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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.

READ MORE: Key lawmaker: ‘It’s past time’ to address Mississippi’s lifetime felony voting ban

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.”

READ MORE: Not all ex-felons are barred from voting in Mississippi, but no one is telling them that.

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.

READ MORE: Attorney general argues in federal court that Jim Crow-era voting ban should be upheld

The post Mississippi’s strict felony voting ban unlikely to be addressed in 2022 session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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. 

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. 

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. 

The post ‘We got to get some help:’ Pandemic accelerates need for children’s mental health services appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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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. 

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. 

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Rick Cleveland began writing for his hometown newspaper at the age of 13. Now, he is in his 57th year of covering Mississippi sports. On this episode, Tyler Cleveland asks his dad about some of the greatest athletes, greatest coaches, most memorable games and a lot more about a nearly six-decade career of writing about the games Mississippians play.

Stream all episodes here.

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The Sanderson Farms Championship, Mississippi’s lone tournament on the PGA Tour, Tuesday presented a record $1.5 million to the state’s only children’s hospital, Children’s of Mississippi at University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC).

The 2022 contribution comes after $1.45 million last year, $1.3 million the year before, and more than $10 million since 2013.

Sanderson Farms CEO and board chairman Joe Sanderson made clear his company’s stewardship of the tournament is not about golf.

“It’s about this. It’s about today,” Sanderson said. “It’s about the babies, and the mothers and dads who come through these doors with fear, anxiety and they don’t know what. They just need a doctor and nurses and staff, and later a lot of them leave with a smile on their faces and hope for the future. That’s why our company and our board took on this tournament.”

Appropriately, Sanderson made the contribution in the hospital’s new seven-story Sanderson Tower (opened in November 2020), which has more than doubled the hospital’s space for pediatric care at UMMC. More than 200,000 children a year receive care at UMMC.

What remains unclear is the future of the Sanderson Farms Championship. Sanderson Farms and the PGA Tour are contracted through 2026, but the pending sale of Laurel-based Sanderson Farms, the country’s third largest poultry producer, to two out-of-state corporations potentially could change that.

The $4.5 billion sale to New York-based Continental Grain and Minnesota-based Cargill was expected to be finalized in late 2021 or early this year, but has been delayed by a U.S. Department of Justice review that could last well into the late spring or summer.

Sanderson has said in the past that it will be up to the new ownership, if the sale is approved, to determine the future of the tournament.

“What we know now is that we’re definitely going to have a tournament this year,” Sanderson said Tuesday. “And we’re excited about it and what it will mean for this hospital.”

The 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship will be played at Country Club of Jackson Sept. 30-Oct. 3. Last year’s tournament, won by former LSU golfer Sam Burns, was likely the most successful in the tournament’s 55-year history with sunny skies, large galleries and a best-ever field of professional golfers.

Asked about the tournament’s future shortly after Burns’ victory, Sanderson said, “There are no guarantees, but I am optimistic. Both the buyers are community-minded companies. I have high hopes they will see fit to continue. This tournament has been a blessing for Jackson, for Mississippi and for Mississippi children.”

This much seems certain: The new owners would have nowhere near the vested interest in Mississippi as Sanderson, the 75-year-old former Laurel Tornado football player, who has guided his company from a community feed store to a poultry conglomerate with sales approaching $3.5 billion per year.

Sanderson has put much of his own money into Children’s of Mississippi, 

Joe and Kathy Sanderson launched a $100 million fund-raising campaign for the hospital in 2016 with a $10 million personal gift. Since then, the campaign has raised about 94% of its $100 million goal.

Dr. Lou Ann Woodward, UMMC vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, Tuesday talked about what Sanderson and his tournament have meant to UMMC.

“Already this building has touched thousands of lives,” Woodward said. “Children have been born here and lived the first part of their lives here. Children have been transferred here from other hospitals because they need the kind of care we have here. Thousands of children, thousands of surgeries, thousands of CAT scans and MRIs and clinic appointments – and we’re just getting started.”

The post Sanderson golf donates $1.5 million to children’s hospital; future unclear appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Below is the full text of Gov. Tate Reeves’ state-of-the-state address outside the Capitol on Tuesday:

“Thank you, Lieutenant Governor Hosemann and Speaker Gunn.

To the members of the legislature and other elected officials – thank you. Thank you for your commitment to bettering our state. Thank you for your dedication to our people.

Together, we can do great things. I look forward to partnering with you this session to continue making Mississippi the best state in the nation to live, to work, and to raise a family.

