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The Hinds County Sheriff’s Office withheld jail death records from a legal advocacy organization for nearly a year. Then a local judge ordered the sheriff to turn the records over by July 9. But nearly two weeks later, the Southern Poverty Law Center is still waiting.
The missed deadline is the latest instance of the county and the sheriff failing to produce jail death records, which the SPLC has been seeking since last summer to learn more about the number of people who’ve died in recent years at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond.
“We’re just scratching our heads about why we don’t have the records,” said Andrea Alajbegovic, a senior staff attorney at the SPLC. “It’s a little confounding at this point.”
The dispute over the records comes after 18-year-old Mielun Butler was stomped to death in the Raymond center earlier this month, two days after he was arrested and charged with a shooting death at a south Jackson apartment complex.
The sheriff’s office’s failure to respond to the SPLC’s lawsuit – much less produce the records – has alarmed at least one local attorney who specializes in Mississippi’s government transparency laws.
The county’s failure to respond to the SPLC’s records request is egregious, said Leonard Van Slyke, a retired attorney who practiced media law in Mississippi for decades. He said the chancery judge could hold the county in contempt of court, levy fines or even order jail time.
Van Slyke added that in his experience, it’s common for public officials to claim records are exempt or find other ways to evade a public records request.
“But to totally ignore a request is very unusual,” he said.
The SPLC first requested the documents in May 2025. Though the Mississippi Public Records Act gives government entities seven business days to respond to public records requests, the sheriff’s office did not acknowledge the SPLC’s inquiry until January.
In March, the SPLC filed a lawsuit in Hinds County Chancery Court over the sheriff’s failure to produce the records. After the sheriff and a county attorney did not respond to the lawsuit, Judge J. DeWayne Thomas ordered the county to turn over the jail death records.
Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones listens to opinions on possible crime deterrents during a Violent Crime Prevention Summit held at the Two Mississippi Museums, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
When Mississippi Today first contacted Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones in March about the lawsuit, he said he was not aware. The SPLC did not issue a summons to the sheriff and instead served an officer manager, according to the court docket. In a Friday text message to Mississippi Today, Jones wrote he didn’t know the county had missed the deadline, adding “that’s a legal matter and the county attorneys would have to address that.”
Tony Gaylor, the Hinds County attorney, said the county has been inundated with public records requests, but he said he didn’t know how long the backlog is. He said the county would respond to the court’s order.
“That particular request is not something that’s being hid in any way, shape or form,” he said.
Gaylor also speculated the SPLC did not submit its records request through the county’s online portal until a Mississippi Today reporter informed him the organization had filed the request through that system.
Gaylor then said the SPLC should seek the records from the federal receiver who took over daily operations of the jail in October.
John Hall, a private attorney for the sheriff’s office, did not respond to an email and a call from Mississippi Today.
In mid-December, an attorney for the SPLC who knew Hall emailed him in an effort to obtain the records. According to exhibits attached to the SPLC’s complaint, Hall spoke to the SPLC on Jan. 7 and sent an email acknowledging the organization’s records request on Jan. 8, writing, “We’re on it.”
But the SPLC did not get the records or any further communication from the county, the emails show. The organization then sought the information from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety in early March but did not obtain the records.
Two days after SPLC filed the lawsuit in March, DPS provided jail death records. The SPLC subsequently removed the state agency from the suit.
Under a federal law, DPS is responsible for reporting the number of in-custody deaths in Mississippi to the U.S. Department of Justice. But the state agency gets its numbers from the sheriff, Alajbegovic said, necessitating the need for cross-checking.
“The full picture of people who have died in the facility seems to be extremely opaque,” she said.
Butler’s killing occurred the same day Thomas granted the SPLC default judgment.
A video of the attack circulated on Facebook, drawing renewed attention to the violent conditions at the jail. The Hinds County Detention Center has been subject to a federal consent decree since 2016.
Butler’s mother, Janice Bradley, joined prominent Jackson attorney Dennis Sweet III at a press conference last week to announce that she had filed a wrongful death claim against the sheriff’s office.
Sweet pledged to use the potential lawsuit to force the county to be more transparent.
“We’re going to get at it,” he said. “We will do depositions. We’ll get it all.”
