As cold temperatures repeatedly dipped below freezing this month, several public schools in Jackson switched to virtual instruction because of little or no water pressure on campus.
The district is frequently under a boil water notice, according to Sherwin Johnson, executive director of public engagement for the Jackson Public School District. Sometimes schools do not have water at all because when the temperature drops below freezing, pipes burst which can lead to a reduction in water pressure.
That’s just what happened this week, when approximately 4,000 students were impacted by low or no water pressure at 11 schools across the district.
“We woke up thinking it was going to be a normal routine, brushing teeth and washing faces, and instead it was trickles of water,” said Angela Crudup, whose youngest child attends Lester Elementary, one of the schools without water pressure this week. “So I immediately pulled out all our pots, just the normal routine (when there are water issues), which was a stark reminder of February last year.”
In February 2021, thousands of residents in Jackson went without water for weeks when a winter storm shut down the city’s main water treatment plant. City officials said this week that the plant is still a few years away from having the protection it needs to withstand a similar event.
The O.B. Curtis Water Plant is seen during United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan’s tour stop in Ridgeland, Miss., Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. Credit: Eric Shelton/Clarion Ledger
There have also been instances when the water system has failed outside of the winter months due to other issues at the city’s water treatment plant, Johnson said. In November 2021, Wilkins Elementary kept its students home again after losing water pressure during Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan’s visit to Jackson.
Johnson said that school closures are necessary because “when water pressure is low, we cannot flush toilets properly or prepare hot meals. You also cannot wash your hands which is extremely hazardous during this pandemic.”
Crudup works from home, which she says makes school closures inconvenient but manageable. Her two older children were also attending school virtually this week because of COVID exposure, which she said does impact their internet reliability with all three children attending virtually.
“It can be a huge headache,” Crudup said. “My children keep getting kicked out of classes because of the internet so I’m texting teachers all day long, just trying to keep them abreast of what’s going on.”
Johnson said that the district has provided every student with a device, but connectivity does continue to pose a challenge.
“I honestly believe, when it comes to sending the children home, that (the schools) are doing all they can do,” Crudup said. “And the same goes for the COVID exposure situations — nobody wants to get that phone call, but at the end of the day, it’s what’s best.”
“In terms of the city, it’s the complete opposite,” she continued. “I don’t think that everything that could be done is being done…It’s been a year, and we know the problems that lie underneath our streets, and we know this is a problem that could potentially happen every single year. It’s not going to get better until something is done.”
Stephanie Lane has a son is in second grade at Key Elementary, one of the schools impacted by the lack of water pressure. She expressed the same desire to see Jackson’s infrastructure issues addressed.
“Every time we have snow, we have water pressure problems,” she said.
Her son is being kept by his grandmother this week, but she said that’s not always an option when they switch to virtual due to COVID exposure because they don’t want to risk her health.
“With COVID, you never know when you’ll be doing virtual or not,” Lane said. “It’s kind of frustrating going back and forth.”
Lane said her son does okay with the virtual lessons, but that, like many young children, it can be hard for him to maintain his focus spending that many hours a day on the computer. She said he pays attention better and learns better with his teacher there in person.
Johnson said the district is partnering with churches and nonprofits to provide internet access, counseling, meals and water for families in need. He also said they will continue to provide support for educators teaching virtually and after-school enrichment programs to help students master content.
The five state senators who represent the city of Jackson said Thursday they would be working during the 2022 legislative session to increase the law enforcement presence and the number of prosecutors and judges to help fight the “war on crime” in the capital city.
By some metrics, Jackson is the nation’s most dangerous city. Homicide numbers have soared across the country the past two years, but based on cities with at least 100,000 population, Jackson’s per capita murder rate is the highest in the United States.
Sen. Sollie Norwood said “it would take an all hands on deck” approach by the local governments, schools, churches and parents, as well as the state Legislature, to deal with crime in the city.
He said much of the crime is, unfortunately, being committed by young people who should be in school.
Issues surrounding Jackson, the state’s largest city, have been a focus at the Capitol in recent years. Those issues include crime and an aging water and sewer system that often collapses during extreme cold spells and is being investigated by federal officials concerned about poor water quality.
For several years, Republican leadership of the Legislature and Democratic leaders of city government have been unable to agree on how to deal with those issues.
“We are not here to play the blame game,” said Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson. “We are here to say something needs to be done, and we all have roles.”
