by Allen Siegler, Mississippi Today
May 7, 2025

DUBLIN — Pregnant with her second child and entering addiction treatment at a Coahoma County residential program in 2019, Katiee Evans worried she had ruined her life beyond repair. The Columbus native had struggled for years with methamphetamine addiction, a disorder that led the state to take custody of her then-7-month-old daughter. 

Evans didn’t complete treatment after giving birth to her first child, but the prospect of remaining with her newborn motivated her to try it again. This time, she stayed sober during her second pregnancy – which she credits to being surrounded by dozens of other new parents going through the program, many of whom had their children with them.

“I got to love on my baby, and everybody else’s baby,” she said. 

Since then, Evans has reunited with her first child, given birth to a third baby and stayed sober. She now works for Fairland, the addiction treatment center that served her, helping to administer the program she credits with stabilizing her life. 

But a major source of funding for this program has been cut. In March, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration abruptly stopped distributing billions of public health dollars across the country. About $4.1 million of that was for Mississippi’s community mental health centers, organizations across the state that run services including the addiction treatment program Evans attended. 

A federal district judge has temporarily blocked the cuts, but the ruling only applies to the 23 states that sued the federal government, not Mississippi. 

“This announcement caught us off guard,” said Adam Moore, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, the agency that administers state and federal funds to the centers.

The centers’ services — including crisis response teams, adolescent support and development disability programs — are available regardless of people’s ability to pay. That’s possible in large part, center directors say, because of funds like the halted grants. Moore said that about 43% of the dollars the state’s mental health department provided centers in the 2024 fiscal year came from the federal government. 

A spokesperson for the federal government’s mental health agency said Mississippi’s money was granted to address the pandemic, which is no longer a threat to the U.S. She said a new federal agency called the Administration for a Healthy America will prioritize mental health efforts. 

The Region 6 center, which serves much of the Delta and runs the Fairland clinic, is expected to lose out on just over $850,000 in federal funds, according to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health. 

Part of the program that provided financial assistance for mothers and children to transition to independent housing had to be shut down in March as a result of the loss of funding. Phaedre Cole, the region’s executive director and Mississippi Association of Community Mental Health Centers president, said she’s uncertain whether the state agency would replace the money for that service. 

Joanne Shedd, a Fairland peer support specialist who also completed treatment at the center, said it can be nearly impossible to find housing options for new mothers and their children without that additional resource. 

“Our whole game plan that we have with these clients has got to completely change,” she said. 

CMHCs struggled to stay afloat before federal cuts

Mississippi’s community mental health centers have struggled to fund their services for years. Four have closed since 2012. Cole said consolidations have created more financial strain on her center, which has grown from serving eight to 16 counties over the past dozen years. 

Another four of the remaining 11 centers have little on-hand money to buffer any funding losses, according to the Mississippi Office of the Coordinator of Mental Health Accessibility’s latest quarterly report.

Cole said much of this financial instability comes from the responsibilities of community mental health centers: the Department of Mental Health tasks them with being the “primary service providers of outpatient community-based services” for kids and adults with mental health needs in every county they serve. 

“No one’s providing those safety net services that we provide,” Cole said. 

That means they maintain programs that are critical but expensive, including crisis stabilization unit beds and the Fairland program. 

While Cole said the maternal substance use program is costly, it addresses a disorder that can lead babies to be born prematurely, underweight and with birth defects if untreated. Substance use is also the second leading cause of Mississippi’s pregnancy-related deaths, according to the state’s most recent maternal mortality report. 

The Delta, where Fairland is located, has the highest rates in the state of mothers dying during pregnancy and the postpartum periods. 

In Oxford, Melody Madaris leads Communicare, the Region 2 Community Mental Health Center for six Mississippi counties. She said the majority of Communicare’s patients can’t pay for the center’s services, and her organization provided nearly $7 million of free care last year.

Because the organization relies heavily on federal funds, Madaris was shocked when she found out the federal mental health agency stopped hundreds of thousands of dollars Communicare was set to receive. 

“It was absolutely terrifying,” she said. “Within a day, we started looking at our budget and how we can continue to provide services at the same level.” 

Communicare is now unable to staff a diversion coordinator, an employee dedicated to working with judges overseeing mental illness-related civil commitment cases. The diversion coordinator helped people in this position and their family members determine if the person could get treatment in a community setting and avoid state hospital commitment. 

It’s the type of service the Department of Justice accused Mississippi of not doing enough of in its seven-year lawsuit against the state’s Department of Mental Health. Although the lawsuit was overturned in 2023, the mental health department’s executive director has said avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations remains a priority for the agency. 

“A lot of CMHCs had a lot of success with that role,” Madaris said. “When the federal government stopped those grants, that role stopped.” 

Moore, the Mississippi mental health department’s spokesperson, said the agency continues to fund 33 similar roles, called court liaisons, across the state. He also said the agency plans to use state alcohol tax revenue and other federal grant funds to try to fill the gaps, but there’s not enough to fully cover the lost dollars.

