Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.
Mississippi’s public school teachers and students keep racking up wins for our state.
A few months ago, we received terrific news regarding the latest national test scores. Our fourth-graders earned a ninth-in-the-nation overall ranking in reading and 16th place in math. Mississippi students did similarly well on state tests, achieving the highest proficiency rates ever logged on those assessments.
The recently released Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT 2025 Data Book now ranks Mississippi 16th in the nation for education — an incredible leap from 30th in 2024 and 32nd in 2023.
National media outlets have proclaimed our students’ remarkable rise in academic proficiency to be the “Mississippi Miracle,” inspiring other states’ education leaders to ask how they can be more like us.
Without a doubt, the progress made in Mississippi’s public schools is a direct result of the tireless efforts of our public school teachers and students. Their impressive work has been bolstered by tens of thousands of parents and community leaders who have been standing in the gap for decades, fighting for better school resources and, importantly, against the billionaire-backed campaign to undermine public education through private school voucher programs.
Other states have fallen victim to the voucher lobby, swayed by the millions of dollars spent pressuring them to adopt so-called “school choice” policies. Mississippi’s legislators, however, have resisted school choice, standing with their constituents and refusing to gamble with our children’s futures, thereby avoiding the financial and academic pitfalls suffered in states that embraced voucher schemes.
Nancy Loome Credit: Courtesy photo
But a piece of legislation moving through Congress poses a significant threat to our state’s education progress.
The sweeping federal budget bill, HR 1 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), includes a dangerous provision that would impose a nationwide tax-credit voucher program, overriding the will of states like Mississippi and threatening our historic progress.
These few paragraphs tucked into a massive federal budget bill would jeopardize the gains our students have worked so hard to achieve while adding $5 billion a year to the federal deficit.
Mississippi isn’t alone in opposing school choice schemes. Voters across the country have rejected voucher proposals every single time they’ve appeared on statewide ballots. Unfortunately, some state legislatures have ignored their constituents in favor of voucher lobbyists and donors, legislating voucher programs with devastating consequences: severe state budget shortfalls and flagging student achievement. In fact, every state named by EdChoice as a “Top 10 School Choice State” has seen academic performance decline precipitously while Mississippi’s results keep rising.
If HR 1 were to become law with the voucher provision intact, it would set Mississippi back decades and establish a dangerous precedent: allowing private interests to decide which of the country’s children will be educated with federal dollars.
The bill already has passed the House and now awaits action in the Senate where Mississippi’s own senators — Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith — could play a critical role in removing the tax-credit voucher language from the legislation. Both senators enjoy significant influence in the U.S. Senate, influence that is heightened in this case by what is expected to be a very close vote.
We urge them to consider these key points:
Mississippians have rejected vouchers time and again and do not want them forced on us by the federal government.
The tax-credit voucher plan in HR 1 would reverse years of progress in our public schools.
The proposed tax-credit voucher program would add $5 billion to the federal deficit annually — for a program Mississippians don’t want.
Nancy Loome is executive director of The Parents’ Campaign (msparentscampaign.org) and president of The Parents’ Campaign Research & Education Fund (tpcref.org). She and her husband Jim have three grown children, all of whom graduated from Clinton Public Schools.
Blues legend John Primer knew from a young age that he wanted to be a musician.
“When I was two or three years old, I would go around and play that thing,” Primer said. “I always wanted to be a guitar player.”
Primer, born in Mississippi, migrated to Chicago when he was 18-years-old in the early 1960s and quickly found work at local clubs, honing his guitar skills. He performed seven nights a week for seven years at Theresa’s Lounge in south Chicago alongside the Junior Wells Band. There, he sparked the interest of Vicksburg-born bluesman Willie Dixon, which ultimately led Primer to become band leader for the iconic Muddy Waters.
“When I play with those big guys like that, they’re teaching me,” he said. “I’m in school then, because I’m learning what they’re doing, but I don’t try to be them.”
Now, he’s returning to Mississippi with The Real Deal Blues Band to play at the National Folk Festival held November 7-9 in downtown Jackson.
