Mississippi Criminal Records

Mississippi keeps its state criminal history for the person it describes and hands the public the courts instead. The Department of Public Safety's online name check is for the subject only, and its warning says misuse "will subject you to criminal prosecution." The circuit courts that try felonies are joining one electronic system, Mississippi Electronic Courts, with the documents online for subscribers, while the justice and municipal courts that try misdemeanors keep their own books in 82 counties and hundreds of towns. The arrest is public through a Public Records Act that defines the incident report, item by item, as a record that must be released. This page gives the Mississippi rule and the Mississippi search for each record, with government sources only.

The Department of Public Safety's Criminal Information Center runs a name-based background check online, and its requestor page sets the limit in capitals: "WARNING: Misuse of this system to obtain criminal background information on someone other than yourself will subject you to criminal prosecution. Businesses or any third parties are prohibited from submitting background checks on behalf of employees, contractors, perspective employees or customers." The person may route the result to someone else: "If the criminal background check results are to be released to a third party you must be prepared to provide; name, address, city, state, zip and fax number (if fax is the preferred delivery method) of the individual authorized to receive the information." Employers and licensing boards get fingerprint checks through the programs Mississippi Code 45-27 authorizes, with the person's consent. So a Mississippi state record reached by a stranger, by name, did not come from the Department; it came from a copy of a court index, and the criminal records page explains what such a copy misses and why a name match is not a person.

Felonies are tried in the circuit courts, one for each of the state's circuit court districts, with the circuit clerk in each of the 82 counties keeping the file. The judiciary's Mississippi Electronic Courts system, modeled on the federal courts' CM/ECF, is bringing those courts onto one docket, and its general information page describes the public side: "the public will have the capability to access electronic docket information, view and download documents, access case management data, and obtain other case information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," through a registered public access account with a per-page charge. The MEC court directory lists which circuit, chancery and county courts are on the system; a circuit clerk not yet on it is searched at the counter or through the clerk's own site. Misdemeanors and traffic are tried in the justice courts, one per county, and the municipal courts, one per city, and none of those are on MEC; their dockets are searched at each court. The county pages on this site link the circuit clerks, justice courts and municipal courts. A background check company's "Mississippi criminal record" is a copy of whichever of these indexes it obtained, on the date it obtained it, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

Mississippi expunges under Mississippi Code 99-19-71. A first offender convicted of a misdemeanor that is not a traffic violation "may petition the justice, county, circuit or municipal court in which the conviction was had" to expunge it. For felonies the section allows one: "a person who has been convicted of a felony and who has paid all criminal fines and costs of court imposed in the sentence of conviction may petition the court in which the conviction was had for an order to expunge one (1) conviction from all public records five (5) years after the successful completion of all terms and conditions of the sentence for the conviction upon a hearing as determined in the discretion of the court," with the crimes of violence, sex offenses, drug trafficking and the other felonies the section lists excluded. A charge that was dismissed, not prosecuted or ended in acquittal is expunged on petition under Mississippi Code 99-15-59 and related sections. The legislature has considered automatic expungement, House Bill 801 of 2024, "to require the expungement of misdemeanor and felony convictions by the Department of Public Safety after a period of years," as introduced, and until such a bill is law every Mississippi expungement is a petition. An expunged Mississippi record is removed from the public records of the court, the arresting agency and the Department, the person may state the conviction did not occur, and the record stays available to the courts and law enforcement for the purposes the statute names. A copy sold before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page.

Mississippi's Public Records Act, Mississippi Code Title 25, Chapter 61, posted in full by the Ethics Commission, defines the record the police must release. Section 25-61-3(e) reads: "'Incident report' means a narrative description, if such narrative description exists and if such narrative description does not contain investigative information, of an alleged offense, and at a minimum shall include the name and identification of each person charged with and arrested for the alleged offense, the time, date and location of the alleged offense, and the property involved, to the extent this information is known." Section 25-61-12(2)(a) then closes the rest: "When in the possession of a law enforcement agency, investigative reports shall be exempt from the provisions of this chapter; however, a law enforcement agency, in its discretion, may choose to make public all or any part of any investigative report," with the incident report and the arrest excluded from that exemption. So the name of every person charged or arrested, with the time, date and place, is public in Mississippi from the incident report on. Who is in custody is posted by the county sheriffs, the Hinds County inmate search for Jackson among them, which shows "the inmate information and photograph of a currently incarcerated Hinds County inmate," and by the Department of Corrections' inmate search, by name or ID number, for state prisoners. The arrest records page covers what happens to a booking after it leaves the roster.

A Mississippi judgment lives seven years at a time. Mississippi Code 15-1-43 provides that "all actions founded on any judgment or decree rendered by any court of record in this state, shall be brought within seven (7) years next after the rendition of such judgment or decree, or last renewal of judgment or decree, whichever is later," and the section lets the creditor renew by filing a notice of renewal with the clerk before the seven years run. The lien follows the same clock: a judgment enrolled on the circuit clerk's judgment roll is a lien on the debtor's property in that county for seven years from enrollment under 15-1-47, as the Supreme Court of Mississippi has applied it in Trustmark National Bank, "the seven year time period of a judgment creditor's statutory lien, pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. 15-1-47." The court records page covers where the judgment rolls are searched.

Mississippi is divided into two federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 104, each in divisions. The Northern District's Aberdeen Division covers the counties of Alcorn, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clay, Itawamba, Lee, Lowndes, Monroe, Oktibbeha, Prentiss, Tishomingo, Webster and Winston, with court at Aberdeen, Ackerman and Corinth; its Oxford Division covers Benton, Calhoun, DeSoto, Lafayette, Marshall, Panola, Pontotoc, Quitman, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Tunica, Union and Yalobusha, with court at Oxford; and its Greenville Division covers Attala, Bolivar, Carroll, Coahoma, Grenada, Humphreys, Leflore, Montgomery, Sunflower and Washington, with court at Clarksdale, Cleveland and Greenville. The Southern District's Northern Division covers Copiah, Hinds, Holmes, Issaquena, Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake, Madison, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Sharkey, Smith, Warren and Yazoo, with court at Jackson; its Southern Division covers George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River and Stone, with court at Gulfport; its Eastern Division covers Clarke, Covington, Forrest, Jasper, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Lamar, Lawrence, Marion, Perry, Wayne and Walthall, with court at Hattiesburg; and its Western Division covers Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Pike and Wilkinson, with court at Natchez. A federal case from any Mississippi county is on one of those two dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a Mississippi state record: the Department answers it for that person only, and for whoever that person names to receive it.

Whether a person was charged with a felony: the circuit clerk answers it, on MEC where the court has joined and at the counter where not.

Whether a person was charged with a misdemeanor: the justice court or the municipal court where it happened answers it, and nothing statewide does.

Whether a person was arrested: the incident report is public under 25-61-3(e), with the name, the time, the date and the place.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county sheriff's search answers it, and the Department of Corrections' search for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is off the public records, a judgment and its lien lapse at seven years unless renewed, and a copy that predates the expungement is reached through the federal rule.