The Sanderson Farms Championship will be played this week at the Country Club of Jackson, and who better to discuss the field and the tournament than Randy Watkins, who once finished fifth in the tournament and then helped save it when it was being played at Annandale and was sponsorless. Sam Burns is the clear favorite but there are several Mississippians in the field who could win it. We also discuss big football games at Oxford and Starkville.
While the Department of Mental Health works to expand community-based mental health services for Mississippians, the state Attorney General’s Office continues to fight oversight of that effort.
State attorneys filed an objection to the most recent report by the court-appointed monitor reviewing the department’s progress toward reducing unnecessary hospitalizations of people with serious mental illness – the latest example of the disconnect between the state’s top law enforcement agency and the mental health department.
“The State is concerned that the volume of general commentary, discussion in the nature of perceived best practices, and recommendations in the Second Report, coupled with the Monitor’s 3-part framework for assessing compliance, is resulting in mission creep – i.e., the incremental expansion of the Remedial Order well beyond its terms,” the objection, filed on Sept. 22, said.
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued the state over its mental health system. U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves sided with the federal government in 2019, finding that Mississippi had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by segregating people with mental illness in hospitals far from their homes and families.
Last year, Reeves appointed Michael Hogan, a former New York State Commissioner on Mental Health with 40 years of mental health experience, to create twice-yearly reports monitoring the state’s progress toward providing community-based services to help people avoid hospitalization.
Hogan filed his second report in early September. The 62-page document found that Mississippi had reduced hospitalizations, but that problems with care coordination at community mental health centers lead to people falling through the cracks.
Hogan told Mississippi Today that he sees the case as two sides of a coin. On one side, he believes the Department of Mental Health is working in good faith to comply with Reeves’ remedial order.
“The other side of the coin is legal, and on that side, the state has fought – as far as I can tell – every aspect of the case from the beginning, and continues to,” he said.
The state appealed Reeves’ ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing he had installed “perpetual federal oversight” of Mississippi’s mental health system. Oral arguments are set to take place in New Orleans next week.
Meanwhile, Department of Mental Health leadership has publicly praised Hogan’s work.
“The Department of Mental Health values working with Dr. Hogan and appreciates his willingness to provide feedback as the agency continues to implement new data and validation measures, protocols, and audit processes that have begun over the past year,” department spokesman Adam Moore said earlier this month when Hogan filed his report. “As both reports have mentioned, much has been accomplished and there is much to be done.”
Moore said on Tuesday that the Department had nothing further to add and referred Mississippi Today to the Attorney General’s Office for questions regarding the litigation.
Michelle Williams, chief of staff for Attorney General Lynn Fitch, said the office does not comment on pending litigation and will let the filing speak for itself.
In September of last year, shortly before the state filed its appeal with the 5th Circuit, Department of Mental Health Director Wendy Bailey told lawmakers the agency would move forward regardless.
“We will comply with the judge’s order and do everything that we need to do as a state agency,” she told lawmakers. “As far as the appeal, that would be a question for the Attorney General’s office.”
Reeves’ order appointing Hogan requires him to “assess compliance” with each part of the remedial order, but it doesn’t spell out how exactly he should do that. Some components of the order are quantitative – for example, the state must operate one or more mobile crisis response teams in each region. But others are not, like the requirement that community mental health centers “make reasonable efforts” to reach people with serious mental illness and connect them with care.
So Hogan developed a “three-part framework” in consultation with the state and the Department of Justice. For each element of the order, he looks at whether the state took action to address the requirement. Then he asks how well the action is working. Finally, he tries to assess whether the action is reducing unnecessary hospitalizations– the key goal of the lawsuit.
Hogan discussed that framework in his first monitoring report in March, and the state filed no objection. Now, the state claims the framework is “problematic” because it is not discussed in the remedial order and because it is not objective.
“The Monitor cannot call balls and strikes without an objectively defined strike zone,” the state’s objection says. “The Remedial Order does not provide an objectively defined strike zone for the vast majority of its provisions. The rules for balls and strikes are not dependent on the professional judgment of the umpire. Likewise, compliance with the Remedial Order should not be dependent on the professional judgment of a monitor.”
Both the state – represented by the Attorney General’s Office – and the Department of Justice have a chance to provide comments and suggested revisions before Hogan files each report with the court. Hogan said the state had raised many of the issues that now appear in its objection. He responded to those points but did not make all the changes the state wanted.