“Mississippi is my home, so I can’t forget about that,” he said. “It’s where I started.”
Through the years though, he said the music scene has changed around Chicago. He’s worked as a musician for more than six decades and said he’s seen it all.
“When I got to Chicago in 1963, music was everywhere. Music was in every club in Chicago, now it’s changed. It’s not like it used to be,” he said. “It’s not many clubs like it used to be in the 60s, 70s and 80s. They’re all gone, vanished. They’re very few in Chicago now. A lot has changed.”
But he said his love for the blues keeps him performing.
“I tell everybody, when I’m playing, I don’t work for money, but I like to get paid. I get up there and play. Thinking about the money? No. Think about the people and my love so people can know the blues, that’s why I play. They keep me going.”
Primer has a career spanning six decades and close to 100 albums. He’s been nominated for three Grammy awards, and has won countless Blues Blast and Blues Music awards. He’s performed all over the world, but he said he’s looking forward to coming home to Mississippi. Looking to the National Folk Festival, Primer said he’s going to play some fan favorites and throw in a couple songs from his recent album “Grown in Mississippi.”
“I know what the people like, and so I’m going to try to play some of this and some of that for them. Whatever it takes to get the mood going,” he said.
Blues to Primer is a way of living. He said blues music can help people through a tough time, and that’s why he keeps coming to the stage night after night.
“Blues help you with your pain. Not physical pain, but if you had a bad night, you lost a loved one or some person passed away,” he said. “A lot of people come to me and say ‘I’ve been having a bad day, but I heard you tonight and I can go home and sleep good. I forgot about the bad feelings.’ Blues makes you forget about your troubles.”
For more information on the National Folk Festival, which will be held November 7-9, visit www.nationalfolkfestival.com.
Teenagers sit in inflatable chairs in a dorm lobby, holding cups of fruit punch and trading laptops that are open to short stories and fantasy novels. Before lights out at this summer camp, students co-write haikus, poems limited to 17 syllables.
The McMullan Young Writers Workshop at Millsaps College in Jackson gives aspiring authors a chance to sharpen and share their work.
Fifty high school and 12 middle school students participated in themed workshops taught by published authors. The students submitted short stories, poems and novel excerpts to their instructors and peers for feedback.
Courtlandt Willingham, a Jackson native and rising junior at Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven, described the workshop process as, “listen, ask questions and write.”
Willingham attended a workshop themed around folklore and mythmaking, and that provided inspiration for his poetry.
He said folklore means different things depending on the person.
“Folklore, to me, is a collection of ideas about being a Mississippian — especially a Black Mississippian,” Willingham said.
Nat Mather, left, and Scarlett Rolph, both rising seniors at high schools in Mississippi, participate in a session of the McMullan Young Writers Workshop at the Eudora Welty house in Jackson, Miss. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
The residential workshop took place June 9-13. One day, campers attended a private craft talk and keynote speech by Jack Davis, who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for history for his book, “The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea.”
Keynote speakers in previous years included acclaimed authors Kiese Laymon, Joyce Carol Oates and Angie Thomas.
“These young people will ask keynote authors questions that are not the standard, boring questions that adults ask,” said Jamie Dickson, a workshop instructor. He said the visiting writers are not condescending to young people.
“Someone who is truly invested in literature really understands that there’s a lot of truth to the cliche: ‘This is the next generation of writers,’” Dickson said.
Students attended lectures on screenwriting techniques, the Afrofuturism genre and the connection between artmaking and political life.
They spent an afternoon touring the Eudora Welty House and Garden.
“I’ve been in the garden before,” said Hannah King, a rising freshman at Belhaven University. “I went into the garden and wrote a poem about it. I hadn’t been able to finish it. But when I went back there, I was able to finish it — because I was touring the house.”
Instructors took students to other Jackson cultural sites, including the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the Mississippi Museum of Art, Lemuria book store and the COFO Civil Rights Education Center at Jackson State University.
Campers at Millsaps cheered and drumrolled as their instructors went up to the podium to read in front of a handwritten poster proclaiming “Open Mic Night.”
