The death of a man who died in custody at the Kemper-Neshoba Correctional Facility appears to be a suicide, Kemper County Sheriff James Moore said. 

“An altercation occurred between inmates and he was moved into observation because he was trying to hurt himself,” Moore said.

Moore said that attempts to revive Robert Johnson, 51, at a local hospital failed. 

Johnson, of Meridian, was being held on a court order from Meridian, according to Moore. A court order could be handed down for a variety of reasons, including unpaid fines. Moore said the facility had housed Johnson on behalf of Meridian since Nov. 15. 

“When we were trying to check to determine his history, his last known address was East Mississippi State Hospital,” Moore said. 

Moore said county jails don’t have the capacity to serve as mental health centers and needed more assistance from the state to get inmates with mental illnesses the help they need.

“Jail is not therapy. It is not where they belong,” Moore said. “It’s all on the county and not the state (but) we need to provide more space at the state level for these cases. We need to add funding for sheriffs’ departments that deal with (mental illness).”

Moore said that sheriffs across the state face problems with inmates struggling with a mental illness.

“When you look at rural Mississippi, there’s a lot of mental illness and families don’t have the money to address it,” Moore said. “Eventually, they’ll get in touch with the sheriff if that person commits a crime or if they become a danger to themselves.”

Moore said Kemper County Sheriff’s Department would investigate the death and wait for results of on an autopsy.

“As a sheriff, it’s very hard to deal with (mental illness in jail) but every sheriff faces it,” Moore said. “We need to work together with the state and work together as sheriffs to try to help these inmates.”

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1 (800) 273-8255.