“My view is, it is what it is,” he said. “And I proceed ahead on my side of the road or my side of the coin, which is to look at compliance and make the best judgments that are available.”
A panel of lawmakers trying to come up with policies to help women and children post-abortion ban heard a familiar refrain from experts Tuesday: Mississippi ranks worst or near-worst in infant and maternal mortality, poverty, hunger, access to health care and child care and many other pertinent statistics.
“… This means 39% of children in Mississippi belong to households with no full-time working parent,” said Heather Hanna, assistant research professor at the Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center. “… 43% of Black children in Mississippi live in poverty … Women in Mississippi have higher rates of educational attainment than men, yet earn less.”
The disheartening stats from various experts continued for much of the day — 46% of Mississippi children are in single-parent homes. One in five children experienced hunger in the last year. Nine out of 1,000 babies in Mississippi die. In the rural Delta, there are 4,000 children for every one pediatrician — statewide that number drops only to 2,000 per — and many counties have no OB/GYN. Many mothers do not receive proper prenatal or postpartum care. Mississippi has alarming rates of premature, low-weight babies being born.
Young women have problems obtaining or affording long-acting, reversible contraception. The state Health Department is estimating Mississippi will see an additional 5,000 unplanned pregnancies a year now that abortions are banned here.
The Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families opened the first of four planned hearings with an examination of the extent of the problem. The committee was announced by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann after the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down longstanding Roe v. Wade and a dormant Mississippi abortion ban on the books subsequently took effect. Hosemann said it’s now incumbent on lawmakers to come up with policies to help mothers and children. House Speaker Philip Gunn has also created a commission with a similar charge.
“As a state we are in the wrong place on a lot of lists,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, told the nine-member, bipartisan committee on Tuesday.
Dr. Daniel Edney, director of the state Department of Health, showed lawmakers a chart with a national report card that ranks states on numerous health issues.
“We’re not just 50th,” Edney said. “We’re 50th by a mile. I think if we had 60 states we’d be 60th … The Department of Health is absolutely committed to work with you and do whatever it takes to get us off the bottom.”
Tuesday’s hearing was open to the public and the committee is asking for written testimony from the public, which can be emailed to WCFStudyGroup@senate.ms.gov. The comments will be presented to the full committee.
A large part of the hearing’s audience — many of those who were not lobbyists or government staffers — walked out of the hearing, holding hand-made signs, briefly mid-morning Tuesday to hold a press conference organized by leaders of organizations representing Black women. Black women and babies experience a disproportionate share of the state’s highest-in-the-nation rates of stillbirth, low birth weight, and infant mortality. They said the statistics about the state’s problems are old news, and the title of the press conference was “We are the Data.” They complained about a lack of Black women on the Senate committee — only one of the nine members — and among Tuesday’s presenters.
They want to see some action from lawmakers, and many had come to call on lawmakers to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for mothers — a subject of much debate in Mississippi over the last year.
“What we’re asking for here is just a right to life,” said Angela Grayson, lead organizer for Black Women Vote Coalition and advocacy and outreach coordinator for The Lighthouse. “The data is here. The data shows that this is good legislation and that that is what we need here in Mississippi for Black women to be able to go through the childbirth experience and not have the unnecessary burdens of inadequate health care.”
In Mississippi, about 60% of births are to women on Medicaid. The Senate in this year’s legislative session attempted to extend standard postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months, an effort to help combat high maternal mortality rates and other health problems for mothers and children. The House shot down the proposal, with House Speaker Philip Gunn linking extension of postpartum coverage to general Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Gunn and other Mississippi Republicans have fought Medicaid expansion under “Obamacare” for years, and Mississippi remains one of 12 states that has not expanded coverage.
On Tuesday, Woodward, Edney and other presenters voiced support for extending postpartum Medicaid coverage.
Mississippi Medicaid Director Drew Snyder, when asked his opinion on extending postpartum Medicaid coverage, appeared to sidestep the question with a lengthy word salad. But he noted that extending postpartum coverage is “a different” discussion from general Medicaid expansion under the ACA and said, “I don’t think it poses long-term sustainability questions like ACA expansion does.”
Snyder advised lawmakers considering postpartum extension: “if you do it, do it because you believe it will help mothers and children, don’t do it because others say you’re being cruel and heartless.”
Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd, R-Oxford, is chair of the new Study Group on Women, Children and Families, which will continue hearings on Wednesday, then on Oct. 25 and 26.
Boyd said part of Woodward’s presentation stood out to her.