Horhn and the other senators pointed out that the legislative leadership and Gov. Tate Reeves are in agreement on increasing the number of state law enforcement officers in the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which runs from around the University of Mississippi Medical Center north of the Capitol building to Jackson State University south of the Capitol. Legislative leadership has called on increasing the approximately 75-member force by 50. Reeves, in his state-of-the-state address this week, called for doubling the number of Capitol Police officers.
“We hope this will allow the Jackson Police Department officials to patrol other areas of Jackson,” said Sen. Walter Michel, the only Republican senator representing portions of Jackson.
But Michel pointed out a previous study dating back 20 years said Jackson needed about 600 police officers to be effective in controlling crime. The city now has about 300, he said.
“A war between rival factions — some organized, some random — is being fought on the streets of Jackson right before our eyes,” Horhn said. “Citizens are afraid to leave their homes. Citizens are afraid to stay in their home. They are afraid their loved ones may fall victim to some foolishness. Visitors from other communities are afraid to come to Jackson for fear of catching a stray bullet … This situation is out of control. We are all going to have to come together to do something about it.”
He said both the state and local officials need a plan to deal with the crime issue.
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said that Mississippi was one of three states to lose population based on the 2020 Census, and as long as the state did not have “a vibrant” urban area it would be difficult to reverse that trend.
“This state cannot succeed and this state cannot grow unless Jackson is successful,” Blount said. “For people who live outside the city, you have a choice: help the city grow and get better or wash your hands of it and watch our state not grow … If we give up on Jackson, we give up on our state, and we are not going to do that.”
Highlighting the difficulty in getting everyone on the same page in dealing with issues facing Jackson, when asked to comment on the senators’ news conference, an official with the city government said: “We were not made aware of that or invited to it.”
In addition to the extra police officers, the senators said Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens has requested two more permanent assistant district attorneys and eight temporary assistant district attorneys to deal with a backlog of people charged with crimes. The senators said they are still waiting on clarification on how many additional temporary judges are needed. Hinds County already has two special judges working out of a state office building to deal with the backlog, Horhn said.
“We are trying our best to get the DA the tools he needs,” said Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson.
The senators also hope to garner about $600,000 in state funds to help with needed repairs at jails in Hinds County and Jackson.
Blount also expressed optimism that state funds would be available to help with water and sewer issues facing the city. The state has $1.8 billion in federal funds that are designated for such projects.
When lawmakers arrived at the Capitol on Thursday, they found purses on their desks, each containing a cookie with “56c” on it — to represent the 56 cents on the dollar Black women in Mississippi receive compared to white men for the same work.
“Equal pay matters to women’s pocketbooks,” said Cassandra Welchlin, director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, flanked by more than a dozen women at the Capitol. The group put the purses on all 174 lawmakers’ desks. They also contained the group’s call to fix what it says are glaring flaws in pending equal pay legislation.
In Mississippi, the last state in the nation to not provide state legal recourse for employees paid less for the same work based on sex, several equal pay bills are pending in the Legislature this year.
The House last week overwhelmingly passed House Bill 770 passed on to the Senate, where two measures, Senate Bill 2451 and Senate Bill 2452, are also pending. The bills would create a state “actionable right” for any employee paid less for equal work based on sex. Federal law already provides such a right, but taking an employer to task in federal court is a more difficult and often more costly task for aggrieved employees.
The Black Women’s Roundtable says HB 770, authored by Rep. Angela Cockerham, “is the opposite of an equal pay bill.” They said it “rubber stamps” an employer decision to pay women less by allowing them to use salary history as as basis for pay. It also would apply only to full time workers, and to employers with more than five employees.
It also lacks any specific protection for women of color and requires a woman to waive federal rights to a claim if they bring a state claim. During passage of the bill in the House, Cockerham said women would have to choose whether to bring a state or federal claim and would “only get one bite at the apple.”
Senate Bill 2451, authored by Republican Sens. Brice Wiggins and Nicole Akins Boyd, contains “glaring flaws,” the Black Women’s Roundtable leaders said. It requires “pleading with particularity” — a high burden of proof for employees, it would provide less damages than available under federal law and includes no retaliation protection, among other problems, they said.
Wiggins recently said the bill he co-authored is “a conservative approach.”
