by Gwen Dilworth, Mississippi Today

This article was produced by Mississippi Today, which was a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in 2023-24. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Last year, Mississippi passed a new law aimed at decreasing the number of people being jailed solely because they need mental health treatment. Officials say it has led to fewer people with serious mental illness detained in jails.

But the data submitted by different entities is contradictory and incomplete, making it impossible to know if the numbers are really going down.

“It’s been inconsistent. It’s been sometimes just absent in different parts of the state,” said Rep. Sam Creekmore IV, a Republican from New Albany who chairs the Public Health and Human Services Committee and who sponsored legislation related to civil commitment during the last two sessions. “And so it’s really hard for us to evaluate how well or how bad we’re doing when the numbers aren’t consistent.”

The Legislature approved changes to the state’s civil commitment law last year after reporting by Mississippi Today and ProPublica revealed that hundreds of people with no criminal charges were held in Mississippi jails each year as they awaited involuntary mental health evaluation and treatment. They frequently received no mental health care in jail and were treated like criminal defendants. The investigation found that since 2006, at least 17 people have died after being jailed during this process; and a nationwide survey as part of that series found that Mississippi is unique among states in its heavy use of jails for people who are civilly committed.

Under the new law, which went into effect in July, a person cannot be held in jail unless all other options for care have been exhausted and unless they are “actively violent”; and they can never be held for more than 48 hours. The new law also requires that people in crisis see mental health professionals first, who can recommend commitment or suggest voluntary treatment options that are more suitable, avoiding the civil commitment process entirely.

In the first three months that the law was in effect, more than 1,300 people were screened statewide for possible civil commitment, and over 500 were diverted to a less-restrictive treatment option, according to community mental health center reports. But during the same period, from July to September 2024, a state agency, counties and community mental health centers all reported vastly different numbers of people who spent time in jail during the process.

Community mental health centers reported that 43 people were jailed in that period, less than half the number the Department of Mental Health reported: 102 people. And the department’s figure is likely an undercount because it only includes people who were admitted to a state hospital after their time in jail. Department of Mental Health spokesperson Adam Moore told Mississippi Today he couldn’t explain the discrepancy.

And only 43 of Mississippi’s 82 chancery court clerks submitted data during the same period, despite a law from 2023 that required the courts to report psychiatric commitment data to the state. Those counties reported a total of 25 people being held in jail from July to September 2024 while in the civil commitment process.

Creekmore said he plans to propose a bill this year that would ensure more counties submit mandatory data.

“It really makes it impossible to legislate changes to (the new civil commitment laws) when our data is not complete,” he said.

Last year, Creekmore said the Department of Mental Health would “police” counties to ensure compliance. But the agency itself said something different: Moore told Mississippi Today and ProPublica that it would educate county officials and mental health workers on the new law but wouldn’t enforce it.

The Department of Mental Health sends quarterly reminders to clerks about reporting deadlines, has provided access to training videos and written instructions, and established a help desk for technical questions, Moore said.

Most states do not regularly hold people in jail without charges during the psychiatric civil commitment process. At least 12 states and the District of Columbia prohibit the practice entirely. And only one Mississippi jail was certified by the state to house people awaiting court-ordered psychiatric treatment in 2023.

Sheriffs, who have long decried the burden of housing people with mental health concerns in jails as inappropriate and unsafe, have been largely supportive of changes to the law.

“It’s fantastic for the sheriffs, because the sheriffs don’t want people that are sick in the jail,” said Will Allen, the attorney for the Mississippi Sheriffs’ Association. “They certainly don’t want people who have not committed a crime in the jail.”

But implementing the law has proved challenging for areas of the state with limited resources, particularly those without nearby crisis stabilization units, which provide short-term treatment to people in psychiatric crises.

And even in well-resourced areas, limited crisis beds can force counties to transport patients or house them in a nearby private treatment facility at the counties’ expense.

The restrictions on housing people in jail have proved to be a “nightmare” for Calhoun County, which is more than 30 miles away from the nearest crisis stabilization unit, Chancery Clerk Kathy Poynor said.

“We don’t have anywhere else to put them,” she said. “We can’t afford a psychiatric cell. Rural counties just can’t meet the financial obligations.”

Some advocates say the law’s stipulations should be more stringently supervised by the state.

Greta Martin, the litigation director for Disability Rights Mississippi, said the lack of oversight in the law is concerning.

“If you are enacting legislation with a 48-hour cap on people being held in county jail and you do not provide any oversight ensuring that county jails are adhering to that, what’s the point of the legislation?” she said.

Is a New Mississippi Law Decreasing Jailings of People Awaiting Mental Health Treatment? The State Doesn’t Know.