I would also be remiss if I did not thank the person who enables me to stand here in the first place. Someone who always puts others before herself. Someone who is an amazing ambassador for our state – our great First Lady. Elee, thank you for everything you do for me and for Mississippi. I could not ask for a better partner and Mississippi could not ask for a better First Lady.

Mississippi has weathered great storms in the last two years. We have bent but we did not break. We dug deep and we stood tall. We got through it all because we decided to get through it all together.

That is why, after recession and pandemic and hurricanes and tornadoes, I can still stand before you tonight and declare, without reservation, and without qualification, that the state of our state is not only strong, but stronger than it has ever been.

I would like to start with what I consider to be the crowning achievement of Mississippi’s ride through the pandemic and recession – our educators.

It is the most basic promise a state government makes to its people. We tell every young parent: we will be your partner in educating your child. Together, we will make sure that if they work hard, they will learn what they need to know.

It is a solemn promise and one that our state must fulfill – and it is a promise that I am determined to fulfill.

We all know that there are many who enjoy criticizing Mississippi. They trash our way of life, they trash our institutions, and they frequently deride our education.

And at times in our past, they might have been at least a little bit right about our educational system. But Mississippi’s schools have made a major turnaround – in fact, a turnaround of historic proportions.

When you look at the data, it looks like a miracle. But it is not a miracle. It is the product of dedication of our teachers, a result of the intelligence of our people, and conservative, common-sense reforms enacted by many of us here today. And most importantly, it is achievement that was earned by Mississippi students.

Mississippi’s students with disabilities have seen a graduation rate that has doubled over the last eight years. Overall, our graduation rate is now at an all-time high at 87.7 percent. That’s, by the way, better than the national average. And while the graduation rate is at an all-time high, the dropout rate is at an all-time low of just 8.8 percent.

Our passing rate on Advanced Placement exams is also at an all-time high.

The number of students who completed career and technical courses has shot up by 36 percent since 2015.

Mississippi students are learning more, achieving more, and they are more prepared for a prosperous life.

You all know how fond I am of data. I love it. I swim in it. It’s what I do for fun – and yes, I realize how uncool that makes me. In fact, just ask my teenage daughters if you have any doubt about how uncool I am.

But this is not merely data on a page. These numbers are real people. These are real lives that have been transformed – and family trajectories that have been forever altered.

The Mississippi kids who have out-performed previous generations in the classroom are going to make our state better as adults. We are talking about generational change in careers and horizons – and it is happening in every corner of Mississippi.

I attribute these educational gains to three important factors. First, the parents and guardians of our students. Without you investing in your children’s educations, without you pushing them to be their very best, none of these gains would be possible.

It all starts and ends with parents. Mississippi schools and teachers answer to parents. They are paid for by you. They work for you.

It is shocking to me, that in some corners of this country, the basic right of parents to determine their child’s education is ignored. We must strive to be better than that. We recognize that no classroom can replace a parent’s care. Your voice should not just be heard, it should be sought. It should reign. All public servants answer to the people. In education, we answer to the parents and as long as I’m governor, we always will.

We’ve also seen these historic gains because of the conservative and effective education reforms we’ve implemented over the last decade.

Expect more and you will get more. That is a lesson Mississippi has had to learn.

The rigorous reading standards that we put in place have transformed lives and the data prove it.

Since those standards were created, we’ve experienced incredible gains in fourth grade reading. Just a few months ago The Economist noted, Mississippi’s fourth graders rose 20 places – from 49^th to 29^th – on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and in 2019 we were the “only state in the nation to improve its scores.”

Now, I want to repeat that. In 2019, Mississippi was the only state in the nation to improve our scores. The only state. Out of 50, we were the very best at improving reading scores.

Students of all backgrounds are having academic success in Mississippi. According to 2019 NAEP results, our students living in poverty are outperforming their peers nationally. Black, white, and Hispanic students from low-income households achieved higher scores than the national average in all four NAEP subjects.

For decades we were at the bottom, but now we are not. It takes time to go from last to first. But Mississippi kids are on the move, and it is revitalizing our state’s future.

Now, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, all of you should be flattered. Again, according to The Economist – and this is a direct quote – “Many states have noticed Mississippi’s success and have passed similar legislation.”

When is the last time you heard that? From Pascagoula to Iuka and from Natchez to Tunica, every single person in Mississippi should be proud.

