Analysis: Chairman says prisons should not be warehouses
The new chairman of the Mississippi Senate Corrections Committee inherited a challenging job — sharing oversight of a prison system rocked by violence and burdened by decrepit and underfunded facilities.
APNewsBreak: US condemns ‘broken’ Alabama prison system
Alabama has the nation’s deadliest prisons, where violence is “too common, cruel, of an unusual nature, and pervasive” the Department of Justice found Wednesday in a scathing report that said male inmates are housed in unconstitutional conditions.
Analysis: As prison closes, state still reckons with debt
If you’ve got to keep paying for something, you might as well use it.
GOP governors ask FCC to address illegal prison cellphones
Ten Republican governors want the Federal Communications Commission to give states more autonomy to apply technology that can stop prison inmates from using smuggled cellphones.
Analysis: Local governments among losers from prison reform
Should Mississippi gear its prison policy to produce free inmate labor for local governments?
U.S. jails struggle with role as makeshift asylums
Peering through the chain link of a holding pen at the Cook County Jail, a man wrapped in a navy varsity jacket leans toward clinical social worker Elli Petacque Montgomery, his bulging eyes a clue that something’s not right.
“They say I got bipolar, that’s all,” he says.
Report: Prison health-care costs stabilize
States are spending slightly less on prisoner health care after nearly a decade of steady increases, according to a report released Tuesday.
Cops, prosecutors balk at new law
Local law enforcement officials are questioning the wisdom of a new law that changes several felonies to misdemeanors and reduces jail time for convicted offenders.
New K-9 unit targets contraband at 4 Miss. prisons
Management & Training Corporation, which operates four prisons in Mississippi, will use dogs to combat contraband entering its facilities.
Mississippi legislators OK final version of criminal justice bill
Legislation to make Mississippi’s criminal justice system more efficient and less expensive won final approval Thursday from state lawmakers.
Criminal justice bill almost ready to go to gov
A bill that supporters say could make Mississippi’s criminal justice system more efficient and cut prison costs by hundreds of millions of dollars is one step from going to Gov. Phil Bryant.
Miss. Senate OKs version of criminal justice bill
The Mississippi Senate on Thursday advanced a bill that supporters say is designed to make the criminal justice system more efficient and less expensive.
Miss. lawmakers advance criminal justice changes
Mississippi lawmakers are moving forward with bills designed to make the criminal justice system more efficient and less expensive.
Republicans seek to skirt danger on Miss. prisons
It sounded like a Conservatives Anonymous meeting one morning last week at the Mississippi Capitol.
“I’m Andy Gipson, and I’m tough on crime,” was how the chairman of the House Judiciary B Committee introduced himself — perhaps to provide a bit of political cover for other Republican lawmakers ahead of a vote on a prison reform legislation meant to reduce the number of people in Mississippi state prisons.
Push for sentencing changes underway in Congress
An unusual alliance of tea party enthusiasts and liberal leaders in Congress is pursuing major changes in the country’s mandatory sentencing laws.
Officials organize to address recidivism
Officials from criminal justice programs and religious and civil liberties organizations are working on a program to create a Reentry Council to help former inmates become productive citizens and to reduce prison recidivism.
Group recommends changes in Miss. criminal justice
Mississippi can improve its criminal justice system, and potentially save millions of dollars, by setting clearer sentencing laws, giving judges more discretion to order alternatives to prison and taking steps to ensure former inmates don’t mess up, a study group says.
Charlie Mitchell: Prison costs exceed obscene levels in Mississippi
Which government operation is the big winner in a draft of next year’s budget?
Education?
Roads and highways?
Health care?
Nope.
The answer is prisons.
Criminal justice task force to meet
A criminal justice task force meets Wednesday to finalize its report on proposals to overhaul the state’s corrections system and cut ballooning costs.
Two state prisons get new supes
New superintendents have taken over the leadership of two Mississippi state prisons.