“I think Open Mic is everyone’s favorite night,” said Syd Clay, a rising sophomore at Northwest Rankin High School.
“It’s just fun being able to have a community that you can share things with,” Clay said. “My class this year was mainly first-years, and they were all really nervous about the Open Mic. But, at the end of the night, they all loved it.”
Ebony Lumumba, an English professor and chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at Jackson State University, speaks during a session of the McMullan Young Writers Workshop at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Credit: Courtesy of Liz Egan
The majority of students receive merit-based scholarships, funded by donors including Margaret McMullan, a Mississippi native who has published novels, essays and short stories and whose family foundation is a financial supporter of Millsaps. Any student who wins a Gold Key at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards can attend the camp at no cost, and Silver Key winners and Honorable Mentions receive deeply discounted rates. The camp also gives scholarships based on financial need.
Liz Egan, who heads the Center for Writers at Millsaps, coordinates the McMullan Young Writers Workshop.
“Students who could barely look you in the eye at the beginning of the week are the ones at the stage, at the mic, telling you what they’ve been up to all week,” Egan said. “We’ve helped, but it’s really [the students]. They’ve made this program what it is.”
The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute and Mississippi Votes Action Fund today released the full confirmed schedule for the Democracy in Action Convening, a multiday tribute marking the 100th birthday of Medgar Wiley Evers.
The event runs from Thursday through Sunday at the Jackson Convention Complex. Organizers described the event as a “once-in-a-generation celebration [that] will feature national civil rights leaders, cultural icons, veteran journalists, artists, and organizers — all honoring Evers’s legacy and building power for the next century.”
Featured participants include: Stacey Abrams, Joy Reid, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Eddie Glaude Jr., Anna Wolfe, Howard Ballou, Jerry Mitchell, Reena Evers-Everette and descendants of civil rights icons, including Kerry Kennedy, Attallah Shabazz, and Bettie Dahmer.
“My father believed in the power of everyday people to change the world — and he knew that truth, action, and training were essential to that work,” said Reena Evers-Everette, executive director of the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute. “This convening will carry forward my father’s conviction that equality and democracy begin with preparation — with giving people the tools to lead, to speak with courage, and to act with purpose.”
“This convening isn’t just about remembering the past — it’s about shaping what comes next,” said Arekia Bennett Scott, executive director of Mississippi Votes Action Fund. “We are equipping the next generation with the tools to lead, organize, and continue the fight for justice in Mississippi and beyond.”
The convening includes a Saturday evening fundraiser concert, “A Night of Legacy and Liberation,” featuring Rita Brent, Tisha Campbell, Leela James, and Q Parker & Friends.
Full Schedule
THURSDAY
6 p.m. – VIP Reception: Daddys’ Daughters Featuring Attallah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X; Evers-Everette; Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; and Bettie Dahmer, daughter of Vernon Dahmer
FRIDAY
9 a.m. – Breakfast + Registration
10 a.m. – Welcome to the 2025 DIA Convening
10:30 a.m. – Keynote: “The Enduring Legacy of Medgar Evers” with author Michael Vinson Williams, professor of history and director of the African American Studies Program at the University of Texas.
