Mississippi prison officials revoked tablet access for 34 death row inmates hours after advocacy story published

On August 7, 2026, Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) officials confiscated personal tablets from all 34 men held in Unit 17, the death row unit at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, within two hours of Mississippi Today publishing a profile of the men's advocacy work with Humans Remain, a nonprofit several of them co-founded a year earlier with England-based advocate Liz McCann. The tablets had let the men make video calls, exchange messages, and help produce content for the group's public platform; afterward, only two communal phones, mail, and in-person visits remained available to them.

Prison staff gave the men three reasons for the removal, according to an unpublished editorial they wrote and shared with Mississippi Today: that Unit 17 is a restricted area, that McCann had used the tablets to contact them, and that Mississippi Today had published the story about their advocacy. The men disputed the first two, noting that Unit 29 -- death row's previous location, where they first got tablet access -- was also restricted, and that their advocacy through published videos predated Humans Remain's founding. "The application of 'mushroom censorship' is absurd and as outdated as the death penalty itself," they wrote.

A month later, MDOC had not restored the tablets or explained the decision; a spokesperson did not respond to Mississippi Today's request for comment. Commissioner Burl Cain and Chief of Institutions Marc McClure visited Unit 17 on September 4, but did not explain the timeline for restoring access or name any rule the men had broken, according to the men and McCann. A similar pattern preceded this one: Lisa Jo Chamberlin, the only woman on Mississippi's death row, lost phone and tablet contact for months after a January 2026 Mississippi Today story about her case, regaining access only in April.