“(That means) the state will no longer be last on this issue, but it will not infringe on the rights of businesses,” Wiggins said. “… Part of the debate has been that people don’t want the state injecting itself into private business, and this minimizes that, while allowing a cause of action (for employees) on a state level.”
BWR called for lawmakers to amend the two bills at the forefront with the Legislature, or to instead support SB2452, authored by Sen. Angela Turner-Ford, which BWR said “has strong and inclusive language that should be supported.”
Recent studies show women make up 51.5% of the population in Mississippi and nearly half of its workforce. They are the primary breadwinners for a majority — 53.5% — of families in this state, which is the highest rate in the nation.
But women working full time in Mississippi earn 27% less than men, far greater than the 19% gap nationwide. That gap grows worse for Black and Latina women in Mississippi, who are paid just 56 cents and 54 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to white men.
Women make up nearly 60% of those in Mississippi’s workforce living below the poverty line. The state has continually ranked worst or near-worst in most every ranking for working women.
BWR members on Thursday said that closing the pay gap in Mississippi would reduce by half the number of women in poverty and by one-third the number of children in poverty.
At a press conference at the Capitol on Thursday, Maria Serratos, a Mississippi State University student majoring in engineering, joined the call for equal pay.
“Why should I stay in a state that devalues me by offering 54 cents for the same work a man makes $1?” Serratos said. “If women in this state are not offered a fair shot at success, this state will not grow.”
Editor’s note: Black Women’s Roundtable has placed paid advertisements on Mississippi Today’s website. Mississippi Today maintains a clear separation between news and advertising content. As such, advertisers have no influence or control over Mississippi Today’s editorial decisions.
A 10th child in Mississippi has died from the coronavirus, the Mississippi Department of Health announced Wednesday afternoon.
The only information made available about the death is that the child was under 18. All pediatric deaths in Mississippi from COVID-19 have been among the unvaccinated.
“Vaccination is the best protection for our children who are eligible to receive it,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said in a statement. “For those under five years of age, it is critically important that everyone around the infant and child are vaccinated.”
Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates nationally and among every age group. Just 7% of Mississippi children aged 5-11 have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 19% nationally, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccination rate in Mississippi for children ages 12 to 17 is higher (37%) but still lags behind the national rate of 54%.
“Every pediatric death is a tragedy. Every child was unvaccinated. Many too young to be eligible,” Dr. Anita Henderson, president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a tweet following the announcement. “Children depend on the adults around them for protection. Please … get vaccinated and boosted if eligible.”
Mississippi also has the highest COVID-19 death rate in that nation. The vast majority of deaths in the state have been among the elderly.
COVID-19 vaccines are now available for any child five years of age and older at all county health departments. MSDH recommends that all those over 12 receive booster shots to prevent hospitalizations and death.
The age ranges for all COVID-19 pediatric deaths in Mississippi are:
The Legislature with little debate and overwhelming vote margins on Wednesday sent to the governor a bill to legalize medical marijuana in Mississippi.
“I’m so excited for the patients of Mississippi,” said Angie Calhoun, founder of the Mississippi Cannabis Patients Alliance and mother of a son who suffered seizures and other chronic problems and at one point moved out of the state to use medical cannabis. “This has been a long time overdue for them, and relief is something we can actually see in the near future for them. I’m also excited for the voters of this state, to finally have their will enacted … So many members of our Legislature did what they said they would do, give the state a very good medical marijuana program and regard the will of the voters.”
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann called the measure one of the most parsed in Senate history and said he was glad to have the issue put to rest for now.
The Senate passed the final version of Senate Bill 2095 with a vote of 46-4. The House passed it 103-13. Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to questions of whether he would sign the measure. Reeves had threatened to veto an earlier version of the bill, but lawmakers said they made many of the concessions he wanted. (See details of the bill below)
The vote margins in both chambers would be “veto-proof” — enough to override a governor’s veto — if they didn’t change.
This final version of the bill had been tweaked Tuesday evening to allow local governments more zoning control over where marijuana growing or processing operations would be allowed. The Senate also agreed to changes the House made to the bill last week, including lowering the amount of marijuana a patient can have from 3.5 ounces a month to 3 ounces and removing the Department of Agriculture from any regulation and oversight of the program.
Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson had opposed his agency being involved. The final version would have the Department of Health in charge of all oversight and licensing.
“I find it disappointing that the Department of Health now has to get into the agriculture business when they are so stressed with other things right now,” Hosemann said.
