Mississippi Criminal Law BlogAccording to Mississippi Today, more people are being placed in prison in Mississippi per capita than any state or nation, including China, Russia, and Iran, according to the world population review.
Across the U.S., the number of those in prison in the U.S. is 16% lower today that before the pandemic, according to the vera institute of justice, but Mississippi’s rate is skyrocketing, rising more than 1,500 in less than six months. That population now exceeds 18,000—the highest rate since April 2020. “We have perfected throwing people away for long periods of time, and yet after decades and decades of this approach, Mississippians are more fearful about violent crime than any time i can remember” said cliff Johnson, director of the Macarthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
How Many Inmates are Incarcerated in Mississippi?
In September 2013, Mississippi had as many as 22,490 inmates behind bars. In the years since, reforms and an aggressive parole board, headed by a veteran law enforcement officer, reduced the number of inmates to the lowest level in two decades. On feb. 7th, that population fell to 16, 499, according to MDOC.
But with gov. Tate reeves’ new board chairman, a former chevron executive he put in charge in January, that trend had reversed itself. On August 1st, the prison population hit a high of 18,080. If this current trend continues, Mississippi will top 19,000 inmates before the end of the year and would surpass 22,000 inmates before the end of 2023. “We’re stuck in this futile cycle of throwing more money at prisons,” Johnson said. “Even with the department of justice breathing down our necks, we can’t handle the people we have.”
Are Government Officials Doing Anything to Help the Situation?
When gov. Phil Bryant, a republican, signed house bill 585 into law in 2014, the measure drew widespread praise from conservatives and liberals alike because it promised to reduce the prison population, save millions — $266 million, to be exact—and reinvest some of the money into programs for offenders. Instead, all of those savings went back into the state’s coffers, helping to pay for huge phased-in corporate tax cuts enacted in 2016, because the state was struggling to meet revenue estimates.
Last year, reeves signed legislation aimed at expanding parole eligibility to 3,000 more inmates, believing it could be a “net positive for Mississippi.” He later bragged about the significant reduction in inmates at parchman. “i believe in second chances,” he said in an April 22, 2022, tweet. “I trust my parole board appointees to make wise decisions.”
How Often Does the Parole Board Grant an Offender’s Release?
When Steven Pickett chaired the board between 2013 and 2021, he said about six of every 10 inmates who appeared before the parole board earned their release. The board typically saw about 5,000 inmates a year. Now the board is rejecting far more requests. So far this year, about three-fourths of inmates who have appeared before the board have been rejected for parole. At the same time Mississippi is filling up its prisons, the state is lagging in programs that would help ensure that inmates don’t return. “The Mississippi Department of Corrections can’t have a rodeo or enough GED classes, because we don’t have the staffing,” Johnson said. “We probably can’t support more than about 12,000 incarcerated, but we’ve got 18,000.”
What Should an Offender do if They are Charged With a Crime With the Possibility of Being Incarcerated?
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