These education reforms and the gains they have wrought, is what happens when Republicans and Democrats come together. When we set aside our differences, and focus on what matters most, there is no limit to what Mississippians can achieve.

That is why I am asking the legislature to keep it up, and to invest in math coaches, just as we did for reading, to ensure that we continue to see improved results.

The final vital factor in our education gains is our teachers. Unlike other states throughout the pandemic, most of Mississippi’s teachers stepped up. They did not cower in fear and refuse to come into the classroom. In fact, it was just the opposite. While other states resorted to Zoom for years on end, Mississippi’s teachers took to the chalkboard. When teachers in other states said, “no we won’t,” Mississippi’s teachers said, “yes we will.”

They did not walk out, they stepped up. Now I want you to stand up for them. I would like for everyone to take just a moment and give our teachers the applause they deserve.

Thank you.

As the great Mississippian B.B. King once said, “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”

Those who pushed long-term school closures would have taken that opportunity away from our children. In other states, students remained out of the classroom and locked away from their teachers and their peers.

But we chose to not let that happen. Teachers in Mississippi did not, and will not, back down amid this unprecedented educational battle between a virus and a child’s right to learn.

That is why we must give our teachers the pay raise they deserve.

Y’all know that I am a conservative. Many of you are too. As conservatives, we believe in rewarding hard work and success. There is no doubt that Mississippi teachers fit that mold.

I’m confident that in this session, working together, we will get a significant teacher pay raise done. It is my number one priority. Credit goes to where credit is due and in COVID-19, Mississippi teachers deserve the credit.

There is one cloud on the horizon for our schools and it’s one that we need to address.

Across the country, there is a looming threat in too many schools. It is propaganda that seeks to divide us. It’s what’s called critical race theory. It doesn’t really matter what you call it. And I’m not interested in semantics. I’m interested in the integrity of our civic education. In too many schools in other states, they teach the lie that America is inherently racist. They teach students that by virtue of the color of your skin you are inherently a victim or oppressor. They teach this for a purpose.

It is designed to allow a small group of idealogues to pose as saviors—false heroes. It is arrogance and ambition, masquerading as education. When you are a victim by birth, only their generosity can save you. When you are an oppressor by birth, only your silent cooperation with their radical worldview can sanctify you.

There is no country on this earth without sin in its past. That is because there is no person on this earth without sin. Sin is inherent in the human condition. Injustice is still too present today. We must teach that truth. We must learn from our history.

But we can also proudly teach that America is the first nation in history to be born of ideals—not just blood and soil. We are not a nation created by a tribe, but a melting pot of people committed to common purpose.

We work to live up to those ideals every single day. Yes, sometimes, we fall short. But then we get up. We keep stretching towards that promise, enshrined in our founding documents: that all Americans are created equal with rights bestowed by their creator.

With the radical founding of America, we set the world on a course towards greater prosperity and freedom. Racism is not unique to America. Injustice is not unique to America. It is endemic in humanity because humanity is sinful. But the American notion that God grants rights that no one can take away – that notion is still transforming the entire planet.

When we teach American children to fear one another because of their skin, we reverse the great trend towards achieving our American dream. The promise of America is replaced with a vicious lie: that you are doomed to failure or evil based on your race. We must stop this trend in its tracks, and we can do our part in Mississippi.

Today, I am calling on the State Board of Education to adopt the values that combat critical race theory in their educational efforts. To affirm that Mississippi’s public educators will not indoctrinate students in ideology that insists this country, or this state, are inherently racist. We will not teach that your race determines your status as a victim or oppressor. No school district shall teach that one race is inherently superior or that an individual is unconsciously or inherently racist because of how they are born. No child will be divided or humiliated because of their race. We will strive for equality, and our education will support that aspiration.

This is an important common step we can take to ensure that Mississippi is committed to equality. Honesty about our past, and bold and optimistic determination about our future.

The legislature can bolster that effort by passing legislation to this effect. We will teach all of our history — good and bad. And that will lead to a brighter future. I know that our teachers can and will lead the way and I ask the legislature to set down that path.

These investments in our schools are not a pipe dream.

We can afford them. We can afford them in large part, because of our economic resilience.

Mississippi continues to be in the best fiscal shape and the best financial shape in its history. Mississippi ended the year a billion dollars over revenue estimates.

This was not an accident.

We kept our businesses open and helped ensure Mississippians could continue putting food on their table. And they kept working. Bravely and calmly and rationally, they put on their boots, they showed up for work, and our state is better for it.