“She said that a 20% decrease in low-birth-weight babies at UMMC’s (Newborn Intensive Care Unit) would save about $8 million a year,” Boyd said. “Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage would cost about $7 million, so that would pay for it.”
Mississippi Today staff writer Isabelle Taft contributed to this report.
Jackson residents and supporters hold signs as they march to the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss. to protest the ongoing water issues in the city on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
A crowd gathers near High Street in Jackson, Miss., to march for clean water in the city and to keep it a public service in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Poor People’s Campaign founder and co-chair, left, gives instructions before marching in protest of Jackson’s ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Poor People’s Campaign founder and co-chair, left, and local clergy from the Jackson, Miss. area pray before marching in protest of Jackson’s water issues on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Jackson, Miss. resident Georgia Cohran marches with others en route to the Governor’s Mansion in protest of Jackson’s ongoing water crisis on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
A crowd marches to the Governor’s Mansion to protest the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
A crowd gathers near High Street in Jackson, Miss., to march for clean water in the city and to keep it a public service in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Community leaders prepare to lead a crowd to the Governor’s Mansion in protest of Jackson’s ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
A crowd marches to the Governor’s Mansion to protest the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Jackson residents and supporters hold signs as they march to the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss. to protest the ongoing water issues in the city on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
A crowd marches to the Governor’s Mansion to protest the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Deneka Samuel cries as she shares her experience concerning the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss., during a Moral Monday rally, held by the Poor People’s Campaign, outside of the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Members of the crowd listens as those affected by the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss. share their experience with the issue during a Moral Monday rally, held by the Poor People’s Campaign, outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Poor People’s Campaign founder and co-chair, speaks during a Moral Monday rally, held by the Poor People’s Campaign, outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Members of the crowd listens as those affected by the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Miss. share their experience with the issue during a Moral Monday rally, held by the Poor People’s Campaign, outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Rukia Lumumba speaks during a Moral Monday rally, held by the Poor People’s Campaign, outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Poor People’s Campaign founder and co-chair, speaks during a Moral Monday rally, held by the Poor People’s Campaign, outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
A member of the crowd reacts as Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Poor People’s Campaign founder and co-chair, speaks during a Moral Monday rally, held by the Poor People’s Campaign, outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
The Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition and the Poor People’s Campaign held a march on Monday to protest the ongoing water crisis in Jackson.
Attendees began their march near the Old Mt. Helm Baptist Church and ended on Capitol Street with a “Moral Monday” rally outside of the Governor’s Mansion. The rally was attended by over 100 people calling for clean water in the city, and to keep it a public service instead of having the water system privatized by the state.
Deneka Samuel, a south Jackson resident and mother of six children, wiped away tears as she told the crowd about her family’s experience.
“I never thought that in this lifetime that I would have to go and fetch water, dip water out of a barrel,” she said. “It’s a constant struggle each and every day. I have to keep reminding my younger kids to not drink out of that faucet.”
Only 12% of school districts in the state received D or F grades according to data released by the Department of Education on Tuesday, though officials warn the pandemic played a role in schools’ improved letter ratings.
The Mississippi Department of Education annually assesses schools and districts based on state test performance, student growth from year to year, and graduation rates. However, due to pandemic disruptions, schools have not received new grades since 2019. Assessments did not occur in the spring of 2020, and while tests were administered in 2021, no accountability grades were given for student performance.
Many schools and districts saw significant improvement in their accountability score from 2019, but the education officials cautioned against year-to-year comparisons because of the impact of the pandemic on the data.
State test performance decreased significantly in 2021, so when test scores returned to more normal levels this year, schools saw significant year-over-year growth. Since growth is a key metric used to assign schools grades, it is possible that many districts and schools saw increased overall grades because of that growth.
“Because the accountability system relies heavily on growth, it may be challenging for some schools and districts to maintain grades (in the future) that improved considerably in 2021-22 ,” said Interim State Superintendent of Education Kim Benton.
Benton also pointed out that the graduation requirements were waived for students to pass some state tests in 2020 and 2021 and graduation rates were positively impacted. This trend will continue until all students who took those courses during the pandemic have graduated.
“We will likely see some variability in A-F grades over the next few years as the pandemic disruptions work their way out of our accountability system,” she said.
Superintendents expected this outcome, and many told Mississippi Today in March that accountability results should be taken “with a grain of salt” because of the pandemic disruptions. They said they hoped community members would be understanding as grades fluctuated and these disruptions worked their way out of the system.
While pandemic-related growth and waivers affected school grades, a quarter of all districts have increased reading and math proficiency since 2019.
