Miss. Prison Death Rate on Decline

JACKSON, Miss. (Press Release) — Mississippi’s prison mortality rate for every 100,000 inmates is on a downward trend since it peaked in 2007, based on the latest statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The mortality rate dropped 41 percent, from 441 deaths per 100,000 inmates in 2007 to 260 deaths in 2012, the report released Oct. 9 shows.

“MDOC acknowledges that it has a high mortality rate,” Commissioner Christopher B. Epps said. “But it is good to know the rate has gone down, not up.”

BJS said most of the deaths in state prisons were from heart disease and cancer, causes that should not be overlooked in examining Mississippi’s prison deaths.

MDOC has 3,693 inmates with cancer and a cardiovascular ailment, which includes heart disease, hypertension and stroke.

“Generally speaking, our prisoners’ health reflects what you will find true about the Mississippi population in general,” Epps said. “We have a lot of prisoners with health-related problems. But a recent Clarion-Ledger article about inmates dying in our custody fails to explore that aspect. Even though the article states that less than 7 percent of the inmate deaths in MDOC’s custody result from suicide and homicide, most of the story, including the beginning, unfairly focuses on those types of deaths.”

The average annual number of prisoners dying in Mississippi from homicides per 100,000 inmates is lower than about 20 other states from 2001 to 2012, according to the BJS statistics.

Epps said The Clarion-Ledger article also unfairly implies there is something sinister about MDOC data by saying the department gave different numbers to BJS and the newspaper, and states it doesn’t have the cause of death in nearly 80 cases.

The BJS statistics on deaths in state prisons not only do not reflect executions but also exclude state inmates confined in local jails. The Clarion-Ledger requested all deaths in MDOC’s custody. Updated information was provided to the newspaper before Sunday’s article showing fewer than 10 cases listed no cause of death, not 77 as reported.

“To describe the data as inconsistent and to say our unreported causes of death are numerous are misrepresentations of the facts,” Epps said.