We also refuse to incentivize the opposite. Mississippi was one of the first states to end the massive pandemic unemployment benefits, because we knew we needed to return to meaningful work. The results are clear: 

In November, Mississippi’s weekly unemployment claims reached their lowest point since 2018. That’s because, in Mississippi, jobs are plentiful. In the four months after we announced the ending of the pandemic unemployment benefits, employers hired at a pace nearly 60 percent faster than before the announcement. In the month of June alone, Mississippi’s businesses hired more than 72,000 workers. That’s more than any other month in state history.

While we are proud of how we weathered the economic storm, survival is simply not enough.

We should never be satisfied until every Mississippian has access to the best jobs, skills, and upward mobility needed to better themselves and their families.

That’s why one of my top priorities is to continue investing in our people. To continue investing in workforce and skills training Mississippians need to thrive in today’s economy.

I said in my first address, upon taking this office, that at the end of my time as governor we will measure our success in the wages of our workers. We don’t just want people to have any job. We want them to have a career. A family-supporting career that gives them not just a paycheck, but joy.

One of the things we should all be able to agree on, is that together, we passed one of the most consequential pieces of workforce development legislation in Mississippi’s history. When we created Accelerate Mississippi, we set our state up to better prepare Mississippians for the jobs of the next 50 years, not the jobs of the last 50 years. Through that legislation, we were able to streamline our workforce development efforts to ensure we have a clear strategy – a strategy that will meet the needs of employers and fill the vacancies for jobs that offer above average wages.

To date, we have awarded over $11.5 million in RESTORE Act funds towards high-value workforce development programs. Additionally, Accelerate has awarded almost $12 million in grants to get more people into good careers.

Careers like commercial trucking, advanced manufacturing, welding, utility line working, and fiber. They pay well and they offer security.

Doing things the right way to build a skilled labor pool takes time. Companies realize this and so should we. Our work is just beginning. Months, and in some cases years, for people to acquire the skills they need to obtain these high-paying jobs.

The time is now to continue building the pipeline. In my most recent Executive Budget Recommendation I proposed allocating $130 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to support this effort. I believe that if we make this investment, Mississippi will develop that workforce of the future and set up our state for success for years to come.

We also know that for Mississippi to grow, we must attract more economic activity. We need to be bold. We need to attract the kind of work that creates wealth for all Mississippians.

First, we need to take care of the basics. We have a historic opportunity to invest in our core infrastructure – to take nearly $2 billion of federal money and put it into real, transformative projects.

I want to echo and appreciate the sentiment from Lieutenant Governor Hosemann: We must stay focused on those investments that will have an impact not for one or two years, but for one or two generations. I whole-heartedly support his plan to put the bulk of that money into local infrastructure projects that can put those concerns behind us for years.

We also need to consider how to attract those companies and economic projects that transform communities—create generational wealth and lift families out of poverty.

This does not just happen one project at a time. It takes a bold vision that lasts forever. The heart of that vision is the elimination of the state’s income tax.

By eliminating the income tax, we can put ourselves in a position to stand out. We can win those projects. We can throw out the welcome mat for the dreamers and the visionaries. We can have more money circulating in our economy. And it can lead to more wealth for all Mississippians.

I am begging Mississippi legislators to be bold. Give us another arrow in our quiver to attract more capital and to continue to transform our economy.

When someone in California or Illinois or even Louisiana decides to start their own business, let’s make them consider doing it right here in Mississippi. Let’s tell them that they are guaranteed to keep more of the first dollar of profit they earn if they come to our state.

The only way to make Mississippi a magnet for the entrepreneurs of our nation is to show them our unmatched culture – married to an unbeatable tax code.

I know that many of you have already demonstrated an appetite for such boldness, and I want to thank you. In the House, Republicans and Democrats voted overwhelmingly for their chamber’s bipartisan tax plan, which would eliminate the income tax. Speaker Gunn and Chairman Lamar, thank you for your hard work and your commitment to this ongoing effort. If we can eliminate the income tax, we will achieve an historic victory for this state. We can become a place that money flows more freely, and all Mississippians will benefit.

Please do not let this moment pass without achieving something big. We can invest in our workers, water, and workforce. We can attract more wealth that can transform our economic potential. We can grow this great state to achieve what we all know we are capable of. That should be our ambition throughout this session.

We are governing in a time of plenty. Good decisions have brought us a great harvest.