The ten highest rated districts for the 2021-22 school year are:
Long Beach School District
Clinton School District
Ocean Springs School District
Union County School District
Petal School District
Madison County School District
New Albany Public School District
Enterprise School District
Pass Christian Public School District
Rankin County School District
The results will be officially certified when they are presented to the State Board of Education on Thursday. They will then be available for public review on the Mississippi Succeeds Report Card portal.
Just one of the ten applicants hoping to open a new charter school in Mississippi received approval Monday.
The Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board voted to approve Instant Impact Global Prep unanimously at their Sep. 26 board meeting. Four other schools were denied charters at the meeting, two with split votes and two unanimously.
Instant Impact Global Prep will operate in Natchez beginning in the 2023-24 school year. The school will serve grades K-2 in its first year, with the ability to expand to the eighth grade. Their mission statement emphasizes a rigorous STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum as well as emotional development and community engagement. Representatives from Instant Impact Educational Services who will be operating the school could not be reached for comment Monday.
Of the five schools that made it to the final stage of the application process, Instant Impact Global Prep was the only one recommended for approval by an independent evaluator. Clarksdale Collegiate Prep, Columbus Leadership Academy, and both the Tallahatchie and North Bolivar locations of Resilience Academy of Teaching did not meet 100% of the performance standards.
Clarksdale Collegiate Prep would have served grades 7-12 as a feeder for students who currently attend Clarksdale Collegiate Public, a K-6 charter elementary school. Nearly 20 students, parents, and teachers attended the board meeting in person Monday, with four speaking to the board directly in favor of the charter getting approved.
Amanda Johnson is the leader of Clarksdale Collegiate charter school. Credit: Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School
Amanda Johnson, executive director of Clarksdale Collegiate Public, spoke to the board about her confidence in her team’s ability to open a new school and the challenges the school has overcome. She added that the final report from the independent evaluator does not paint a full picture of their school community and its impact on student learning.
When voting on Clarksdale Collegiate’s application, board members were split, with those opposed citing the need for additional planning and concerns regarding the current school’s test data. Jennifer Whitter, a board member who voted against granting the charter, invited the school to apply again in the future but said they were not ready at this time.
After they were denied, Johnson said she is deeply disappointed by the board’s decision, but emphasized that she will be applying again.
“I am not giving up on our kids,” Johnson said. “But because we understand how to open and run a school, we understand that we need the time to plan, which is why we came here today.”
Clarksdale Collegiate Public will also have their charter up for renewal this school year, which Johnson said she anticipates being a challenge.
“It is clearly going to be an uphill battle because of the way the board characterizes our school,” she told Mississippi Today. “We are coming off of a pandemic and this is our first year ever having an accountability score. What we are doing is hard. We get that. We have shown and we are demonstrating that we are willing and able to do that work.”
Despite this, Johnson expressed confidence that they would have their high school operational by the time students reached ninth grade.
The board’s vote was also split for Columbus Leadership Academy, with some board members saying they deserved a chance to prove themselves, but they were also denied. The board was unanimous in their denial of the Resilience Academy of Teaching’s schools, citing concern that the plans were not appropriately thorough.
Grant Callen, CEO of school choice advocacy group Empower Mississippi, said students are being failed by an overly-restrictive board.
“Today, the Board had before them multiple applicants, who in our view, more than surpassed the threshold to be approved to start a high quality charter school,” Callen said. “(We) remain hopeful that in the future a majority of the Board will come to understand that creating more options for more students is an urgent imperative and their primary charge. The children of Mississippi are depending on it.”
Those convicted of murder are not eligible for parole in Mississippi, but court rulings paved the way for a man previously sentenced to death to receive parole and be scheduled for release.
Frederick Bell had been serving a sentence at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman for the May 1991 shooting of 21-year-old Robert “Bert” Bell (no relation) during a robbery in Grenada County.
Capital murder typically carries the death penalty. But after years of appeals and filing for post-conviction relief, Frederick Bell was resentenced to life without parole and then life with the possibility of parole. He was approved for release by the state Parole Board in August and is set to leave prison as early as Monday.
Family members of Bert Bell have been attending Parole Board meetings since 2015 and thought Frederick Bell wouldn’t be paroled, but last month Gene Bell, Bert’s younger brother, received a letter saying Frederick Bell’s parole had been approved, according to a copy shared with Mississippi Today.
