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The Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) is a Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) prison for men and women located in an unincorporated area in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States, between the cities of Pearl and Brandon. The 171-acre (69 ha) prison was, for a period of time, the only state prison to hold female prisoners in Mississippi, in addition to minimum and medium security male offenders. It operates as the female death row of the state.

The prison is in proximity to the state capital of Jackson.

The prison houses the Receiving and Classification Unit (R&C), where most prisoners entering the MDOC system are held before going to their permanent unit assignments. Most male inmates who are sentenced to MDOC by the courts or who are returned to MDOC as parole violators, probation violators, intensive supervision program (ISP) violators, earned release supervision (ERS) violators, and suspension violators are placed at R&C. All women inmates who are sentenced to MDOC by the courts or who are returned to MDOC as parole violators, probation violators, ISP violators, ERS violators, and suspension violators are placed in 1A or 2B at CMCF. Male death row inmates do not go to CMCF; they are transferred from county jails and immediately go to the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the location of the male death row.

MDOC states that CMCF was "designed to provide aesthetics along with security."

On February 19, 2024, The Washington Post reported that a former inmate, Susie Balfour, had filed a lawsuit alleging that she had developed breast cancer as a consequence of working with carcinogens without proper protective equipment, and that the facility had refused to provide her with proper treatment for her cancer. When she was released she sought treatment and discovered her cancer was Stage 4, and was terminal.

History

CMCF opened in January 1986 with a capacity of 667 prisoners. CMCF was the first prison facility of the Mississippi Department of Corrections outside of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP) in Sunflower County. Upon the opening of CMCF, female prisoners were transferred from MSP to CMCF; previously women were held in MSP Camp 25. CMCF was designed by Dale and Associates. It was originally named the Rankin County Correctional Facility (RCCF). Johnson & Johnson uses prison labor from this facility to operate a "clean room" for the cleaning and sterilizing of suture spools.

In 2021, a campus of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was established in the penitentiary.

Demographics

As of September 1, 2008, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, with a capacity of 3,665, had 3,610 prisoners, making up a total of 25.07% of people within the Mississippi Department of Corrections-operated prisons, county jails, and community work centers. Of the male inmates at CMCF, 1,383 are Black, 738 are White, 16 are Hispanic, three are Native American, two are Asian, and one has no available data. Of the female prisoners, 781 are Black, 672 are White, 8 are Hispanic, 3 are Asian, 2 are Native American, and one has no available data.

Notable inmates

Inmates incarcerated at CMCF:

• Carla Hughes - Former middle schoolteacher convicted of two counts of capital murder for the murders of her lover's pregnant fiancee Avis Banks and her unborn child.
• Luke Woodham - perpetrator of the 1997 Pearl High School shooting, since moved to the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

Inmates on Death Row:

• Lisa Jo Chamberlin - convicted alongside Roger Lee Gillett in the murders of Vernon Hulett and Linda Heintzelman.

See also

• Capital punishment in Mississippi

References

1. "2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Rankin County, MS" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. p. 12 (PDF p. 13/23). Retrieved 2022-08-12. Central Mississippi Corr Faclty
2. ^ "State Prisons Archived 2002-12-06 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Corrections; retrieved May 21, 2010. "3794 Hwy 468 Pearl, MS 39208"
3. "MDOC QUICK REFERENCE." Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on May 21, 2010. "3794 Hwy 468 - Pearl, MS 39208"
4. "GARRISON COULD BE BACK IN JAIL SOON." Biloxi Sun-Herald. February 15, 1995. C2 Coast and State. Retrieved on September 24, 2011. "days for her return to the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Brandon." and "County jail to the central Mississippi prison near Jackson in mid- 1994."
5. "Chapter I." Inmate Handbook. Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on July 21, 2010.
6. "Where do new inmates go when first moved from the local county jail to MDOC custody?" Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on May 21, 2010.
7. "011.jpg." Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on September 18, 2010.
8. "A Brief History of the Mississippi Department of Corrections Archived 2010-08-19 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on July 21, 2010.
9. Freedman, Diane P., Olivia Frey, and Frances Murphy Zauhar. The Intimate Critique: Autobiographical Literary Criticism. Duke University Press, 1993. 72. Retrieved from Google Books on September 3, 2010. ISBN 0-8223-1292-1, ISBN 978-0-8223-1292-5.
10. "Correctional Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine." Dale And Associates. Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
11. "July 1, 1989 - June 30, 1990 Annual Report Archived 2012-03-08 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Corrections. 5/83. Retrieved on September 1, 2010.
12. "Mississippi Prison Industries loses $3.2M, fires CEO". March 24, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
13. WLBT, Mississippi prison begins seminary program for incarcerated women, wlbt.com, USA, Jan. 16, 2021
14. "Fact Sheet Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Corrections. 1/3. Updated on September 1, 2008. Retrieved on July 24, 2010.
15. "Fact Sheet Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Corrections. 2/3. Updated on September 1, 2008. Retrieved on July 24, 2010.
16. "Mississippi Department of Corrections". Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
17. "Home".

External links

• "State Prisons." Mississippi Department of Corrections.

v t e Mississippi Department of Corrections prisons
State prisons	Central Mississippi Correctional Facility♂♀ Delta Correctional Facility♀ Marshall County Correctional Facility Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) South Mississippi Correctional Institution Walnut Grove Correctional Facility
Privately operated prisons	East Mississippi Correctional Facility Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility Wilkinson County Correctional Center
Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♂♀ (both sexes) or ♀ (female only)

32°13′41″N 90°03′31″W / 32.22806°N 90.05861°W / 32.22806; -90.05861

• Prisons in Mississippi
• Women's prisons in Mississippi
• Capital punishment in Mississippi
• Buildings and structures in Rankin County, Mississippi
• 1986 establishments in Mississippi
• Women in Mississippi