If we do not lead boldly, when this time of great resources passes, I believe we will look back with regret. We have done the hard work to secure our fiscal situation. Now let us return that largesse to the people and unleash Mississippi’s economy.

We know that our economic situation would not be so secure if it were not for our handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have lost many Mississippians to this virus. And we mourn their loss every day.

We also know we cannot lock ourselves away behind screens and live in fear. We choose to protect ourselves as we see fit. We choose to reject panic and embrace a life worth living.

And here in Mississippi, we realize that your life is a gift from God, and it is sacred. That comes straight from His word, which reads in Deuteronomy: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days.”

In this time of fear, there are many who have suffered from despair. They have wondered if their lives are worth keeping. I want to tell all of you—anyone who needs to hear it—that you are loved. You are valued. Your life has purpose and your life has meaning. Your state needs you. Even if you don’t know it, your life is a blessing to others. We are glad that you are here, living and with us.

I pray for the same protection over those who are most vulnerable. Those who need our protection more than any other. Those innocent Mississippi children whose lives are precious. I pray every one of them can be regarded with the same basic respect. That most core human right: the right to life. The right of these children not to be killed before having the chance to be heard.

Mississippians are leading the charge to defend those children. Mississippi and the Supreme Court’s landmark case is on a path to preserving millions of lives for generations to come. There is no excuse for America’s abortion laws to be closer to the Chinese communists than the rest of the western world.

If we are successful before the Supreme Court, our work will not be done. We must acknowledge and champion the fact that being pro-life is about more than being anti-abortion. We should be doing everything in our power to make Mississippi the most family-oriented state in the country. We should be doing everything in our power to make Mississippi the safest and most supportive state in the country for mothers. And we should be doing everything in our power to promote a culture of life.

In the coming months, we will be promoting plans to further protect mothers in our state. To ensure that they don’t just receive the basics— that they get the best possible care during their pregnancy.

We will work to make it even easier to adopt a Mississippi child into a forever home. We will go further than preventing abortion.

I have been proud to push for laws that restrict abortion and protect innocent life. But I do not pretend that those laws mean the work for life is done.

We will lead in the effort to be pro-life in every sense of the word. It is vitally important, and I will be asking all of our legislative allies to commit to that work together.

Another area where our collaboration is going to be key, is improving Mississippi’s corrections system. Two years ago, as I took office, we were facing prison riots that resulted in serious violence.

To address the issues in the system, we needed a cultural reset. To ensure that we took control and took proper care of those who were serving time. To preserve the safety of our citizens, we needed to stem the rising tide of violence.

I am proud to say that culture overhaul is happening. The system is different than it was two years ago. We are making incredible progress. Under the leadership of Commissioner Cain, we are hiring more guards. We are combatting gang violence. We are turning the tide and we are taking control.

Time in prison often leads to despair. When you have a lack of hope, you don’t just serve your time. You commit to a life of crime. And instead of returning to society, having taken your discipline, the cycle of violence continues. The inmate returns.

We can break that cycle, for hundreds of inmates, and that will lead us to a safer state. We are committed to offering hope of a better life. That begins with opportunity. Today, in state prisons, we are working hard to offer training and meaningful work. That can not only fill the days, it can set an offender up for a peaceful life on the outside.

Just last month, Commissioner Cain unveiled a mobile welding training center that will help train inmates for a career in welding, post-release. The mobile welding training center – which by the way was not paid for with taxpayer funds – can train 32 inmates at a time and will rotate between prisons every 90 days. At the end of the program, trainees who complete it will receive a certification that they can use to find a job.

But that’s not the only program we’re leveraging to train inmates. For example, the Automotive Service Excellence Certification, where inmates can learn to work on car motors and small engines. Or the National Center for Construction Education and Research Certification, which prepares enrollees in a variety of skills that will help translate to jobs in the construction industry. These programs work, and we need more of them.

Now, some of you may be asking yourself, why should we be offering these types of opportunities to those who have been convicted of a crime? Why should we allocate funds towards educational opportunities for those who are incarcerated? The answer is actually pretty straightforward – because it’s a wise investment.

The proof is in the numbers. The average cost to house an inmate in 2020 was over $50 a day. The cost for vocational training, depending on the program, is approximately $2,000 a year. The question you may ask is, well is it worth it? The short answer is an emphatic yes.

Here’s why. In 2020, the general recidivism rate in Mississippi was 37.4 percent. According to the Department of Corrections, initial data shows that under Commissioner Cain’s leadership, the recidivism rate for those who have completed re-entry and vocational training is less than half that.