11:30 a.m. – Meet & Greet
12:15 p.m. – Mississippi Public Broadcasting Documentary Trailer Debut
12:30 p.m. –Plenary: “The Power of the Word” with Joy Reid,, who wrote a bestseller on Medgar and Myrlie Evers; Eddie Glaude Jr., author of the bestselling book, “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own”; and Ralph Eubanks, an award-winning writer and professor of Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi
1:30 p.m. – Q&A
2 p.m. – Book Signing
3 p.m. – Plenary: “Journalism, Truth, and Civil Rights” with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Howard University’s Knight Chair in Race and Journalism who won the Pulitzer Prize for “The 1619 Project,” Mississippi Today’s Anna Wolfe and Jerry Mitchell, and WLBT news anchor Howard Ballou
4 p.m. – Criminal Justice Reform – attorney Courtney Cockrell
Policy & Advocacy – MS Votes Action Fund
Philanthropy – “Seeds of Freedom”
Visual Storytelling – Red Squared LLC
The Power of Song – Dr. Flonzie Brown Wright & Cynthia Goodloe Palmer
5:15 p.m. – Closing + Call to Action
SATURDAY
9 AM – Breakfast + Registration
9 a.m. – Opening Reflections
10 a.m. – Family Reflections with Evers-Everette and attorneys Corrie Cockrell Carter and Courtney Cockrell, great-nieces of Medgar Evers
11:30 a.m. – Meet & Greet
12:15 p.m. – MADDRAMA Performance
12:30 p.m. – Plenary: “Working with Medgar” with veteran civil rights leaders
1:30 p.m. – Q&A
2 p.m. – Break
2:30 p.m. – Keynote: “Leadership & the Fight for Justice” with voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and Arekia Bennett-Scott
3:30 p.m. – Concurrent Workshops:
Community Organizing in the 21st Century – MS Votes Action Fund
The Power of AI & Technology – Nikolis Smith, founder of StratAlliance Global and former White House cyber official, and Henry Goss communications director for MS Votes
4:30 p.m. – Plenary: “The Next 100: Inheriting a Legacy, Igniting a Future”
Rita Brent – Mississippi-born comedian and truth-teller
Tisha Campbell – Actress, singer, and advocate for empowerment
Leela James – Soulful R&B powerhouse
Q Parker & Friends – Grammy-winning artist and philanthropist
“This evening is about honoring my father’s legacy with soul, celebration, and a shared commitment to carry his work forward,” said Evers-Everette. “Through music and unity, we are creating space for remembrance, resilience, and the rising voices of a new generation.”
Concert proceeds will support the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute’s youth leadership and civic engagement programs.
A new school year will be here before we know it, which represents more than just a return to the classroom. It presents an opportunity to instill essential life skills, like financial literacy. This season is an ideal time for parents to introduce their kids to the fundamentals of money management, including saving, budgeting, and responsible spending.
To help prepare for the year ahead, Chase is hosting a Back-to-School Family Finance event that will feature fun activities, financial health workshops, and more for kids of all ages.
When—Saturday, June 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where—Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (222 North St., #2205, Jackson, MS 39201)
What—Attendees will enjoy free haircuts, interactive games, and financial health activities designed for all ages to learn the importance of budgeting, smart spending, and the valuable resources available to them. Plus, while supplies last, students will receive a free backpack filled with school supplies.
In addition to joining Chase at the June 28 event, here are a few important lessons parents and kids can learn to help on the first day of school and beyond.
Start With Saving
Whether it’s allowance, gifts, or earnings from a summer job, teaching kids to track and save their money is essential in developing good financial habits. Saving toward specific goals and understanding the time it takes to reach those can help children grasp the true value of money.
Chase provides families with the tools and resources to make saving easy, like Autosave, by setting up automatic monthly transfers from your Chase checking account to your savings account. All managed through the Chase Mobile® App, parents can help their child set a savings goal to ensure they build a strong financial foundation.
Next, Begin Budgeting
As you approach the tween and teen years, financial needs and desires for independence will evolve. They might take on part-time jobs, save up for larger goals (like a car), and begin managing more of their own finances. This is a great opportunity for them to learn the basics of budgeting.
Chase’s Monthly Budgeting Worksheets help make this process simple. Start by entering monthly income and expenses to help your teen differentiate “needs” and “wants.” This helps them see where their money is going and is important as they begin cashing and spending their first paychecks.
Then, Grow Their Finances
Transitioning from high school to college or stepping into the real-world post-graduation comes with a new set of responsibilities. Amidst managing studies, jobs, and future planning, young adults need both guidance and practical tools to help.
The Chase Mobile app tracks earnings, savings, and expenses, and makes it easy to send and receive money with Zelle®.
Just as kids progress from one grade to the next, they can grow their understanding and management of money too. Opening their first bank account is a great complement to these financial lessons. Check out Chase First BankingSM, Chase High School CheckingSM, and Chase College CheckingSM, to see which account works best for your student or, learn more at chase.com/StudentBanking.
Chase First BankingDesigned for kids ages 6-12, the parent-owned account with a debit card for kids and no monthly service fee.
