Mississippi Says To Isolate After Testing Positive For COVID-19 Or Face Up To 5 Years In Prison And A Fine

[Mary Wilson]

Aug 22, 2021

By Ashe Schow

As COVID-19 cases rise in Mississippi, the state’s Department of Health on Friday sent out an alert warning those who test positive for COVID-19 to isolate for 10 days or face up to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

... “The failure or refusal to obey the lawful order of a health officer is, at a minimum, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $500.00 (41-3-59) or imprisonment for six months or both. If a life-threatening disease is involved, failure or refusal to obey the lawful order of a health officer is a felony, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000.00 or imprisonment for up to five years or both (41- 23-2),” Dobbs wrote (State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs).

https://www.dailywire.com/news/miss...tter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dwtwitter

 

[Mary Wilson]

MSDH Mandates 10-Day Isolation For COVID-Positive Mississippians to Avoid Charges

AUGUST 20, 2021

BY NICK JUDIN

Mississippians infected with COVID-19 must isolate for 10 days, regardless of vaccination status, under a new Mississippi State Department of Health order that carries the weight of law. The order comes today, directly from State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs. Under the Mississippi State Code and the ongoing state of emergency, which Gov. Tate Reeves expanded through September, willful disregard for others after infection could result in criminal penalties.

Put simply, the order mandates that “all persons residing in Mississippi must immediately home-isolate on first knowledge of infection with COVID-19.”

... Even vaccinated individuals must isolate after a positive test, which would constitute a “breakthrough case” of COVID-19.

https://www.mississippifreepress.or...vid-positive-mississippians-to-avoid-charges/

 

[Emily]

Threatening felony records and prison time is heavy-handed and will just discourage testing and vaccinations. The state's prisons are in a horrible mess.

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2020/jul/1/mississippi-prisons-crisis/
Mississippi Prisons in Crisis
Loaded on July 1, 2020 by David Reutter published in Prison Legal News July, 2020, page 1

Prisons beset with gang-related violence, overcrowding, understaffing and weak funding.

by David M. Reutter

Between late last year and early April 2020, more than 30 Mississippi prisoners died due togang violence, suicide or illness – over 10 times the average of 3.4 prisoner deaths per year between 2014 and 2018. Prisoner advocates blame budget cutting and mass incarceration policies that have left state prisons overcrowded, deteriorated and understaffed.

Dozen of reports by news organizations cast a pall on the state prison system.

The chaos within the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) began on December 29, 2019, after a conflict erupted between the Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples. It escalated into what officials called a “gang war” after South Mississippi Correctional Institution (SMCI) prisoner Terrandance Dobbins, a Gangster Disciples member, was killed and two others were injured.

According to officials, prisoners used cellphones to spread news of the war. Soon after, the riot at SMCI spread to Mississippi State Prison at Parchman and other prisons. Parchman, despite lock downs, was the scene of five murders and two other deaths in 30 days.

“They ran the guards out of the building last night,” a Parchman prisoner wrote about the all-night gang battles he witnessed on New Year’s Day 2020. “I don’t know what they’re going to do. They’re short on staff. They were banging all night. Don’t list my name. You’ll get me killed.”

The violence was a setback from improvements made during 40 years of federal oversight after a lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which resulted in the closure of Parchman’s Unit 32 in 2010. [See PLN, February 2011, p. 22.]...