserted
Lawmakers → condemn → officials
The hearing came after Mississippi Today’s Behind Bars, Beyond Care series documented potentially thousands of prisoners with untreated hepatitis C and others having trouble getting cancer screenings.
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series → come → screenings
The series documented numerous cases of alleged neglect, including delayed care of an inmate leading to death, a prisoner’s untreated broken arm forcing an amputation, and prison officials communicating their dismay at an inmate’s rotting leg going untreated.
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leg → document → dismay
Lawmakers, led by House Corrections Chairwoman Becky Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, proposed several measures earlier this year to improve prison healthcare and create stronger safeguards against the denial of care, but most of the proposed reforms died.
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most → lead → reforms
The Thursday hearing centered on some of the problems the bills sought to correct as lawmakers expect to propose more reforms for the state’s troubled and expensive prison healthcare system next year.
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lawmakers → center → system
Lawmakers on Thursday heard about:
Alarming delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment
Dr. Jacob Graham, an oncologist at South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel, said he has been alarmed by the significant delays in diagnosis and treatment faced by his patients who are incarcerated in MDOC facilities.
One patient he described did not receive a prostate cancer diagnosis until the disease spread to his bones and caused permanent paralysis of his lower body due to compression of the spinal cord.
Another waited nearly a year to receive prostate cancer treatment after a blood test showed dangerously high levels of a protein measured to screen for the disease.
asserted
test → hear → disease
The test in fall of 2025 showed a prostate-specific antigen of 60 — significantly higher than the normal range of zero to four — but he did not receive a biopsy until April 2026, and did not begin treatment until August.
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he → show → August
Graham said it was “miraculous” the cancer had not metastasized in spite of the significant treatment delay.
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cancer → say → delay
Yet another patient with lung cancer that had spread throughout his body received treatment at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and a dire prognosis of weeks to a few months to live.
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that → spread → months
prison medical staff did not arrange for him to visit a local oncologist within a week as ordered, leaving him to languish for over a month before receiving follow-up care as his condition deteriorated.
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condition → arrange → care
He was then hospitalized again due to complications associated with the delays in care.
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He → hospitalize → care
Limb amputations and trip to a Motel 6
Multiple state lawmakers relayed stories of constituents who suffered amputations due to untreated diabetes in prison.
Limb amputations are a serious complication of diabetes, though a majority of diabetes-related amputations are preventable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
uncertain
majority → relay → Control
Rep. Elliot Burch, a Republican from Lucedale, testified that he received a call a year and a half ago informing him that a constituent with serious medical concerns had been released from prison to a Motel 6 on I-55 in Jackson, even though MDOC staff previously told his family they planned to refer him to long-term care.
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they → testify → care
Burch, initially skeptical of the story, decided to investigate himself.
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Burch → decide → himself
He traveled to the motel, and after he knocked on the man’s door, he found him with both legs amputated, unable to get out of bed himself to unlock the door.
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legs → travel → door
At least one of the amputations occurred while the man was in MDOC custody due to uncontrolled diabetes.
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man → occur → diabetes
The man had been dropped off with insulin, but no blood glucose monitor.
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man → drop → insulin
And the only food he had to eat was a bag packed with carbohydrate-rich foods, including crackers and sandwiches.
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he → have → crackers
The man ultimately had to seek emergency care for another issue and was discharged to long-term care from the hospital.
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man → have → hospital
Rep. Steve Lott, a Republican from Lucedale, said he received a call from a constituent set to be released from South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville with serious health issues, including diabetes.
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he → say → diabetes
Three days after the man was paroled from prison, his leg was amputated.
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leg → parole → prison
A mother takes desperate measures to help treat her son’s chronic pain
Pearly White said she almost lost her home from sending money to the prison where her son was incarcerated after he lost access to critical medication.
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he → take → medication
She went on to tell lawmakers about a scheme where fellow prisoners, under the watch of guards, coerced her to pay them an ever-increasing sum of money for illegal drugs to help her son manage pain medical officials failed to manage.
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officials → go → pain
“She’s been extorted,” Currie said.
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Currie → extort → ?
White’s son was an amputee when he went to prison, spending time at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and Marshall County Correctional Facility after multiple DUI charges.
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he → go → charges
He had spinal cord damage, a condition he managed with gabapentin, a prescription nerve-pain medication.
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he → have → gabapentin
The problems began when prison officials told him they couldn’t provide him with the drug.
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they → begin → drug
He couldn’t function, she said, and desperate to manage the debilitating pain, he turned to marijuana.
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he → function → marijuana
In a plea to help her son, White transferred money to people inside the prison through an app.
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White → help → app
She could afford the payments at first, but they eventually ratcheted up the price to over $1,000, threatening to cut off her son.
uncertain
they → afford → son
“They know what they’re doing,” White said.
asserted
White → know → what
“They have help.
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They → have → help
The officers, they know.”
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they → know → ?
White, a veteran who works as a surgical technician in Oxford, said she has plunged into debt trying to get her son treatment he should have received through the state’s prison medical contractor.
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he → work → contractor
“I stand up on this bad back and these bad knees every day so that I can pay the bills that I acquired from the inmates, because VitalCore didn’t think it was necessary that he have gabapentin,” White said.
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White → stand → gabapentin
White’s son was eventually released from prison and now lives with her.
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son → release → her
White said she reported the scheme to MDOC’s Corrections Investigation Division and the FBI.
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she → say → Division
…and 39 more, not listed.
The Aporia