The effort for Mississippi to join a majority of other states that have legalized medical — if not recreational — marijuana has been long and contentious. For years, legislative efforts in this conservative Bible Belt state fizzled, despite growing support among the citizenry.
In 2020, voters took matters in hand and passed Initiative 65, creating a medical marijuana program and enshrining it in the state constitution. But the Supreme Court on a constitutional technicality shot down the initiative last spring, and even the process by which voters could pass initiatives.
Promising to heed the will of the voters, lawmakers worked over the summer to draft a medical marijuana bill. Reeves, who opposed Initiative 65, vowed also to heed the will of voters and call lawmakers into special session once they reached an agreement on a measure. They did so in September, but Reeves didn’t like the agreement and refused to call a special session. He said the 4 ounces a month of marijuana it allowed patients to buy was too much, despite it being less than the 5 ounces voters approved with Initiative 65.
The bill the Senate initially passed this month allowed 3.5 ounces a month for patients and made other concessions Reeves had wanted. The House amended the bill last week, lowering the amount to 3 ounces a month.
Several medical marijuana advocates watched from one side of the gallery as the House took its final vote on it Wednesday afternoon.
On the other side of the gallery were many parents holding photos of their children who died of drug overdoses or poisoning. They were there in support of House Bill 607, which the House also passed overwhelmingly after the medical marijuana bill.
HB607 would create a first-degree murder charge for unlawful selling of controlled substances containing the super-strong opioid Fentanyl that causes someone’s death. The bill initially did not specify Fentanyl, but covered any controlled substance sold. It was amended during a lengthy floor debate Wednesday.
Judiciary B Chairman Nick Bain said the bill is aimed at cracking down on drug dealers, and would apply to those that sell drugs, not addicts who share them.
“The purpose is to protect the addicts,” Bain said. “I want to go up the chain, get the drug dealers, the bad actors … We have an epidemic among our ranks — pills laced with Fentanyl, heroin laced with Fentanyl … These parents up here have suffered unimaginable loss. I want to end this. People are exploiting our kids. People are exploiting our addicts.”
Some highlights of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act now before the governor:
Allows patients to receive up to 3 ounces of marijuana a month. Initiative 65 would have allowed up to 5 ounces a month. An earlier draft of the new bill would have allowed up to 4 ounces.
Allows people to receive medical marijuana for more than two dozen “debilitating conditions.” These include cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, PTSD, HIV/AIDS, Crohn’s disease, sickle cell anemia and Alzheimer’s disease. It also allows it as treatment for chronic, debilitating pain. Conditions can be added to the list only by the Department of Health, not doctors.
Allows physicians, certified nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants and optometrists to certify patients for cannabis use. A patient has to have an in-person assessment, a “bona fide relationship” with the practitioner and a follow up assessment within six months. Only physicians can certify minors for use. For people aged 18-25 — most susceptible to abuse of the drug, Blackwell said — a doctor plus another practitioner have to sign off on certification.
Creates a “seed-to-sale” tracking system of marijuana production and sales, with strict reporting requirements for practitioners and cannabis businesses. It requires growing to be done indoors and does not allow “home grow” by patients.
Applies the state sales tax (currently 7%) to retail sales of cannabis. Applies a 5% excise for cultivation. Money collected goes into the state general fund. Patients would pay $25 for their certification cards, which are good for a year.
Allows the governing boards of cities or counties to opt out of allowing medical cannabis by a vote within 90 days of passage of the act. If they opt out, citizens can opt the city or county back in by referendum.
Will not prevent any employer from firing or refusing to hire someone who is using medical cannabis, or from having drug testing policies. Landlords are not required to allow medical cannabis production or use in rental property.
Prevents people losing custodial or visitation rights with their children for use of medical cannabis, and says users shall not be denied the right to purchase or possess a firearm. But federal firearms purchasing regulations still prohibit marijuana use.
Creates a tier system of cultivators and fees. This starts with a “micro-cultivator” of 1,000 square feet or less, with a one-time license fee of $1,500 and an annual renewal fee of $2,000 and goes up to a “tier 6” grower of 100,000 square feet or more, with a license fee of $40,000 and an annual renewal fee of $100,000. A similar tiered system and fees apply to dispensaries.
Requires the Health Department to begin issuing cards to patients within 60 days of passage of the measure, and requires start of licensing of growers within 120 days and dispensaries within 150 days.
