The Mississippi Department of Mental Health says it is fulfilling requirements to provide community-based services, and it is asking a federal judge not to order the state to make changes in its mental health system.
The federal government issued a letter in 2011 saying Mississippi had done too little to provide mental health services outside mental hospitals. The Justice Department sued the state in 2016. After a 2019 trial, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled Mississippi “operates a system that unlawfully discriminates against persons with serious mental illness.”