What does that mean for you? As a taxpayer, a $2,000 investment can save you over $18,000 a year. But most importantly, there will be fewer crimes, fewer victims, safer communities, and a skilled workforce that has a second chance at life.

If we want to break the cycle of recidivism, we must invest in a cycle of education and learning. That’s why in my most recent Executive Budget Recommendation, I proposed allocating $2 million for re-entry programs geared toward Mississippians who will be eligible for parole within six months. Additionally, I’ve proposed funding to expand the work release pilot program – that has already shown so much promise – to each of Mississippi’s 82 counties.

I think and we can all agree that no matter how much we invest in training for those reentering society, there will always be a crime element present. It will never be completely eliminated.

That is tragically obvious today. In 2020, our capital city set a record of 130 murders. In 2021, it increased to over 150 murders. That is unacceptable. Let’s put these numbers in perspective. In the city of Atlanta, there was a historic crime wave. People there are rushing to reform – electing new city leadership promising to combat the violence. They saw 158 murders in 2021. In Jackson, Mississippi, even though Atlanta is more than triple our size, we saw roughly the same number of murders in that year. The rate of killings in Jackson is three times worse than Chicago. It is worse than St. Louis, Baltimore, and Memphis. The violence scars families for generations. Our community is torn apart by senseless acts of mayhem. If our state is to thrive, we need a capital city of order. Governed by laws, not abandoned to daily violence. We all have an interest in stopping this deadly cycle.

We can do our part to go down a brighter road. Create a capital city that is vibrant, full of life, and safe. A capital city where residents don’t have to fear for their safety. A capital city where parents can let their children run around in the yard without having to fear if they’ll be home for dinner.

I believe that Jackson still exists. I have faith that we have what it takes to make Jackson a city that is a hub for business and capital investment. A city where jobs are plentiful, and opportunity is only limited by how hard you want to work.

Reasonable citizens must take back control from those who only wish harm to their neighbors. Their day is ending in Jackson. The men and women of local law enforcement will always be the first line of defense. The frontline officers who feel abandoned cannot be left to their own devices. That is why I have championed an expansion of the scope of our Capitol Police force. To support local law enforcement and to bring peace back to Jackson.

To our law enforcement officers who wake up every day, put on the badge, and risk their own personal safety to protect and serve us, thank you. As long as I’m governor, I will do everything I can to provide you with the tools and resources you need to keep us, and yourself, safe.

That’s why I want to work with the legislature to get you the support you need. It’s why I proposed doubling the size of our Capitol Police, so there will be more boots on the ground as you perform your shifts in the Capitol Complex Improvement District. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have a lot of brave men and women in blue – there’s just not enough of them. Doubling the size of our Capitol Police, is the first, most immediate action we can take within the State’s jurisdiction. We have the ability to do it, and we must.

We also know that alone is not enough. Capturing violent criminals does nothing if our justice system puts them right back on the streets. I am eager to work with the legislature to develop resources for targeted prosecution and conviction of violent felons here. Catch and release has caused nothing but record crime and chaos. All of us can agree on that. We need to find those who are leading the efforts to flood our capital with illegal drugs and guns—and put them behind bars where they belong. We need to bring focused attention to those orchestrating these efforts. Not to catch more people speeding or loitering. But to arrest, charge, and eradicate the ringleaders who make life hell for the peaceful residents of Jackson.

After the day’s shifts have ended, and our law enforcement officers head back to their families, that doesn’t mean our support of the men and women in blue is over. It doesn’t mean we should stop recognizing the sacrifices they make daily. It doesn’t mean we should forget about their gallant actions over the last two years, or the expanded duties placed upon them because of the pandemic. It’s one of the reasons why I authorized $1,000 in one-time hazard pay for each sworn state law enforcement officer who actively served during the COVID-19 State of Emergency. Today, I call on the legislature to do the same for local law enforcement.

Over the last two years, some of our law enforcement officers made the ultimate sacrifice in their service to us. We have benefits in place for those who fell at the hands of violence or in other tragic circumstances in the line of duty. These officers fell victim to an enemy that couldn’t even been seen – COVID-19. These officers will never again make it home to their families. There will be missed birthdays, graduations, weddings, birth of children, and more. And if they contracted the virus while serving and protecting, that should be counted as a line of duty death. That’s why this session, we need to appropriate additional money towards the Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters Death Benefits Trust Fund. Doing so will be a final act of gratitude to the men and women who gave it all to keep us safe.

