Lawmakers: Jail no default place

For years, Mississippians have been jailed without criminal charges while they await mental health treatment. 

In the current session of the state legislature, lawmakers intend to propose bills aiming to significantly curtail that practice, according to interviews last week. 

In the House, the measures will be sponsored by the chair and vice chair of the Public Health and Human Services Committee, to which at least some of the proposals may be referred.

“We can’t send people with mental illness to jail because the county doesn’t want to pay” for an alternative, said Rep. Kevin Felsher (R-Biloxi), vice chair of that committee. 

No legislation has been filed to date, but Felsher and Rep. Sam Creekmore (R-New Albany), the new public health chairman, said they plan to introduce a slate of bills that together would address multiple aspects of the civil commitment process and impose new limits on the jailing of people without criminal charges. 

Last year, Mississippi Today and ProPublica reported that hundreds of Mississippians are jailed every year without criminal charges while they await mental health treatment through the civil commitment process. At least 14 Mississippians have died following incarceration during commitment proceedings since 2006. No other state routinely jails people for days or weeks without charges during the commitment process.

Department of Mental Health Director Wendy Bailey told Mississippi Today that her agency had reviewed commitment statutes in multiple states. 

Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia prohibit jailing people without criminal charges during the process. Statues in Minnesota and South Dakota strictly limit it. (Mississippi Today 01/15/24) Lawmakers challenge jail as 'default place' for mentally ill - Mississippi Today