Any effort during the 2022 legislative session to restore voting rights to people convicted of certain felonies most likely will be modest.
The House Judiciary B Committee passed legislation this week to ensure that people whose crimes are expunged regain their right to vote. But that legislation, if passed, would fall short of addressing the state’s antiquated and strict constitutional provision imposing a lifetime ban on people convicted of certain felonies.
Before the session began, House Judiciary B Chair Nick Bain, R-Corinth, said he intended to try to pass legislation addressing lifetime voting ban for people convicted of certain felonies. Bain has said he thinks the judiciary, not the Legislature, should restore voting rights.
The Mississippi Constitution currently strips voting rights from people convicted of several specific crimes, and it takes a legislative suffrage bill or gubernatorial pardon to restore those rights. Lawmakers typically pass few, if any, suffrage bills g restoring the right to vote, and current Gov. Tate Reeves and his predecessor, Phil Bryant, have not granted pardons.
Bain said he is taking the more modest approach this session because he does not believe he can garner the votes needed to make significant changes to the process of restoring voting rights.
“Sometimes you have to eat the elephant one bite at a time, and that’s what we are doing,” Bain said.
There are multiple other bills alive this session that would change the process so that at some point after a person had completed his sentence, voting rights would be restored as it is done in most all states. But it is not likely those bills will garner any consideration this session.
Some legal scholars believe a change to the Mississippi Constitution is the only way the language barring people convicted of felonies from voting can be removed. It would take a two-thirds vote of each chamber and approval of the voters to change the Constitution to remove the felony disenfranchisement language.
At a hearing Bain held last year, many legal experts argued that instead of changing the Constitution, lawmakers could pass a bill to restore voting rights en masse.
“Mississippi is the only state in the nation that requires legislative action for suffrage restoration,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, pointed out on social media.
At one point, Bain indicated that he might try to take up a bill restoring rights to a large group of people. Instead, he is opting to deal with just ensuring that people who have their crimes expunged are eligible to vote.
“This is existing law. Some counties are already doing it, some are not,” Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson, said of the bill passed this week. “This is simply clarifying existing law.”
In recent years, the Legislature has expanded the crimes for which a person can garner an expungement through the judicial system. Bain said most convictions (other than for violent and sex offenses) can be expunged. He added there is contention on whether the law allows people convicted of certain types of embezzlement to have their convictions expunged. Bain said the Judiciary B Committee also might take up legislation to ensure that they can.
Testimony at Bain’s hearing indicated that expungement is cumbersome, and to be successful a person normally has to hire an attorney to help navigate the process.
The problem for those wanting to ensure people convicted of felonies get their voting restored is that most of the crimes eligible for expungement are not crimes where people lose their voting rights if convicted, said Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville.
The disenfranchising crimes listed include arson, armed robbery, bigamy, bribery, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, theft, timber larceny, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, statutory rape, carjacking and larceny under lease or rental agreement. In the 1950s murder and rape also were made disfranchising crimes.
The current system of disenfranchisement for those convicted of certain felonies has its roots in the state’s Jim Crow era.
In the 1890s, the Mississippi Supreme Court wrote the disfranchisement of people of specific felonies was placed in the Constitution “to obstruct the exercise of the franchise by the negro race” by targeting “the offenses to which its weaker members were prone.” The crimes selected by lawmakers to go into the Constitution were thought by the white political leaders as more likely to be committed by African Americans. Under current law, a person could be convicted of the sale of drugs and vote while incarcerated while a person convicted of writing a bad check would lose their right to vote for a lifetime.
The disenfranchisement provision is currently being challenged on constitutional grounds in the federal courts with two cases pending before the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Attorneys have argued that the provision’s intent is the same as the poll tax, the literacy test and other Jim Crow-era provisions that sought to prevent African Americans from voting.
Of all the pandemic-related challenges Ann had to face, nothing was as worrying as when her 8-year-old started having severe anxiety attacks.
May, her youngest child, was in second grade when her school abruptly shifted to virtual learning in 2020. She missed her librarian, teachers and friends at school. She didn’t have a cell phone or social media, tools that have proven vital to maintaining relationships during the pandemic, and felt truly isolated.
“That triggered something in her that made an anxiety disorder show itself probably years earlier than it would have otherwise,” Ann said.
The breaking point came a few months later when Ann put together a surprise for May. She hired someone to come in to repaint and redecorate May’s room.