To all our law enforcement officers, Mississippi will always back the blue. Again, thank you for everything you’ve done and thank you for everything you will do.

We have many great opportunities before us. We can look back on what we’ve survived. We can look back on the gains we’ve accomplished. And we can be proud of one another. We must also dedicate ourselves to more hard work. To tackle those challenges and seize chances for greatness. We can do amazing things together if we focus on doing what’s right. And, if we have the fortitude to do what’s right, boldly. I know that each of you can commit to that goal, and if so, we will serve our neighbors well.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the state of Mississippi.”

The post Full text: Gov. Tate Reeves’ 2022 state-of-the-state appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday in his third state-of-the-state address heaped praise on teachers and law enforcement and promised them more pay, vowed to crack down on violent criminals while also helping convicts successfully re-enter society and decried the evils of abortion and teaching of critical race theory.

He called again for eliminating the state’s income tax and vowed to focus on workforce development and training and said, “at the end of my time as governor we will measure our success in the wages of our workers.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reeves gave his address outside, on the Capitol’s south steps instead of from the state House floor.

FULL TEXT: Gov. Tate Reeves’ 2022 state-of-the-state

Despite natural disasters and the pandemic, Reeves said, “I can still stand before you tonight and declare, without reservation, and without qualification, that the state of our state is not only strong, but stronger than it has ever been.”

Reeves cited education improvements over the last decade such as increased graduation rates and decreased dropout rates, and said, “it looks like a miracle” for a state that has perennially been last in many socioeconomic and education measures.

“But it is not a miracle,” Reeves said. “It is the product of dedication of our teachers, a result of the intelligence of our people, and conservative, common-sense reforms enacted by many of us here today.”

Reeves thanked teachers for working through the pandemic and said, “That is why we must give our teachers the pay raise they deserve.”

Measures pending in the House and Senate would provide teachers their largest raise in recent history, each larger than the raise Reeves had proposed to lawmakers.

READ MORE: Senate passes teacher pay raise

“I’m confident that in this session, working together, we will get a significant teacher pay raise done,” Reeves said. “It is my number one priority.”

Reeves called on the state Department of Education and lawmakers to ensure critical race theory is not taught in Mississippi schools. Education officials have said it is not being taught in Mississippi, but it has become a major political issue nationwide.

“We will not teach that your race determines your status as a victim or oppressor,” Reeves said. “No school district shall teach that one race is inherently superior or that an individual is unconsciously or inherently racist because of how they are born … We will strive for equality, and our education will support that aspiration.”

READ MORE: Every Black Mississippi senator walked out as white colleagues voted to ban critical race theory

Critical race theory, which is primarily an academic discipline at the university level, is designed to explore the impact of racism on various aspects of American society.

Reeves said the Mississippi abortion ban case before the U.S. Supreme Court “is on a path to preserving millions of lives for generations to come.”

“There is no excuse for America’s abortion laws to be closer to the Chinese communists than the rest of the western world,” Reeves said. “If we are successful before the Supreme Court, our work will not be done. We must acknowledge and champion the fact that being pro-life is about more than being anti-abortion. We should be doing everything in our power to make Mississippi the most family-oriented state in the country.”

If Mississippi prevails in the Supreme Court and the national right to an abortion is overturned, the United States would be outside the norm of most western democracies where some form of abortion is legal.

Reeves said the state’s coffers are overflowing, and despite many saying this is happening in most states because of billions of dollars in federal spending, the governor credited this to conservative state leadership and his refusal to shut the state down during pandemic spikes.

“We are governing in a time of plenty,” Reeves said. “Good decisions have brought us a great harvest.”

Reeves reiterated his support for eliminating the state’s income tax. And despite having criticized fellow Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn’s proposal to eliminate the income tax but offset that with increases of sales and other taxes, Reeves praised the effort on Tuesday.

“Speaker Gunn and Chairman (Trey) Lamar, thank you for your hard work and your commitment to this ongoing effort,” Reeves said. “If we can eliminate the income tax, we will achieve an historic victory for this state. We can become a place that money flows more freely, and all Mississippians will benefit.”

Reeves said that when he took office, the state’s corrections and prisons system was a shambles and “we were facing prison riots that resulted in serious violence.” He said great improvements have been made and praised the corrections commissioner he appointed, Burl Cain for the turnaround.

