At least 24th Mississippi inmate dies since late December

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — One Mississippi inmate died Tuesday at a Jackson hospital and another died Wednesday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, and autopsies will be done on each.

At least 24 Mississippi inmates have died since late December, and the state prison system is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton said she was called to Parchman on Wednesday after a physician there said an inmate had died.

“The offender was in the inpatient department and had been receiving treatment for a terminal illness,” Burton said in a news release. “I do not suspect that foul play was involved.”

The Mississippi Department of Corrections did not immediately release the inmate's name because the family was being notified.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections said Grayland Cox, 62, died Tuesday at Merit Health Central and “no foul play is suspected.”

Some of the deaths in Mississippi prisons the past several weeks happened during outbursts of violence. Some inmates were found hanging in their cells. Coroners

said other deaths were from natural causes.

The Justice Department announced Feb. 5 that its civil rights division would investigate Mississippi prisons that have struggled with violence, tight budgets, short staffing and poor living conditions, including broken sinks and toilets in cells and widespread mold in showers.

Cox had been taken to the hospital from Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, where he was serving a six-year sentence for a conviction of selling cocaine. He was sentenced in November 2017 in Marshall County.