“It was supposed to be a happy surprise to have a change and freshen things up.”
May had a complete meltdown. She was eventually able to verbalize that she needed to be in control of the changes. Her room was her sanctuary, one of the only constants in a life that had been radically changed in so many ways that were out of her control.
“I was just on the floor with her and she was like, ‘I don’t know what to do’ and I didn’t know how to help her,” Ann said. “That’s when my husband and I said ‘okay, we got to get some help.’”
The signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder May exhibited before the bedroom incident were amplified afterwards. She needed a sense of control where she could find it. Things like how her clothes were folded and which drawers they went into became significant issues.
“It was different than when she was four and she wanted to pick the color cup she drank out of,” Ann said. “We could tell this was very different.”
Ann and her husband brought May to a child psychiatrist who diagnosed her with OCD and an anxiety disorder and prescribed her medication. She also began to see a therapist.
“Thank God we are blessed enough to be able to afford a child therapist that specializes in anxiety,” Ann said.
Now 10-years-old, May is doing a lot better than she was back in 2020. Her parents know that she will likely struggle with these mental health issues for the rest of her life, but they’re committed to doing all they can to help her manage them, whenever and however they arise.
“There’s still a stigma (around mental health issues) but at least in our household, we talk freely about mental health,” Ann said. “It’s okay to not be okay and to not have a reason for that feeling or to feel scared, but know that you’re safe. That’s just our brain chemicals being wonky.”
While Ann, who lives in Madison County, is grateful that her kids are in an environment where it’s safe to ask for and receive help, she worries for the kids in her community who aren’t as lucky. She had a conversation with one of her children’s teachers recently, who spoke of how different her students were when they returned to in-person learning, and how many clearly have mental health needs that aren’t being met.
“A lot of kids can’t get that help, and that’s devastating to know as a parent,” Ann said.
Ann is right. Out of every five children in America, one lives with mental health issues. And the vast majority of Mississippi children struggling with these issues don’t get the help they need, according to Dr. John Damon, CEO of Canopy Children’s Solutions, a major provider of mental and behavioral health care for children in the state.
Dr. John Damon, CEO of Canopy Children’s Solutions Credit: Canopy Children’s Solutions
In December, the United States surgeon general warned that young people are facing “devastating” mental health effects, saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues that were already widespread before 2020.
Dr. Vivek H. Murthy released a 53-page report that cited significant national increases in self-reports of depression and anxiety and emergency room visits for mental health crises. This came just two months after the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared “a national emergency” in youth mental health.
The rate of teen suicide in Mississippi was rapidly increasing even before the pandemic. From 2012 to 2019, the rate increased by 96%. Since 2019, the rate of emergency rate visits by minors for mental health crises has increased by nearly 40%, according to Damon.
“The number of kids actually accessing care is not really increasing … which tells you that there’s a lot going on underneath the surface that often doesn’t get addressed until it’s at a very serious crisis point,” Damon said.
Damon says tackling these disparities will require partnerships between health care providers, the business community and schools. He thinks getting more mental health care services directly in schools would help reach the children that fall through the cracks of existing systems.
“You and I get up in the morning and we go to work. Kids get up and go to school. And we’ve got to meet them where they are,” Damon said.
In recognition of this need, the Mississippi Department of Education recently put out a request for proposals for a state agency or state hospital to deliver telehealth equipment and access to health care providers to public schools. The grant will be funded by federal COVID-19 relief dollars, according to MDE.
The Department is also partnering with The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Center for the Advancement of Youth to provide support to teachers in recognizing behavioral and mental health issues in students along with providing counseling to students who are referred.
The project recently began in Jefferson County School District and the Achievement School District, which encompasses Yazoo and Humphreys counties.
Teachers in the two districts have indicated to the CAY team their students are being affected by community violence, disruptive behaviors in the classroom, grief and loss related to COVID-19, anxiety and depression and issues around cyberbullying.
“It (the pandemic) hugely impacted mental health … We’ve seen a huge increase in anxiety and depression in kids of all ages, but certainly the middle school up through the teen group has really been heavily impacted,” said Dr. Susan Buttross, professor of child development at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and an overseer of the Teaching Educators About Child Behavioral Health (TEACH) Program.
The program’s team is made up of Buttross, a pediatrician, and child clinical psychologists, licensed professional counselors and a family nurse practitioner.
