MSH was a self-sufficient facility, with its own bakery, dairy, laundry, post office, tuberculosis hospital, and water wells.

[7] Hunter Cole, author of The Legs Murder Scandal, said that in the 1930s, MSH appeared "more like an estate than a prison" due to the fields, meadows, and woodlands in the area.

Arrington High, a black man protesting segregationist activities in Mississippi, was confined there in 1957 for the rest of his life.

[7] Children from age four to 17 years and 11 months who require acute, short-term treatment are treated at the Oak Circle Center (OCC).

[4][11] The United States Postal Service Whitfield Post Office is located on the property of MSH.