“You can backfill and keep things going on a short term basis,” said Mississippi Senate Public Health Committee Chairman Hob Bryan, D-Amory. “But long term, if the federal funding goes away, then those services are going to go away.”

State House Public Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, said he and other state lawmakers had assumed these funds would be available until September. 

“It does not seem fair,” he said. “We have a real, real need for mental health services in Mississippi, and I hate that this has happened. But it kind of seems par for the course, the way things are going with this Trump Administration right now.” 

Creekmore noted that in its last regular session, the Legislature passed a law that instructs the state to apply for a federal community mental health payment model that allows Medicaid to reimburse more for services. But it’s up to the federal government to approve Mississippi’s application. 

‘This is life or death for people’

Cole, the Region 6 executive director, said it would dramatically help Community Health Center operations if Mississippi’s application is approved next year. But she worries more drastic cuts could be coming – ones that would cripple the centers completely. 

She said centers like Region 6 receive other funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, a source of federal COVID-19 relief funds, and those contracts are set to end next year. If that money is also canceled, Cole said the state mental health centers would likely have to cut more services.

Additionally, the U.S. House of Representatives has adopted a resolution to cut $880 billion over the next 10 years from agencies including Medicaid, the federal and state partnership that provides health insurance to over half a million Mississippians. Cole said Region 6 receives over half its funding from Medicaid, and any cuts to the program could be “disastrous” for community mental health centers.

For Evans, the Columbus mother who was treated at Fairland, she wishes decision makers would visit Mississippi’s Community Mental Health Centers before cutting their funding. 

While people treated there, like those with severe mental illness, can’t always travel to Washington to advocate for themselves, she said it’s easy to see the deep impact programs like the one that saved her life have once one is inside the building.

“This is life or death for people. There’s no other way around it.”

Community Health Reporter Gwen Dilworth contributed to this story.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Mental health cuts threaten program for moms appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a sympathetic portrayal of the impact of federal mental health funding cuts on vulnerable populations in Mississippi, particularly mothers recovering from addiction. The narrative centers on personal stories and expert commentary to emphasize the value of these programs and the risks of defunding them. While it includes criticism of the Trump Administration’s policies—particularly a quote blaming the current administration—it largely focuses on reporting factual developments and quotes from stakeholders. The framing, however, tends to highlight the negative consequences of conservative policy decisions, aligning it with a Center-Left perspective.

by Margaret Baker, Sun Herald, Mississippi Today
May 6, 2025

A 74-year-old Navy veteran who says she was assaulted by a retired Long Beach police officer was hospitalized for a couple of days after the alleged attack because of a serious head injury that resulted in brain bleed.

Vivian Ramsay suffered a subdural hematoma of the brain, or a type of brain bleed, caused by a head injury during the April 24 attack, her attorney David Baria said.

“When I was serving my country in the Navy, I never thought there would be a day that any American, especially a retired policeman, would purposely confront me for expressing my opinion in a silent and peaceful manner,” Ramsay said in an interview Monday.

On the afternoon of the April 24 assault, Ramsay had parked her van at U.S. 90 and Jeff Davis Avenue for a peaceful protest against actions by President Donald Trump since he began his second term in office. Her van had signs denouncing various acts during the Trump administration. “We should not have to protect democracy from the President,” read one sign. In another, Ramsay proclaimed, “Married women lose voting rights. SAVE Act is voter suppression.”

Ramsay said she was surprised by the assault suspect, since identified as retired Long Beach Officer Craig DeRouche, 64, who she says approached her and ripped a protest sign off her van.

“He attempted to further intimidate me by grabbing at me,” she said. “I defended myself until he struck me in the head so hard that I fell to the ground, and I think I lost consciousness. His actions were unprovoked and outrageous. I defended my country in the Navy, and I defended myself on April 24, and I intend to defend myself in court for any charge that I violated the law.”

DeRouche has been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of simple assault against Ramsay in the April 24 incident. He is charged with a second count of misdemeanor assault in the same incident for allegedly assaulting a man who saw the attack and stopped to help the veteran protester, Long Beach Police Chief Billy Seal said.

READ MORE: See the full Sun Herald article here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Coast protester suffers brain bleed after alleged attack by retired policeman appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article reports on an alleged assault at a peaceful protest, involving a retired police officer and a Navy veteran, without presenting a clear ideological stance. The coverage focuses on the details of the incident, including the victim’s perspective and the charges against the assailant, Craig DeRouche. The tone of the reporting is factual, detailing the actions of both Ramsay and DeRouche, with an emphasis on the harm done to Ramsay and her perspective as a veteran. There is no overt ideological language or framing that strongly suggests bias, but the focus on the victim’s narrative and her outspoken political views may appeal more to a center-left audience that supports protest rights and is critical of actions associated with the Trump administration. The article avoids making a direct political argument but presents the event through a lens that might resonate with those who share Ramsay’s concerns about the political climate. The report is primarily descriptive, allowing readers to form their own conclusions based on the facts presented.

by Debbie Skipper, Jerry Mitchell, Nate Rosenfield, Brian Howey, Steph Quinn and Mukta Joshi, Mississippi Today
May 6, 2025

When the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department agreed to a $2.5 million settlement after “Goon Squad” officers tortured two Black men, the department’s attorney said he hoped it would provide closure for the victims.