Achievement School District Superintendent Jermall Wright Credit: Jermall Wright
The superintendents of both districts said they have seen an increase in mental health issues among their students – and more resources are needed.
“We can’t just try to accelerate learning without also dealing with some of the issues these students are dealing with,” said Jermall Wright, superintendent of the Achievement School District.
Hours after graduating from Murrah High School, Kennedy Hobbs visited the cemetery where her boyfriend was buried, placing her sash across his grave and snapping a picture for Instagram, writing, “For u baby.”
Before the night ended, she would join him, becoming as he was a victim in Jackson’s record 155 homicides in 2021 — the highest per capita murder rate in the nation. Higher than Birmingham, Atlanta, Detroit, and even Chicago, the city with the most overall slayings in 2021.
But the number Lashanda Jennings-Hobbs cares most about is the one attached to her daughter.
Police say 18-year-old Kennedy Hobbs had stopped at a Texaco gas station-convenience store and was an innocent bystander when she was shot three times on June 1.
“It’s terrible,” said Jennings-Hobbs. “Something has got to be done about it.”
Homicide numbers have soared across the country the past two years, but based on cities with at least 100,000 population, Jackson’s per capita murder rate is the highest in the United States.
The Chicago Police Department reported the city had 799 homicides in 2021, more than Jackson’s 155. But the homicide rate in Chicago, with a population of roughly 2.7 million, stood at 29.6 per 100,000 population. The rate in Jackson, with a population of 153,701, was about 100 per 100,000 population.
Credit: Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting
Similarly, Detroit, with more than four times the number of residents than Jackson, had a lower homicide rate — 48.28 per 100,000 residents based on its population of roughly 640,000. Detroit reported 309 homicides, down from its previous high of 324 in 2020.
Birmingham recorded 132 homicides last year, the highest since 1994, according to the Birmingham Times. The city has a population of roughly 200,733, based on the 2020 Census. Birmingham’s homicide rate was 65.75 per 100,000 population.
Atlanta, which has a population about four times that of Jackson, had roughly the same number of slayings as Jackson. Atlanta police said they investigated 158 homicides in 2021, but three of those were from incidents that happened in the previous year. Atlanta’s population is about 500,000, meaning the homicide rate for the city was 31.6 per 100,000 population.
“There is something wrong when Jackson has a higher murder rate than Atlanta,” said John Byrd, vice president of the Association of South Jackson Neighborhoods.
Byrd said there are two kinds of crime occurring in Jackson: Crime of opportunity and crime of passion.
No one has been charged in Hobbs’ death. She is buried in the same cemetery as her boyfriend, 21-year-old Jaquan Williams, who was killed after a dispute outside a convenience store.
“We continue to work behind the scenes to tackle violent crime in Jackson,” Lumumba said in a statement. “We know the pandemic has increased the level of desperation that leads to violent crime across the nation and Jackson has not been immune to that trend.
“However, while we share that unfortunate reality, it would be incomplete to summarize the rise in crime in Jackson to the pandemic alone. There are other contributing factors at play in Jackson and Hinds County,” Lumumba said.
The mayor listed the factors contributing to the city’s homicide rate as:
Inability to detain offenders in the Hinds County detention system because a federal consent decree limits the number of individuals that can be housed.
A backed-up court system and state Crime Lab. Even when prosecutors believe they have a solid case against a defendant, an influx of cases and a backlog of evidence prevents them from presenting evidence.
An influx of guns on the street, many of them high-powered, semi-automatic assault rifles. Lumumba said state laws make it difficult for officers to detain suspects believed to be carrying illegal firearms.
Those aren’t excuses, Lumumba said, but factors residents need to know to understand the difficult realities behind the scenes.
The city recently conducted a second crime summit, which allowed city, county, state and federal officials, along with court, jail and school district representatives, to come together to discuss not only limitations but explore opportunities for change to reduce crime, according to the mayor.
“We also continue to increase the number of officers we have in our police department by holding recruitment training academies and taking measures to boost their pay,” Lumumba said. “But as I’ve said before, this is a problem we can’t merely out-police. There are many factors at play. It will take all of us working together, city, county, state and federal leaders, civic leaders and the community itself, to successfully root out the scourge of violent crime in our city.”