The family wants the Parole Board to reconsider. More than 50 community members from Grenada County and beyond have signed a petition addressed to Gov. Tate Reeves asking him to reverse the board’s decision. State law enforcement groups and residents have written to Parole Board Chair Jeffery Belk and board members. Several lawmakers have also spoken about Frederick Bell’s parole.
“We should never parole a violent criminal,” Gene Bell wrote in a Thursday emailto Mississippi Today. “That is not the way to reduce the population in the penal system and is certainly not the way to protect every law-abiding citizen in regards to our safety.”
Belk wrote to Gene Bell about the board’s decision to parole Frederick Bell, saying he understood it would be a disappointment to the family.
In a previous interview with Mississippi Today, Belk said when considering parole, the board looks at a range of available information, including input from victims and their families and the person’s record while incarcerated, to make a decision.
“However, in our opinion Bell has been rehabilitated and at this point we feel that parole supervision will be more beneficial than further incarceration,” Belk’s letter states.
Belk and a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment about Bell’s parole.
Bert Bell at his high school graduation. Credit: Gene Bell
On May 6, 1991, then-19-year-old Frederick Bell and a group of men went into Sparks Stop ‘N Go in Grenada County where 21-year-old Bert Bell was working. They bought chips and beer and went outside to eat, according to court records.
Frederick Bell wanted to go to Memphis and said he needed money so he decided to rob the store, according to court records. He went back inside with one of the group members, Anthony Doss. Gunshots rang out from the store, and Bert Bell was shot nine times and killed.
Later that day, Frederick Bell and three of the men from the group drove to Memphis, where Bell shot and killed another man, 20-year-old Tommy White.
In 1993, the Grenada County Circuit Court convicted Frederick Bell and Doss for the killing of Bert Bell. A jury found Frederick Bell killed the store clerk, contemplated using lethal force during the robbery and intended to kill Bert Bell, which factored into its decision to impose the death penalty, according to court records.
Before the 1993 trial, Frederick Bell and another man from the group, Frank Coffey, were charged for the Memphis shooting and pleaded guilty, according to court records.
For years Frederick Bell sought to appeal his Mississippi conviction, including an unsuccessful direct appeal with the state Supreme Court in 1998, multiple filings for post-conviction relief and denied requests for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his case.
Gene Bell said it is a shame for anyone convicted of a violent crime to continue to appeal because victims and their families don’t get an opportunity to appeal any decisions made by the courts.
In 2011, the state Supreme Court found Frederick Bell was entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether he was mentally disabled. This was based on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found it was cruel and unusual to execute mentally disabled people.
Doctors at the Mississippi State Hospital evaluated Frederick Bell and determined he was mentally disabled.
As a result, in 2013 the Grenada County Circuit Court sentenced Bell to life without parole. He appealed, and in 2015 the State Supreme Court voted 5-4 in his favor. On June 5, 2015, the Grenada County Circuit Court sentenced him to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
Gene Bell said his family was devastated to learn his brother’s killer was eligible for parole. He began attending Parole Board hearings in 2015 to speak against Frederick Bell’s release.
“Do I like doing this? No,” Gene Bell said. “But it’s my duty. It’s my duty for my family and for the law abiding citizens of the great state of Mississippi.”
The family’s main concern is about public safety. Gene Bell said people shouldn’t have to fear the system has failed them by allowing someone who has committed violent crimes out of prison.
A person granted parole will serve the remainder of their sentence under supervision. They are required to report to a parole officer and follow rules laid out by the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Gene Bell said the current Parole Board did not indicate it would parole Frederick Bell.
Rather, the board told him it would extend the time between Frederick Bell’s hearings from one year to up to five years. This would be done out of consideration for Bert Bell’s family.
“(T)his was too brutal of a case for me and family to have to endure such a horrible date in history this often,” Gene Bell said.
He doesn’t understand what changed this summer between the July meeting that felt positive and the August one when the board granted Frederick Bell parole.
The Rev. C.J. Rhodes of Mount Helm Baptist Church in Jackson is President of Clergy for Prison Reform, which is focused on criminal justice issues including parole.
Parole can be complicated and should be viewed on a case-by-case basis, he said. It should also consider those affected, including victims, their families, the incarcerated people and their families and community.
The Christian faith recognizes redemption and how incarcerated people can be rehabilitated and demonstrate that after prison.
“This becomes a test case if we want to apply that particular theology,” Rhodes said.
The group wants to reimagine corrections in a way that doesn’t emphasize imprisoning people, he said. Rhodes said there is an opportunity to make victims and victimizers whole again, and redemption and rehabilitation shouldn’t be lost in conversation about criminal justice reform.
