Title 47, Prisons and Prisoners; Probation and Parole

(a) No contract for private correctional facilities or services shall authorize, allow, or imply a delegation of the authority or responsibility of the state to a prison contractor to:(a) Classify inmates or place inmates in less restrictive custody or more restrictive custody;(b…

(1) No public official or an employee of a state agency who has duties or responsibilities related to the contracting, constructing, leasing, acquiring or operating a private correctional facility may become an employee, consultant or contract vendor to a private entity providing…

There is hereby created a special fund to be designated as the “Correctional Facilities Emergency Construction Fund.” Any monies as may be appropriated by the Legislature shall be deposited into the fund. The expenditure of monies out of the fund shall be under the direction of t…

(1) Beginning January 1, 1995, the Department of Corrections shall phase in the following uniform designations for all offenders housed by the Department of Corrections:(a) Maximum security offenders – Red and white horizontal stripes which are three (3) inches wide;(b) Medium se…

(1) There is created the “Prison Industry Enhancement Program,” through which the Department of Corrections may contract with the nonprofit corporation organized and formed under the “Mississippi Prison Industries Act of 1990” to employ offenders within the custody of the departm…

All inmates, unless physically unable, shall be required to perform such work as may be set out in the policy-making board of the institution.

Sunflower County shall have the use of not over thirty-five (35) offenders six (6) workdays of each week for the purpose of working the roads of Sunflower County. The board of supervisors of Sunflower County shall lay out and designate the roads to be worked by the offenders, and…

Notwithstanding any other provisions of law to the contrary, as a supplementary method for granting concurrent jurisdiction to the United States, the Governor of the State of Mississippi may grant to the United States full civil and criminal jurisdiction concurrent with the State…

Quitman County, Mississippi, shall have the use of not over twenty (20) offenders from the Parchman facility for five (5) workdays of each week for the purpose of working the roads of Quitman County. The board of supervisors of Quitman County shall lay out and designate roads to …

(1) In addition to any other powers and duties of the Commissioner of Corrections, the commissioner is authorized to study and develop a plan for rotating bed space, known in military terms as “hot racking,” for adult offenders committed to the Department of Corrections. The plan…

The commissioner is authorized and empowered to use the offenders on or off the property of the correctional system to drain or improve the drainage of any property belonging to the correctional system. Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, no offenders at any time ar…

The Commissioner of Corrections may authorize the working of offenders, on a voluntary basis, in support of Habitat for Humanity, Inc., or the Fuller Center for Housing, Inc., which are nonprofit organizations. However, offenders shall only be used to work on construction project…

The Governor, on behalf of this state may execute the Interstate Corrections Compact, with any and all states legally joining therein, in substantially the following form and the Legislature signifies in advance its approval and ratification of such compact: INTERSTATE CORRECTION…

Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, the use of offenders as servants, gardeners, chauffeurs, cooks, baby-sitters or domestic workers of any nature by an employee of the correctional system or by any other person in an individual household is hereby prohibited; provi…

(1) The department may promulgate rules and regulations to carry out an earned time allowance program based on the good conduct and performance of an inmate. An inmate is eligible to receive an earned time allowance of one-half (½) of the period of confinement imposed by the cour…

(1) In addition to any other administrative reduction of sentence, an offender in trusty status as defined by the classification board of the Department of Corrections may be awarded a trusty-time allowance of thirty (30) days’ reduction of sentence for each thirty (30) days of p…

(1) An inmate shall not be eligible for the earned time allowance if:(a) The inmate was sentenced to life imprisonment; but an inmate, except an inmate sentenced to life imprisonment for capital murder, who has reached the age of sixty-five (65) or older and who has served at lea…

Each county attorney, district attorney, each member of the Parole Board and circuit judge shall be provided a copy of a handbook prepared by the commissioner which shall include a copy of Section 47-5-138 and Section 47-5-139, and shall clearly show how such sections would apply…

(1) The Mississippi Department of Corrections shall establish a Youthful Offender Unit (“YOU”) at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. All youth ages seventeen (17) years of age and under and who are assigned to a Mississippi Department of Corrections prison shall be ho…

(1) In order to provide incentive for offenders to achieve positive and worthwhile accomplishments for their personal benefit or the benefit of others, and in addition to any other administrative reductions of the length of an offender’s sentence, any offender shall be eligible, …

(a) For purposes of this section and Section 47-5-145, the following words shall have the meanings ascribed herein unless the context otherwise requires:(a) “Change of name petition” means a petition to change the legal name of an individual.(b) “Offender” means any physically in…

(1) (a) No offender shall have standing to file a change of name petition with the chancery court;(b) No chancellor shall grant a change of name pet for an offender; and(c) No chancery clerk shall file a change of name petition for an offender. (b) No chancellor shall grant a cha…

When an offender escapes from the custody of the department, the commissioner shall immediately notify the Governor who shall have exclusive power to authorize the payment of a reward, in his discretion, not exceeding Fifty Dollars ($50.00), out of any money available in the stat…

If any offender of the United States courts who has been delivered to the custody of the department shall escape or attempt to escape, or shall commit any other crime while in the state correctional system, he shall be liable to the like punishment as if he had been convicted by …

Sections 47-5-1501 through 47-5-1517 may be cited as the “Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act.”