High School Checking For teens 13-17, the co-owned account allows students to set up direct deposit and automate savings.
Chase College Checking For college students 17-24, the account can be managed through the Chase Mobileapp and allows users to send and receive money via Zelle.
Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to connect, learn, and prepare for the school year. We look forward to seeing you there!
Chase Mobile® app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply.
Zelle and Zelle related marks are wholly owned by Early Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license.
Bank deposit accounts, such as checking and savings, may be subject to approval.
Lawyers for the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists have filed an appeal asking the state Supreme Court to overrule its 1998 decision and declare Mississippi’s effective ban on abortion constitutional.
In a 1998 ruling in Pro Choice Mississippi v. Fordice, the state high court said the state constitution provides Mississippians a right to abortion.
Late last year, a Hinds County judge ruled members of AAPLOG did not have standing to pursue a lawsuit to overturn the 1998 decision because they have not been harmed by the court ruling. AAPLOG, represented by new public interest law firm American Dream Legal, is appealing that ruling, and asking the state Supreme Court to “clarify whether Mississippi considers elective abortion a crime or a constitutional right,” according to a press release.
Based on another Mississippi case, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decades old Roe v. Wade right to abortion via the U.S. Constitution. The Mississippi Legislature has passed laws that prohibit most all abortions in the state and there are no clinics in Mississippi offering abortions.
But the 1998 state Supreme Court decision holding that the state constitution provides a right to abortion has never been overturned and remains on the books.
American Dream Legal in a statement said Mississippi’s criminal ban on abortion conflicts with the Fordice decision, and this has AAPLOG physicians “caught between conflicting legal duties: refer patients and risk prosecution under state law — or refuse to refer and risk professional ruin.”
“The people of Mississippi enacted a law that protected unborn life and took down the U.S. Supreme Court’s abuse of judicial authority in Roe v. Wade,” said Aaron Rice, attorney for AAPLOG and CEO of American Dream Legal. “It is only fitting that we likewise put an end to efforts by the courts in our own state to impose abortion by judicial fiat.”
In the Hinds County case, both the state, through Attorney General Lynn Fitch, and pro-abortion rights supporters argued that the doctors did not have standing. It’s unclear whether the high court will hear the appeal. In recent years, the state Supreme Court has taken a limited view of who has standing in various cases.
Politically connected members of a Mississippi company have fallen out with their Georgia partner in what promised to be a profitable business to snare uninsured motorists with cameras and artificial intelligence.
A company that the three Mississippians formed, QJR LLC, is suing its partner in the uninsured motorist ticketing venture, Georgia-based Securix LLC. QJR represents the first initials of its members: Quinton Dickerson, Josh Gregory and Robert Wilkinson.
Dickerson and Gregory are Republican political operatives in Jackson who have run numerous state and local campaigns and advise many of the state’s top elected officials. Wilkinson, a Coast attorney, has represented local governments and government agencies.
But Judge Neil Harris has sealed the case, leaving the public in the dark about the specifics. Mississippi Today has filed a motion in the case, arguing that the file should be opened to the public.
An attorney representing the three Mississippians said in a document submitted in federal court, where the case was temporarily moved, “The case involves highly sensitive issues implicating local officials, reputational harm, and ongoing injunctive relief.”
The uninsured motorist program that Securix brought to Mississippi proved contentious from the start. In Ocean Springs, some vehicle owners were angry when they learned artificial intelligence had been used to ticket them for driving without insurance.
The Securix program has resulted in several lawsuits, including one in federal court that accuses Securix of deceiving vehicle owners by essentially posing as a law enforcement agency through its mailed citations in Ocean Springs. By April 2023, the city had canceled its contract with Securix LLC.
And there is the secret Chancery Court file. A January 2025 transcript in federal court hints that politics are involved in the chancery case and also describes what that lawsuit is about.
The transcript says the Mississippians, operating as QJR LLC, are suing Securix in Chancery Court for defamation.
“They (QJR) want to stop the defamation from ruining political careers,” an attorney for Securix said. “That’s their argument.”