Monday is Frederick Bell’s expected release date. Multiple efforts to reach an attorney for Frederick Bell were not successful.
Sen. Angela Burks Hill (R-Picayune) said in an interview with Supertalk Radio that his release from prison is likely to be delayed because the Parole Board did not follow a state law that requires public notification in a newspaper in the county where the crime was committed.
Gene Bell remembers his brother as a happy-go lucky person who enjoyed the outdoors and loved his family and friends.
“We miss Bert tremendously,” Gene Bell said. “We often wonder what he would have become in life. What would his brother- and sister- in-law think about him and what would his nieces and nephews think about him? How would we all interact as family?”
On Monday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan again met with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, this time alongside the U.S. Department of Justice, to plot the next course of action over the city’s water system.
“Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim from the Department of Justice and I met today with Mayor Lumumba to discuss the actions the federal government is prepared to take to help remedy this longstanding injustice,” Regan said in a press release. “During that meeting, I conveyed our desire to work with the City to reach a judicially enforceable agreement that ensures a sustainable water system in the mid- and long-terms.”
The release did not mention the agreement between the EPA and Jackson that’s already in place. The two parties signed an administrative order in 2021, which contains a list of 40 hiring and repair requirements outlined by the federal agency.
Mayor Lumumba recently said the EPA has been flexible in setting deadlines in that agreement. All of the original deadlines have since passed. Mississippi Today reached out to the EPA to ask which of those items the city has met so far, but was told by a spokesperson, “Due to the ongoing enforcement activities, we are unable to provide information related to the city’s compliance status.”
The two parties are also under a court-ordered non-disclosure agreement that prevents them from sharing a “very detailed plan” with a cost estimate for fixing the city’s water system, Jackson officials said recently. The EPA confirmed to Mississippi Today that there is a confidentiality order in place, but didn’t provide further detail.
The press release added that Jackson has issued roughly 300 boil water notices in the last two years.
New boil water noticeshit over 1,200 customers
Since the state health department lifted the month and a half long boil water notice just 11 days ago, Jackson has since issued new boil water advisories for over 1,200 customers.
The city announced on Monday afternoon that a “contractor inadvertently severed the water line” for approximately 1,000 connections in Byram.
Jackson issued boil water notices for the other 200 connections because of line breaks caused by increased pressure in the system, officials said. Mayor Lumumba warned residents in early September that the worn down distribution system would be susceptible to such issues.
City workers, with assistance from the Mississippi Rural Water Association and teams from Maryland, Arkansas, Minnesota and South Carolina, have continued repairs at both of Jackson’s treatment plants. A Monday press release said the crews brought two of the raw water pumps back into service at O.B. Curtis before the weekend.
The city said on Monday that the following areas, including Byram, Belhaven, North Jackson, and Eastover, are currently under a boil water notice:
Byram:
[7300-8899] Gary Road, Byram: 39272
Gary Drive
Glen Haven Subdivision
Glennhaven Drive
Glennhaven Court
Glenn Oak Circle
Cedar Glenn Drive
Brank Creek Drive
Red Oak Cove
Cedar Glenn Cove
Trelles Cove
Highland Cove
Azalea Cove
Glennwood Cove
Ridge Place
Redwood Cove
Holybush Place
Glennoak Circle
Eagle Nest Subdivision
Eagle Nest Drive
Freedom Cove
Highpoint Drive
Mountain Crest Drive
Golden Eagle Drive
Talon Cove
Canyon Cove
Lake Ridgelea Subdivision
Turtle Road
Park Avenue
Mary Lane
Lake Shore Drive
Oak Avenue
Pike Avenue
Ridgelea Road
Lure Avenue
Meadow Lane
S. Ridge Road
E. Ridge Road
Bob White Street
Rod Street
Reel Street
Hook Street
W. Ridge Road
Horse Shoe Circle
Line Street
Spinning Street
Jackson:
[1200-2399] North State Street: 39202
[1600-1899] Pine St.
[700-799] Euclid St.
[700-799] Oakwood St.
[700-799] Fairview St.
[700-799] Arlington St.
[700-799] Pinehurst St.
[700-799] Gillespie St.
Popcorn Alley
Park Avenue
[1300-1399] Peachtree Street: 39202
[5300-5599] Highland Drive: 39206
[4300-4599] El Paso Street
Paso Cove
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include more streets impacted by the boil water notices because the City of Jackson released more locations after this story first published.
