Unmarked Graves Found Behind a Mississippi Prison
Citizens wonder why they weren’t notified about their loved ones’ deaths.
Unmarked graves of 215 bodies were found behind a prison in Jackson, Mississippi. The bodies were buried individually and labeled only by numbers and metal rods. The graves are so shallow that vultures can still detect the smell of decomposition. Arthur “Silky Slim” Reed, an activist and motivational speaker, described these burial methods as “inhumane”.
Families of the deceased also alleged that law enforcement failed to notify them of their loved ones’ passing and subsequent burial. This was the case when Dexter Wade, a man killed by a Jackson police car, was buried in one of these graves in 2023. Dexter was able to be identified, yet the police did not contact his family to claim his body. It wasn’t until 172 days had passed that she found her son at the Hinds County Penal Farm in Grave #672.
As mentioned before, Dexter Wade is not alone. 214 others are buried in similar graves at the Hinds County Penal Farm. Attorney Ben Crump and Reverend Hosea Hines are calling for a federal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the creation of this crude graveyard. They want to know why officials failed to investigate these deaths and notify the decedents’ families and other loved ones.
Gretchen Hankins, mother of Jonathan David Hankins, one of the deceased buried at the Hinds County Penal Farm, wonders why Mississippi’s police forces “can’t even do the job of notifying a dead person’s next of kin”. Under Mississippi law, the Board of Supervisors of the county in which the body is located “shall make reasonable efforts to notify members of the decedent’s family or other known interested persons” within five days of a person’s death.
According to the families and friends of the 215 people buried at the Hinds County Penal Farm, various officials have failed to uphold this legal obligation. Now that this information has gone public, prominent figures in Mississippi have banded together with the decedents’ loved ones to identify these bodies and give them respectful burials.