The chancery lawsuit, the federal transcript says, also seeks to dissolve Securix Mississippi LLC, a 50-50 partnership QJR and Securix formed to spread the program to other cities.
Securix attempted to move the Chancery Court case to federal court, but a federal judge ruled in January that he didn’t have jurisdiction and returned it to Chancery Court.
The federal transcript says Securix Mississippi pulled in $1.3 million in a year through uninsured motorist citations but, at the time of the hearing, had less than $75,000 in assets. The judge also noted that “revenue has fallen off a cliff since August of 2024 for Securix Mississippi LLC.”
August 2024 also happens to be when the Department of Public Safety pulled the plug on the program, DPS records show.
DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell, whose agency oversees uninsured motorist enforcement, had reservations from the start about a private company ticketing motorists. Complaints about how the program was being operated, he said, prompted him to cut off Securix’s access to the data it needed to determine whether a vehicle was insured.
While QJR was successful in getting the chancery case sealed, the company had no such luck when it tried to have the federal transcript closed from public view.
A federal magistrate judge ruled on QJR’s motion to seal the transcript, citing federal court cases that said: “The public’s right of access to judicial proceedings is fundamental,” and, “Judicial records belong to the American people; they are public, not private, documents.”
Uninsured motorist program launches in MS
Securix LLC was incorporated in Delaware in 2018 and signed its first Mississippi contract in May 2021 with Shea Dobson, then the mayor of Ocean Springs, after approval by the Board of Aldermen.
Securix, based in Georgia, uses automatic license plate readers, usually mounted on traffic signals, to capture images of license plates. With the help of artificial intelligence, Securix can extract license plate numbers from the images.
Jonathan Miller, an owner of Securix LLC, initially came to Mississippi and talked to Ocean Springs Police Chief Mark Dunston about the program, said Dunston, who has since retired. Dunston presented the program to the Board of Aldermen, he said, and was later paid by Securix to present the program in other cities during off hours and after his retirement.
It is unclear when Miller met Josh Gregory and Quinton Dickerson, who did not want to comment for the story because the Chancery Court case is sealed. Miller, the chairman of Securix LLC, is also a named defendant in QJR’s lawsuit. He also declined to comment about matters involving the litigation.
Gregory and Dickerson both worked on former Gov. Haley Barbour’s 2003 political campaign, then formed Ridgeland-based Frontier Strategies. Gregory was a top political adviser to former Gov. Phil Bryant.
Billed as a full-service advertising agency, Frontier landed a lucrative state contract shortly after Barbour took office in 2004, within six months of the company’s formation. The company has gone on to contract with other state agencies and work on state and local political campaigns.
The third member of QJR, Robert Wilkinson, was serving as city attorney for Ocean Springs when Dobson signed its Securix contract. Wilkinson said he met Miller at that time but they did not have a business relationship until six to 10 months after Ocean Springs signed on with Miller’s company.
Wilkinson said he was impressed with the Securix program because it added cameras in the city that could also alert law enforcement officers to crimes, such as kidnappings or wanted suspects on the loose.
“That’s why everyone was fired up,” he said.
Another reason some welcomed the program is because Mississippi has a high rate of uninsured drivers, according to the nonprofit Insurance Research Council. In 2023, the latest year for which statistics were available, the institute reported that Mississippi had the highest rate of uninsured drivers in the nation at 28.2%.
“Unisured motorists in Mississippi is a big problem and I think we need to do more to solve that issue,” DPS Commissioner Tindell said.
“It does create a situation where everybody has to pay more for insurance because there are so many people without it.”
Vehicle owners sue Securix
Securix used its program to identify and ticket the owners of uninsured vehicles, federal court records show. Data on insured motorists was essential to the program.
Under state law, Tindell’s office maintains the Mississippi Vehicle Insurance Verification System — bulk data on the state’s insured motorists that is regularly updated. DPS operates and maintains the system through third-party vendor HDI Solutions Inc.
Law enforcement officers use the system all the time. When they run a license plate, the system lets an officer know if the vehicle is insured. But agencies generally do not have access to HDI’s bulk data.
