Late last Wednesday Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed what would have been the biggest criminal justice reform our state has had in decades. The bipartisan Senate Bill 2123 would have made hundreds of prisoners in our overcrowded, understaffed prison system eligible to apply for parole, but with the veto, Mississippi missed its chance.
Reeves said the bill went too far, offering a path to freedom to too many of our incarcerated friends and neighbors. Others, no doubt, would argue the bill didn’t go far enough.
Criminal justice reform is not an easy topic to address, and my ever-present cynicism tells me it was the Department of Justice’s threat to get involved that spurred movement in this year’s Legislative session. However, movement was made, and I’m proud of our Senators and Representatives for the effort they made to change our state’s extremely broken correctional system.
We have come a long way since the 1990’s war on drugs that brought us mandatory minimum sentences and ![Thomas Howard]()
habitual offender laws. Nationally, and even within Mississippi, the attitude towards corrections systems seems to be shifting away from punishment and toward rehabilitation, something our current prison system does not, and cannot, do.
I stand strongly against the use of excessive incarceration for petty crimes. I think habitual offender laws and mandatory minimums are nothing short of cruelty toward the majority of people they are applied against.
While in jail or prison, citizens should be encouraged and have access to participate in substance abuse treatment programs, counseling, peer support groups, workforce training and any other programs that could help them overcome their difficulties and prepare for life once they are released.
Outside of prison, initiatives like Ban the Box and automatic voting rights restoration would go a long way in helping previously incarcerated individuals find jobs and build places for themselves within their communities.
Even without these reforms, SB 2123 would have created a path out of prison for many and been a good show of faith to both the Department of Justice and those languishing in the squalor of our prison system that their concerns have not fallen on deaf ears.
Now, Mississippi will have to explain how it was not that more than 30 inmates have died in Mississippi prisons this year but the attempt to prevent further deaths that went too far.
You can contact Thomas Howard at thoward@newtoncountyappeal.com