But at a breakfast Saturday sponsored by the sheriff and his former father-in-law, Irl Dean Rhodes, county officials struck a much different tone.

Two days after the announcement of the settlement, Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines said the department’s attorney, Jason Dare, “beat the pants off of those guys — the dopers, the people that raped and doped your daughters. He beat their pants off.”

Gaines was referring to Eddie Parker and his friend, Michael Jenkins, who were beaten, tased and sexually assaulted by the deputies before they shot Jenkins in the mouth during a mock execution. The deputies tried to plant a BB gun and drugs on the men to cover up their crimes, but they were ultimately convicted and sent to federal prison for decades.

Parker has one felony conviction in Rankin County is for failing to “stop vehicle pursuant to officer’s signal,” according to court records. In Alabama, he had a 2019 conviction for drug possession with intent to distribute. Jenkins has no felony convictions listed in Rankin County. Neither has a conviction in neighboring Hinds County.

Gaines declined to comment about his remarks.

LISTEN: Two days after the $2.5 million “Goon Squad” settlement, Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines praised the sheriff’s department’s lawyer, Jason Dare, and talked about the two Black men whom deputies beat, tortured and sexually abused. Click the link to hear what he said at the Saturday breakfast hosted by Sheriff Bryan Bailey.

The two men’s lawyer, Trent Walker, said Gaines’ remark fits the racist trope of falsely accusing Black men of raping white men’s daughters.

That remark, Walker said, makes obvious “that attitudes like this permit rogue police to prevail and allow for the conditions in which officers have been able to carry out their unlawful agenda against other citizens of the state of Mississippi.”

An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror by 20 Rankin County deputies, several of whom routinely tortured suspected drug users to elicit information and confessions.

Many people have filed lawsuits alleging abuses by deputies, or say they filed complaints with the department or reported these incidents directly to Bailey, but the sheriff has denied any knowledge of these alleged abuses.

Gaines, who worked for three decades as an agent with the Office of Inspector General, praised Bailey for enduring the scandals that have wracked his department and prompted investigations by the Justice Department and the state auditor’s office regarding Bailey’s alleged misuse of taxpayer money equipment and supplies used at his mother’s commercial chicken farm.

READ:  ‘You’re His Property’: Embattled Mississippi sheriff used inmates and county resources for personal gain, former inmates and deputy say

“It made me cry at night that Sheriff Bailey, my friend, was absorbing this,” he said. “I’m gonna tell you, he has weathered the storm, and we are back.”

Bailey thanked the county’s leaders for their support. “For the past 28 months through all of this,” he said, “my board of supervisors have stood behind me 110%.”

The sheriff said he was ready to quit several times, but Rhodes urged him to stay and run again for sheriff. “He kept pushing me,” Bailey said. “He’s still pushing me.” 

Rhodes has long been regarded as “kingmaker” in Mississippi politics with many seeking his support in their campaigns. In the early 1980s, he was convicted and fined on multiple counts of felony tax evasion.

Gaines praised other Rankin County officials, citing the county’s smooth roads and relatively low crime rates, and expressed concern about the county’s growing pains, such as students from other counties attending Rankin schools. 

“ How do you feel about paying the taxes that you pay and people from across the river coming over here and putting their kids in your school?” he told the nearly all-white crowd, referring to the Pearl River that separates Hinds and Rankin counties. “They’re gonna pay taxes maybe one year or maybe not at all.”

Rankin County is 72% white, while Hinds County is 72% Black.

Angela English, president of the Rankin County branch of the NAACP, said there is no mistaking Gaines’ words as a racial reference. “That’s the kind of toxic environment that we have in Rankin County,” she said.

A lifelong resident of Rankin County, English helped integrate Florence schools with her sisters. “It’s always good to know where he [Gaines] stands, whether you agree with him or not,” she said. “I’d rather know who I’m dealing with than to be caught by surprise.”

His remark, she said, “alludes to the kind of people who are upholding Bryan Bailey.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Rankin supervisor calls torture victims 'dopers' and rapists appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The article reports on Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines’ comments regarding the victims of police abuse and the ongoing controversy surrounding the actions of the local sheriff’s department. While the article highlights Gaines’ remarks, which are racially charged and supportive of the sheriff, it primarily focuses on the factual reporting of the situation without overt ideological positioning. The article includes quotes from key figures such as Gaines and civil rights activists, and its tone remains neutral, reporting the conflict without endorsing a specific viewpoint. However, Gaines’ controversial language reflects a clear right-leaning stance in terms of support for local law enforcement, framing the victims negatively, which may influence public opinion in a direction that aligns with conservative political perspectives. The reporting itself maintains a factual narrative and refrains from pushing a partisan agenda, but the events described suggest a broader ideological divide in how law enforcement issues are viewed.