Initially, Commissioner Tindell was unwilling to commit his agency — and its HDI data — to the Securix program.
“I don’t know that it’s necessarily the best policy to privatize our court system with diversion programs,” Tindell said. “I think those are government functions.”
Tindell also questioned whether a camera could be used to issue a ticket to an uninsured driver. State law says law enforcement agencies can access the system only during traffic stops and accident investigations. And state law forbids using the system’s insurance information as the only reason for a traffic stop.
He also was unsure whether a city could set up a diversion program through a private company.
For its initial foray into Mississippi with the city of Ocean Springs, Securix reached a data-sharing agreement directly with HDI, a letter from an HDI attorney shows.
“We basically said we’re not going to object to it,” Tindell said, “but that’s something y’all need to work out yourselves.”
With access to insured driver data, Securix began sending out citations from its Ocean Springs cameras.
If a vehicle was not listed as being insured, a ticket went to the owner. The system did not identify the person driving the vehicle.
On their face, the citations claimed to be uniform traffic tickets that, at first glance, appeared to be from the police department.
Soon enough, Securix faced a federal lawsuit filed by three Mississippi residents ticketed as uninsured motorists.
They are seeking class-action status to represent thousands of individuals who they believe received citations from Securix. In just a few months, the lawsuit says, 6,000 people were ticketed in Ocean Springs alone.
“Pretending to be law enforcement,” the lawsuit says,”defendant (Securix LLC) has made millions of dollars collecting fees from individuals who allegedly violated state uninsured vehicle laws.”
In a response filed in federal court, Securix denies any wrongdoing, saying the company “at all times acted in good faith” and followed state law.
The Ocean Springs citation offered three options: Call a toll-free number and provide proof of insurance, enter a diversion program that charges a $300 fee and includes a short online course and requires agreement that the vehicle will not be driven uninsured on public roadways, or contest the ticket in court and risk $510 in fines and fees, plus the potential of a one-year driver’s license suspension.
Court fight over uninsured motorist data
After signing the contract in Ocean Springs, Securix LLC began working with Josh Gregory and Robert Wilkinson to sign up other cities.
Company leaders convinced Pearl, Biloxi and Senatobia to join the program.
Josh Gregory and Robert Wilkinson pitched the program in Senatobia, March 2022 minutes from the Board of Aldermen’s meeting show. Gregory told aldermen that 70% of the public response to the program was positive in Ocean Springs.
Senatobia even took the Department of Public Safety to Circuit Court, filing a lawsuit in Tate County that demanded access to the state agency’s insured driver data.
By the time the city and DPS reached a settlement agreement in August of 2023, HDI had cut off Securix’s access to insured driver data.
An HDI attorney sent Securix LLC a default notice in December 2022. An HDI review showed Securix personnel issued citations in Ocean Springs without first having a police officer run the license plate information through the insurance verification system, a contract requirement, the notice said.
The notice required Securix LLC to submit a corrective action plan and document the company’s future contract compliance.
In March 2023, HDI terminated its agreement with Securix LLC. The termination letter said Securix had failed to respond to the notice of termination or submit a corrective action plan. Securix, through chairman Jonathan Miller, later maintained that an Ocean Springs police officer, not the company, authorized each citation.
Months later, the Securix settlement agreement with DPS stipulated that HDI would be authorized to once again provide Securix access to the insurance verification system.
Senatobia came to count on the revenue, board meeting minutes show. But the program would not last — in Senatobia or any other Mississippi city.
Securix program falls apart
In early August 2024, Tindell received a letter from Jonathan Miller of Securix LLC that raised questions about the way the program was operating, Tindell said.
“Based upon his letter, we had concerns that there wasn’t a proper law enforcement control system in place,” he said.
Tindell sent HDI a letter at the end of the same month that mentioned questions had been raised about the Securix program. Tindell asked HDI to “immediately discontinue sharing or providing data relating to any programs involving Securix or QJR.”
QJR filed its lawsuit to dissolve the company less than a month later. In the civil litigation, QJR is also alleging Miller has defamed the Mississippi business partners, which Miller has denied.
