Editorial Roundup: Mississippi

Neshoba Democrat. Jan 26, 2022.

Editorial: Adequately fund the jail

Sheriff Eric Clark has called for a renewed city-county partnership to expand and improve the county jail, and it’s time for that partnership to happen.

Constructed three decades ago, the jail is run down, out of date and dangerous.

“My job is to house these inmates,” Clark told city officials appearing at a regular meeting of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen last week.

“If you can help me with some expansion and we can get you guys back on we are going to be a lot stronger together.

“This is nothing against the supervisors. I am not here plotting against them. My thing is that we are going to have to start working together. I need some support for this.”

The city chose to house prisoners in Winston County in 2020 after the new Sheriff tried to re-negotiate 30-year-old pricing.

Mayor Young said last week if some plans were developed, he would willing and ready to “move forward.”

Ward 2 Alderman Jim Fulton backed a joint study to fix the jail.

“It sounds like we need to form a panel,” he said. “It needs to be city and county representatives to come up with a plan.

The jail was designed as a 66-bed facility and they steadily house between 70 and 100 prisoners. They were at 108 last Monday, Clark said.

“We have mats for the inmates. We sleep on the floor. We sleep wherever we can. There are not many things in that jail that work besides the running water and toilets and the TVs.”

As for the folks who keep the jail running and maintain law and order, about 45 people — 20 jail employees and about that many SO employees — share a single toilet in the hallway.

A jail is a county function and the city should be paying a fair rate to house prisoners and not subsidizing Winston County.

Re-establishing a partnership to share and maintain the county jail will make the city and county a lot stronger, Clark told the mayor and board and he could not be more accurate.

In the 1990s, the city had agreed to pay $10,000 a month, but that figure had dropped to about $8,000 by the time Clark took office.

Adequately funding the jail is essential and a joint study sounds like a great idea.

City residents pay county taxes and, at the end of the day, it’s a county responsibility to maintain a good jail.

When Clark took office, he reviewed all of his department’s contracts, including the 1990s one with the city to house prisoners.

Clark did the right thing and proposed a new contract that brought costs in line, but the city went shopping for a discount and is subsidizing Winston County.

The jail has a $1.4 million budget. “That’s just to keep the doors open and there have been no improvements,” Clark said.

Neshoba County should plan strategically with the city of Philadelphia with regard to the jail. Maintaining law and order is a priority.

Adequately funding the jail is essential so let’s renew this city-county partnership.

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Greenwood Commonwealth. February 1, 2022.

Editorial: Progress Slow On Felon Voting Rights

It doesn’t look like the Mississippi Legislature is prepared to do much to restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentence.

Mississippi Today is reporting that lawmakers are inclined to do no more this year than possibly restore voting eligibility to those who get their crimes expunged from their record.

There are several problems with this. The first is that expungement is not an easy process. It may not be as hard as the current system of getting voting rights restored, which requires a separate act of the Legislature or a gubernatorial pardon for each petitioning felon. But it still is cumbersome and often requires going to the expense of hiring an attorney to navigate the process.

The second is that using expungement as the criteria for restoring voting rights is too limited. A Republican lawmaker told Mississippi Today that most of the crimes eligible for expungement are not the crimes that cost the perpetrators their voting rights for life if convicted.

What are those crimes? It’s a hodgepodge, ranging from grievous violent crimes, such as murder and rape, to more mundane nonviolent crimes, such as writing too many bad checks. Meanwhile, some felons, such as those accused of selling drugs, don’t lose their voting rights at all. They are eligible to vote even while behind bars.

It’s an inequitable, illogical system that, according to an ongoing lawsuit, is rooted in a post-Civil War effort to keep African Americans from voting and maintain white political domination.

It shouldn’t require a court to force lawmakers to do what’s logical and fair. A lifetime ban on voting is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes — such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children. Those convicted of such heinous offenses should forfeit their right to decide who holds office or what laws are enacted by popular referendum.

For most other felons, especially those convicted of nonviolent crimes, their voting rights should be suspended only while they are doing time, then automatically restored once they have completed their sentence and are no longer under state custody or supervision.

That’s the way it works in most states. Mississippi should stop dragging its feet and follow them.

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Tupelo Daily Journal. January 27, 2022.

Editorial: Medical marijuana bill a compromise in best, worst senses

The Mississippi Legislature has finally passed a medical marijuana bill. It now goes to Gov. Tate Reeves, who can sign it, veto it or ignore it and allow it to become law without his signature. Bet on the latter, as he continues to ignore the overwhelming and clear will of the people and remains steadfastly against such a program.

Nevertheless, the Legislature has done its job. And they did it in meticulous — sometimes overwrought — fashion.

To their credit, they have devised a plan that provides for most of those in need of medical marijuana while also addressing the concerns of those either opposed to or cautious of the program.

It is a far cry from the program outlined in Initiative 65. In some ways, it is better, providing for better oversight and controls. It also allows more local control over the program, by which municipalities can have more determination as to where growers and dispensaries can be placed.

At the same time, this is a bill that should have been done long ago — as in years ago. We are the 38th state to adopt a medical marijuana program, and we did so only after the voter-passed Initiative 65 was thrown out by the state Supreme Court on a technicality.

But the will of the people was still clear even before Initiative 65 was placed on the ballot. Advocates tried for years to get lawmakers to pay attention, but they would not. Both Reeves, as lieutenant governor, and House Speaker Philip Gunn made it clear that no such legislation would pass either legislative house. That kind of stubbornness is what led to what we witnessed over the past year.

To Gunn’s credit, however, he put his personal feelings aside and worked to craft this legislation alongside Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. They both showed leadership.

And while we would like to think lawmakers have learned their lesson and would act on other issues that have widespread support and data from other states showing indisputable benefits, we are neither naive nor foolish.

But the Legislature should be congratulated on passing this bill. It is not perfect. Everyone — proponents and opponents alike — can find faults with it. That is compromise. Often it means we have a well designed, thoroughly thought-out solution. We hope that is what we have here.