Governor Tate Reeves Signs Major Parole Reform

Decades old problem

Senate Bill 2795 addressed a problem decades in the making. In 1994, then-Sen. Joe Biden authored what became known as the Clinton-Crime Bill. It was an attempt to get “tough on crime,” that included financial incentives to states to remove parole eligibility for loads of people in prison.

The resulting explosion in prison population came at a heavy price, both to taxpayers who had to fund more prisons and families and communities torn apart. Today, America has just 5 percent of the world’s population, but nearly 25 percent of its prison population.

Mississippi has suffered the effects of the Clinton-Crime Bill. Our second-highest incarceration rate has cost the state in excess of $3 billion over the last decade and has led to overcrowding, scandal, and a string of deaths that drew the scrutiny of President Trump’s Department of Justice. We know from a similar investigation and lawsuit in Alabama that this could cost the state control over its prisons and billions in taxpayer dollars that could be spent elsewhere.

People can change

By signing SB 2795, Reeves sends a signal to the Department of Justice that in addition to changes being made under the leadership of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain, the state is actively making policy changes and providing new tools to safely reduce Mississippi’s prison population.

But more than saving dollars and more than avoiding a costly federal takeover, the bill signed into law recognizes the simple fact that people who make mistakes are capable of change.

Take Eddie Spencer, for example.

At just 16 years old, Eddie shot someone. As the victim fought for his life, the judge told Eddie he might be facing the death penalty. The victim recovered, but Eddie still faced hard time. He served the next ten years of his life in Parchman for armed robbery and attempted murder.

“If you look at my record, you’d say there was no hope for that man. I’m grateful and humbled. Some people have a very narrow view of an ex-inmate, but I say that we can use that to give them something to see that can maybe change their minds. Every person on the earth has received second, third, and fourth chances,” Eddie told us. “If a person has proven themselves and shown that a second chance could benefit them, why would we not walk with them?”

Public safety first

While people like Eddie are capable of being redeemed, the state still has a duty to protect public safety. There are dangerous people behind bars, people who should be kept there. There are others, some of whom have been in prison for decades, who have proven through their conduct in custody that they deserve a second look.

SB 2795 excludes from eligibility people who committed murder or sexual offenses and provides significantly heightened requirements for people convicted of offenses considered violent to become parole eligible.

And eligibility is not the same thing as automatic release. Individuals still have to prove that they are rehabilitated and earned release to the Parole Board.

We recently talked with the Board about what goes into each decision. Needless to say, they understand the impact of their work and take it very seriously.

“If I feel like they are a danger to the public, I will vote not to parole,” Jim Cooper, a member of the Board told us.

Not flying blind

Mississippi isn’t embarking on this reform blindly.

We can look at what Texas did more than a decade ago. As former Gov. Rick Perry wrote in a recent op-ed in the Daily Journal, when Texas faced a $2 billion bill to build more prisons, the state opted to expand parole and invest in diversion and treatment programs. Along with saving money, the state is safer. There are fewer revocations from parolees and fewer people are going back to prison for committing crimes while on parole.

What we know from states like Texas is that parole eligibility can serve as a powerful incentive for prisoners to behave well and invest in improving themselves. This is important when you consider that over 90 percent of people sitting in prison will one day be released.

We also know that the tool, properly used, serves a public safety function. By removing non-threats from the prison population, the state can focus its limited resources on the people who pose the biggest public safety threats.

A big win in a game of inches

The legislative process can be frustrating. I’ve often compared it to a rugby scrum with a mass of humanity scrapping and clawing for an inch of progress. There is a lot of give and take required. This year was no different, but out of the scrum comes the occasional break away score. The kind of change that makes a real difference in the lives of people.

SB 2795, now law, will give thousands of Mississippians new hope and a new cause to change. It came out of a scrum, the product of a multi-year effort with a huge coalition of stakeholders. Sens. Juan Barnett, Brice Wiggins, and Daniel Sparks and Reps. Kevin Horan and Nick Bain were at the front of the charge, but the progress would not have been possible without Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn.

In addition to these legislative champions, a broad array of people and organizations united by a desire to fix Mississippi’s justice system worked hard to get the policy right. Ultimately, Reeves is to be commended for seeing the value in the rational and balanced approach that was the end product of the toil.

Other reforms to the justice system this year are smaller in scale by comparison, but carry a real human impact—whether it be recognizing the dignity of incarcerated pregnant women and ensuring they have the same standard of medical care that a woman outside of prison might expect, or providing a driver’s licenses to someone as they are released so that they can get out and find a job.

Whether going big or going small, our commitment is to keep pushing forward to help every Mississippian rise.