Although the chancery case is sealed, Securix and Securix Mississippi have been unable to avoid publicity. E. Brian Rose, managing editor of the website GCWire and a former congressional candidate, has written numerous pieces about Securix’s business deals.
But access to the Chancery Court file could give the public more information about the automatic license plate reading business.
Cameras at the intersection of Bienville Boulevard and Washington Avenue in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. Credit: Hannah Ruhoff, Sun Herald
In its motion to unseal the file, Mississippi Today attorney Henry Laird asks Harris to hold a hearing that gives the news outlet a chance to argue the file should be opened, as case law has established.
At the hearing, Harris would also need to consider alternatives to closing the file.
“Even if the on-the record-evidence would be so compelling so as to allow the court to redact specific documents or place them under seal,” Laird argues in his motion, quoting a pertinent case, that ‘does not warrant sealing the entire case from public view’.”
This article was produced in partnership between the Sun Herald and Mississippi Today.
A federal judge is greenlightingthe execution of Richard Jordan, limiting options to avoid execution by the death row inmate.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate denied a stay for the 79-year-old Jordan, who is one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the use of certain lethal injection drugs. Jordan’s execution is set for Wednesday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Jordan was first convicted in 1976 for kidnapping and killing Edwina Marter in Harrison County, and it took four trials until a death sentence stuck in 1998. He is the state’s oldest and longest serving death row inmate.
Jordan’s attorneys argued that Mississippi’s lethal injection protocol might constitute “cruel and unusual punishment,” under the 8th Amendment, arguing the sedative administered doesn’t prevent the inmate from feeling pain, suffocation and cardiac arrest.
“Mr. Jordan and all the other people on death row were sentenced to death to have their lives extinguished,” said Jim Craig of the MacArthur Justice Center at a June 14 hearing for a preliminary injunction to halt the execution.
“They were not sentenced to be tortured before they die.”
But Wingate ruled that Jordan failed to prove the method of execution was “sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering.”
He referred to a previous Supreme Court ruling which stated that “the Eighth Amendment does not guarantee the prisoner a painless death.”
A main point of contention in the hearing was the protocol the state would have to follow if the sedative failed to render Jordan unconscious.
Mississippi Department of Corrections lethal injection protocol requires execution staff to ensure inmates are completely unconscious before proceeding. The “proposed consciousness check” is a mandated wait time of three minutes between administering the sedative and the lethal drugs, according to court records.
But the latest two executions in Mississippi – David Neal Cox on Nov. 17, 2021, and Thomas Loden on Dec. 14, 2022 – did not follow this protocol. Instead, execution staff waited one to two minutes before injecting the other drugs.
At the June 14 hearing, citing a deposition from Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain, the Attorney General’s Office assured Wingate that protocol would be followed with Jordan. It also promised to perform a “sternum rub” to check Jordan’s reaction to the painful stimuli.
“Ultimately, the record contains no evidence that either David Cox or Thomas Loden needlessly suffered prior to death by the same method of execution at issue here, and the Court finds that to be persuasive evidence against the issuance of a stay,” Wingate wrote on Friday.
However, he issued a provision: the state has to stop Jordan’s execution if he shows signs of consciousness.
Although the clock is ticking, Jordan is not entirely out of options yet.
A petition for clemency was submitted to Gov. Tate Reeves’ counsel on Monday by Frank Rosenblatt, professor at Mississippi College school of Law. The petition highlights Jordan’s diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder from his two years of combat service in Vietnam. It cited a 2019 Missisisppi statute that asks courts to consider veterans’ PTSD during criminal sentencing.
“Prolonged exposure to machine gun fire is its own contributor to brain trauma in ways that alter brain behavior,” Rosenblatt explained.
Reeves has never granted a petition for clemency before.
The U.S. Supreme Court also discussed on Wednesday whether to issue an emergency stay of execution, but has not released an opinion. A petition for an emergency stay has also been filed in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari Jordan filed in March. His attorneys filed another one Friday that is awaiting a decision.
Updated 6/23/24: This story has been updated to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today on Jordan’s petition.