Across the country, the number of homicides has increased in many cities since the pandemic began and amid the breakdown in trust between the police and the communities they serve. In 2020, which heralded the outset of COVID-19, the number of homicides rose in Jackson to 130, the largest number of homicides in the city since 1995 when the city recorded 92 murders. Then last year, the city shattered the record again.
But even as homicides rose in many cities, they fell in in Boston, Charlotte, Dallas and most notably in St. Louis, where the city of 300,000 in 2020 had the?worst homicide rate?in the nation — and, like Jackson In 2021, the highest on record in the city’s history. But last year,?homicides fell? dropping 26 percent, according to police crime data. Mayor Tishaura Jones told the Washington Post that the drop was an indication her strategy of addressing violent crime at its source — by reducing poverty, engaging young people and allowing police to focus their energies on the worst violent offenders — can achieve results.
Former Jackson Police Chief Robert Johnson, who became chief in 1995, said poverty and unemployment can’t be blamed for the surge in gun violence in the Mississippi’s capital city. “We have always had poverty and unemployment with us,” Johnson said.
Johnson, who has more than 32 years of experience in law enforcement, corrections and federal security, said he learned from his first year on the job as Jackson police chief there must be better manpower distribution and resource allocation.
“I don’t understand how the number of police officers have declined so much without alarming people,” said Johnson, who also once served as Mississippi’s corrections commissioner. “There is no way a police force as small as Jackson’s is going to effectively investigate a homicide. It often takes hundreds of man-hours to investigate a homicide.”
Current Jackson Police Chief James Davis said last year that the Jackson Police Department was budgeted for 400 sworn officers but had a vacancy of about 100 officers. The several recruit classes the department held in 2021 lowered the number of openings to about 67, Davis said at a public meeting. For now, the number is back up, to 69. Flowood police charged two rookie Jackson police officers in December with marijuana possession and open container violation. Flowood police said the officers were arrested at a nature trail after reports of people smoking marijuana. Jackson placed the officers on administrative leave.
Chicago has reported a mass exodus of police officers over the last two years with more than 1,000 leaving the force, including nearly 600 who resigned or retired in the first six months of 2021, according to a report by WGN-TV.
Detroit has reported losing some police officers to surrounding cities over the years but no mass exodus.
Last year, Atlanta reported it had a shortage of roughly 400 officers in the department that was budgeted for 2,000 officers. However, then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom said the city would hire 250 new officers. Bottom left office this month after not seeking reelection after serving one term as mayor.
Birmingham has reported some officers have left the department, which has more than 900 officers but no mass exodus.
Byrd, whom Johnson hired as a data analyst when he was chief, said one of the factors leading to the surge of crime in Jackson is a shortage of officers from dispatcher to sworn officers and a shortage of personnel in the court system. He said too often those who commit crime, if arrested, are repeat offenders.
Johnson said Jackson officials must get serious about adding manpower to the police department. He said they can add part-time police officers from other jurisdictions. Also, he said Jackson once had a robust reserve unit of citizens.
Johnson said he began implementing community policing 25 years ago, but the city didn’t keep up a sustained effort over the years to fully implement community policing. Davis said the COVID pandemic has hampered community policing.
Another thing Johnson recommends is a detailed analysis of each homicide to determine if one is related to another. He said when he was police chief the analysis showed a lot of interconnections and some commonalities in homicides.
“Had there been some action on the first case, it might had prevented other cases,” Johnson said of the need to analyze some cases.
Byrd, a retired city of Jackson employee, said data shows a majority of shootings in Jackson is from one demographics, age 13 to 31.
Byrd suggests:
More collaboration with federal, state and other law enforcement, including working with political leaders in the tri-county area on crime enforcement and prevention.
Asking postal employees, utility companies’ employees and others who may be out in the community to report any suspicious activity they may see.
Placing a priority on mentoring young students in the Jackson Public Schools.
Urging more of the 1,800 churches in the Jackson area to do more in the fight against crime.
Working with colleges and universities in Jackson to map and analyzie crime data to work on solutions.
And Johnson said don’t forget about the broken window theory. “If you ignore all the small crime, it will lead up to something major. We have seen erosion of respect for law enforcement occurring over the years,” he said. “If you have a population that expects nothing to happen if you commit a small crime, gradually it’s going to erupt into something bigger…If they are slinging dope, eventually they will sling bullets.”
This story was produced by the?Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that is exposing wrongdoing, educating and empowering Mississippians, and raising up the next generation of investigative reporters. Sign up for our newsletter.
