the person was convicted and on January 11, a Mississippi judge temporarily blocked the release of the 21 inmates who had been given pardons or medical release. Notable lawsuits 2017 Hurricane Katrina insurance lawsuits In May 2017, twelve years after Hurricane Katrina, Hood filed lawsuits against Liberty Mutual Insurance and Safeco Insurance claiming that the companies failed to make adequate payments for the victims of Katrina. Hurricane Katrina occurred in August 2005 and caused $125 billion in property damage within Mississippi. The lawsuits claim that the insurance companies "undervalued claims for Katrina winded damages to minimize payments and to foist the financial burden onto the state when adjusting homeowners' insurance claims in the wake of the hurricane." Part of the complaint read, "Liberty Mutual essentially converted a program designed to help Mississippians recovering from Katrina into a subsidy for itself." Pharmaceutical companies In 2017, Hood filed lawsuits against a number of pharmaceutical companies. In the lawsuits, Hood alleged that the companies were engaging in an unlawful scheme to "force the state to pay for drugs that were not eligible for Medicaid reimbursement." Overall, Hood filed six separate lawsuits against the 18 defendant companies. Among other things, the lawsuits claimed that the companies made the state of Mississippi pay for drugs that had not received approval by the FDA. According to Legal NewsLine, "Hood contends the companies' scheme involves false representations, made by the defendants to the state, that their National Drug Codes, or NDCs, are FDA approved and eligible for Medicaid reimbursement." Hood said that the allegedly fraudulent marketing of drugs by the defendant companies resulted in an increased market share and profits for the companies while "essentially leaving the state in a lurch." Department of Corrections corruption On February 8, 2017, Hood announced he had filed civil cases against numerous corporations and individuals who had allegedly engaged in corrupt contracts with the Mississippi Department of Corrections and its former Commissioner Chris Epps, seeking damages and punitive damages. He stated, "The state of Mississippi has been defrauded through a pattern of bribery, kickbacks, misrepresentations, fraud, concealment, money laundering and other wrongful conduct." He continued, "These individuals and corporations that benefited by stealing from taxpayers must not only pay the state's losses, but state law requires that they must also forfeit and return the entire amount of the contracts paid by the state. We are also seeking punitive damages to punish