Mississippi Nursing Home Camera Laws: SB 2713 and What Applies Today

Mississippi has no statute or regulation authorizing or governing cameras in nursing home resident rooms. A 2022 bill, SB 2713, would have created a detailed framework, but it died in committee and has never been reintroduced. This page covers what Mississippi law says today, what SB 2713 would have done, and practical guidance for Mississippi families.

This page is part of our Nursing Home Camera Laws hub, which compares all 50 states, and our national Nursing Home Camera Laws guide covering the states that do have an enacted statute.

Mississippi Has No Nursing Home Camera Statute Today

No Mississippi statute grants a resident or their legal representative a right to install a camera or audio device in a nursing home room. Mississippi's nursing facility licensing rules, found in the Mississippi Administrative Code, Title 15, Part 16, Subpart 1, Chapter 45 (the State Department of Health's "Minimum Standards of Operation for Institutions for the Aged or Infirm"), include a Resident Rights subchapter among 58 total subchapters, but none of them address electronic monitoring, cameras, or recording equipment. Industry roundups tracking which states have enacted a nursing-home electronic-monitoring statute, including Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah, do not list Mississippi among them. Whether a resident can have a camera in a Mississippi nursing home today depends entirely on the individual facility's own admission agreement and policy, not on any statewide legal right.

Senate Bill 2713: A Detailed Framework That Died in Committee

Senate Bill 2713, sponsored by Senator Hill, was introduced in the Mississippi Senate on January 17, 2022, and referred to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. It died in committee on February 1, 2022, without a floor vote, and no newer bill addressing the same subject has been found in any Mississippi legislative session since, through 2026.

As introduced, SB 2713 would have amended Miss. Code Ann. § 43-11-13, the state's general nursing facility licensing statute, to let a resident with capacity to consent, or their legal representative, authorize installation of a "monitoring device" in the resident's room, so long as several conditions were met. The bill's definition of a monitoring device specifically excluded a camera that records still images exclusively. The resident would have paid for the device and all installation, operation, maintenance, and removal costs. In a shared room, the bill would have required written consent from each resident occupying the room, or that resident's legal representative; if a roommate did not consent, the facility would have been required to offer to move either resident to another available shared room, with the requesting resident able to instead take a private room at their own expense. The bill also would have required two separate signs: one at the facility's main entrance, disclosing that some residents' rooms may be electronically monitored, paid for and maintained by the facility, and one on the resident's own door stating the room is electronically monitored, paid for and maintained by the resident or their representative. It would have barred a nursing home from denying admission to, discharging, or otherwise retaliating against a resident for choosing to authorize a device.

Watch out: SB 2713 is not law. It describes what was proposed in 2022 and never reintroduced since, not what Mississippi actually permits or requires today. A facility is under no legal obligation to follow any of the procedures the bill would have created.

Audio vs. Video: Mississippi's General Recording Law Still Applies

Even without a nursing-home-specific statute, Mississippi's general wiretap law governs any camera or audio device placed in a resident's room. Mississippi is a one-party consent state under Miss. Code Ann. § 41-29-531(e): interception of a wire or oral communication is lawful where the person recording is a party to it, or where at least one party has given consent.

That exception carries a limit worth knowing before installing anything. Section 41-29-531(e) itself withdraws the protection where the communication is intercepted "for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of this state, or for the purpose of committing any other injurious act." That last clause is broader than the federal Wiretap Act's analogue, which reaches only criminal and tortious purposes, so a Mississippi recording made for a purpose a court viewed as injurious could sit outside the safe harbor even if no crime or tort was intended.

That framework covers a resident, or someone recording with the resident's consent, capturing their own conversations. It is less clear where a camera with audio also picks up conversations the resident is not part of, such as staff talking among themselves or a roommate speaking with a visitor. Neither of those parties has consented, which can raise separate exposure under Mississippi's wiretap law. A video-only device avoids this issue, since the statute, like the federal Wiretap Act, reaches communications, not silent video. For the general mechanics of Mississippi's one-party consent rule, see our Mississippi recording law guide and its security camera page.

What This Means in Practice

Because Mississippi has no statute either granting or barring a resident's right to a camera, the facility's admission agreement controls. Before installing any device:

• Ask the administrator directly and get any permission in writing. Some Mississippi facilities allow family-installed cameras under their own policy; others prohibit them.
• Address a shared room separately. Mississippi has no statutory roommate-consent requirement outside the unenacted SB 2713; a facility that permits cameras will typically set its own rule, which may mean seeking the roommate's agreement or requesting a private room.
• Consider a video-only device if consent from everyone who might be recorded, including staff and a roommate's visitors, cannot realistically be obtained.
• An undisclosed camera carries real practical risk. It is not itself a crime under Mississippi's video-recording law, but a facility that discovers it may treat it as a violation of the admission agreement, and audio the device captures from a conversation that falls outside the one-party exception in § 41-29-531(e) can expose the person who installed it both to a civil suit under § 41-29-529, which allows actual damages of at least $100 per day of violation or $1,000, whichever is higher, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees, and to a misdemeanor charge under § 41-29-533, punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

If You Suspect Abuse or Neglect

Camera footage, whether from a facility system or a family device installed with permission, is sometimes the evidence that first reveals abuse or neglect. If footage or another source raises a genuine concern about how a resident is being treated, that concern may support a legal claim separate from whether the camera itself was properly authorized.

Reporting a Concern: The Mississippi Long-Term Care Ombudsman

Mississippi residents, families, and staff can raise complaints about facility policy, retaliation, or suspected abuse or neglect with the Mississippi Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, run through the Department of Human Services' Division of Aging and Adult Services, reachable at its statewide hotline. Under the federal Older Americans Act, the program covers assisted living residents as well as nursing home residents, regardless of whether Mississippi has a camera statute.

Information last verified on 2026-08-31, drawn from Mississippi Legislature SB 2713 (2022) bill records, Miss. Code Ann. §§ 41-29-529, 41-29-531 and 41-29-533, and the Mississippi Administrative Code Title 15, Part 16, Chapter 45. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer and is not legal advice.

Related Resources

• Nursing Home Camera Laws by State
• Nursing Home Camera Laws: 50-State Comparison
• Mississippi Recording Laws
• Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect Claims
• Mississippi Power of Attorney Laws

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Last updated: 2026-08-31.