Photo courtesy of Mississippi Today.
Photo courtesy of Mississippi Today.
Abuse of Power: Beyond the Goon Squad
In 2023, the team at Mississippi Today and The New York Times uncovered that, for a generation, sheriff’s deputies known as the “Goon Squad” tortured suspected drug users across Rankin County, Mississippi, beating, burning and waterboarding their victims until they shared information. That reporting prompted a Justice Department investigation and a new state law increasing police oversight. But, knowing that the full story was still unfolding, and in the face of mounting resistance and intimidation, the local and national collaboration continued reporting on the sheriff’s department.
In 2025 they uncovered even more extensive abuses: a sheriff allegedly stealing inmate labor from local taxpayers for personal profit, a likely murder in the jail that had been written off as an accident, evidence of years of brutality in the jail, including a video showing guards shocking an intellectually disabled man with an electrified vest, and widespread abuse of Tasers by police across the state.
The 2025 reporting led Mississippi lawmakers to propose two statewide Taser oversight laws, at least three investigations by state authorities and two probes by the FBI, a re-opened murder investigation, and several candidates indicating they will run against the sitting sheriff in 2027.
The 2023 reporting in this series was also named as a Goldsmith Awards finalist in that year.
View the story