(a) The Legislature of the State of Mississippi finds that:(a) The number of incarcerated women in the State of Mississippi has increased by a third (1/3) since 2001 and at one point in 2008 the rate had grown by forty-four percent (44%);(b) Nationally, the number of children und…

(a) “Restraints” means any physical or mechanical device used to restrict or control the movement of a prisoner’s body, limbs, or both. (b) “Body cavity searches” means invasive searches on inmates, conducted by facility employees in search of contraband. (c) “Flight risk” means …

(1) Upon notification and/or diagnosis of an inmate’s pregnancy, and for the duration of the pregnancy, and for thirty (30) days following the inmate’s delivery, the Department of Corrections and/or a correctional facility employee shall not apply the following restraints on the …

(1) No restraints shall be used on any female inmate who has given birth within the last thirty (30) days and is in postpartum recovery, unless the Department of Corrections has a reasonable belief that the female inmate will harm herself, her newborn, or any other person, or pos…

The superintendent (warden) or other person in charge of prisoners, upon the death of any prisoner under his care and control, shall at once notify the county medical examiner or county medical examiner investigator (hereinafter “medical examiner”) of the county in which said pri…

(1) To the greatest extent practicable, after accounting for security and capacity factors, the Department of Corrections shall place inmates who are parents of minor children within two hundred fifty (250) miles of their permanent address of record. (2) The Department of Correct…

(1) To the greatest extent practicable, and consistent with safety and order, the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections shall issue regulations that limit inspections by male correctional officers where a female inmate is in a state of undress. Nothing in this section sha…

The Department of Corrections shall ensure that sufficient personal hygiene products are available at each facility for all incarcerated women.

(1) The Department of Corrections shall develop and provide to all correctional facility employees and correctional officers who have contact with pregnant inmates training related to the physical and mental health of pregnant inmates and fetuses, including the following:(a) Gene…

There is hereby created a special fund to be known as the “Discharged Offenders Revolving Fund” to be maintained in a bank to be selected by the commissioner. It shall be the duty of the bank, so long as it retains such deposits, to make monthly reports to the State Treasurer of …

(1) When an offender is entitled to a discharge from the custody of the department, or is released therefrom on parole, pardon, or otherwise, the commissioner or his designee shall prepare and deliver to him a written discharge or release, as the case may be, dated and signed by …

(1) The department is authorized to maintain a bank account which shall be designated as the Inmate Welfare Fund. All monies now held in a similar fund or in a bank account or accounts for the benefit and welfare of inmates shall be deposited into the Inmate Welfare Fund. This fu…

Sections 47-5-1601 through 47-5-1609 of this act may be cited as the “Dignity and Safety for Incarcerated Women Act.”

(a) The Legislature of the State of Mississippi finds that the purpose of Sections 47-5-1601 through 47-5-1609 is as follows:(a) To provide for the safety and privacy needs of all incarcerated individuals in correctional and detention facilities in Mississippi; and(b) To maintain…

(a) For purposes of Sections 47-5-1601 through 47-5-1609, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed herein:(a) “Changing room” means a room or area in which a person may be in a state of undress in the presence of others, including a locker room or shower room.(b) “Cor…

(1) Every multi-occupancy restroom and changing room within a correctional facility shall be designated for exclusive use of:(a) Males; or(b) Females. (a) Males; or (b) Females. (2) A restroom or changing room within a correctional facility that is designated for one sex shall be…

(1) An individual who, while accessing a restroom or changing room designated for use by their sex, encounters a person of the opposite sex in that restroom or changing room in violation of Section 47-5-1607, has a private cause of action for declaratory and injunctive relief aga…

The commissioner, or his designees, may grant leave to an offender and may take into consideration sickness or death in the offender’s family or the seeking of employment by the offender in connection with application for parole, for a period of time not to exceed ten (10) days. …

The Commissioner of Corrections, with the concurrence of the Governor, is hereby authorized to enter into agreements with appropriate federal agencies to provide housing and incarceration of persons convicted by the courts of Mississippi and sentenced to the Mississippi Departmen…

At least fifteen (15) days prior to the release of an offender from the custody of the department because of discharge, parole, pardon, temporary personal leave or pass, or otherwise, except for sickness or death in the offender’s family, the director of records of the department…

The Department of Corrections is authorized to provide for hospice care services for inmates who are confined in facilities under the jurisdiction of the department and who are terminally ill as defined in Section 41-85-3. The department may have those hospice care services provi…