Reeves — who in 2020 battled with lawmakers who were trying to enact reform and lower prison population and vetoed their legislation — vowed to help push for more reentry and job training programs for inmates and to fight recidivism. He said that will save taxpayers money in the long run.

Reeves vowed to help end the “deadly cycle” of violence in Jackson, where “In 2020, our capital city set a record of 130 murders. In 2021, it increased to over 150 murders…That is unacceptable.” He noted there was a shooting in downtown Tuesday afternoon just blocks from where he was delivering his speech on the Capitol steps.

READ MORE: Show of force: Gov. Reeves says state officers will fight crime in Jackson

“That is why I have championed an expansion of the scope of our Capitol Police force,” Reeves said. “… It’s why I proposed doubling the size of our Capitol Police … Doubling the size of our Capitol Police, is the first, most immediate action we can take within the state’s jurisdiction. We have the ability to do it, and we must.”

Reeves, using federal pandemic funds at his discretion, recently authorized $1,000 in one-time hazard pay for sworn state law officers who served during the COVID-19 state of emergency and said, “Today, I call on the Legislature to do the same for local law enforcement.”

Reeves offered encouragement for any Mississippian’s in despair during “this time of fear” and wondering “if their lives are worth keeping.”

“I want to tell all of you—anyone who needs to hear it—that you are loved,” Reeves said. “You are valued. Your life has purpose and your life has meaning. Your state needs you. Even if you don’t know it, your life is a blessing to others. We are glad that you are here, living and with us.”

The decision to hold the annual joint legislative session on the Capitol grounds instead of the House chamber was made because of the COVIF-19 pandemic. Many legislators, statewide elective officials and others attended the event on a crisp, but sunny late afternoon in Jackson, but attendance appeared to be less than for many past state-of-the-state speeches.

Much of Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons’ Democratic response to Reeves centered on health care – battling the pandemic and expanding Medicaid as is allowed under federal law to cover the working poor.

Acknowledging the nearly 7,000 deaths in the state from COVID-19 and the more than 700,000 instances of Mississippians contracting the disease, he said Democrats support using a portion of the state’s $1.8 billion in federal coronavirus-relief funds to aid health care providers in their struggles against the pandemic.

In addition, he said, the state should expand Medicaid to help in the state’s battle against COVID-19. Reeves, who has been a staunch opponent of expanding Medicaid, did not mention the subject in his speech.

But Simmons said,  “As Omicron continues to push case counts to sky-high levels, hundreds of thousands of working  Mississippians are left without healthcare coverage.  It is no better time than now to afford those Mississippians the access they need.”

Mississippi is one of 12 states to not have expanded Medicaid.

Expanding Medicaid would mean “$10 billion to $12 billion dollars in total revenues (from the federal government) over the next decade. More healthcare access would create an estimated 9,000 high-paying medical jobs in our cities and towns in Mississippi,” Simmons said.

In the area of education, Simmons said he and other Democrats are glad that Republicans finally agree with them that a significant pay raise is needed for Mississippi teachers. He said the same is true for state employees.

“A pay raise for teachers and other state employees should be a regular occurrence and it is encouraging that Republicans are now joining with Democrats to raise our teacher’s pay to the southeastern average,” he said. “Democrats firmly believe that teachers and state employees deserve a raise.  The future of (our) state is how we reward and retain our workers.”

Simmons also touted the federal infrastructure bill that was supported by both Mississippi U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, and Mississippi U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican.

“If President Biden, Congressman Thompson, and Sen. Wicker can reach across the aisle and deliver an investment of this magnitude, then there is no reason we can’t come together, work together, and tackle any issues we face as a state,” Simmons said.

Simmons also said there is a need to address other issues, such as making voting in the state easier and enhancing jobs training.

The post Gov. Reeves delivers state-of-state: ‘You are loved. Your state needs you’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After years of wrangling, House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday said they’ve reached agreement on a Mississippi medical marijuana bill and plan to pass it on to the governor on Wednesday.

Negotiators on Tuesday made a final tweak on where marijuana growing operations would be allowed to appease the state municipalities lobby.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, author of Senate Bill 2095, the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, said the Senate leadership has 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. He and Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, the lead House negotiator, held a press conference Tuesday to announce a final agreement.

“This has been a long journey,” Yancey said. “It looks like we will finally be able to provide relief for the chronically ill patients who suffer so badly and need this alternative. I congratulate Sen. Blackwell — he’s carried this bill most of the way by himself.”

READ MORE: Lost in the shuffle: Chronically ill people suffer as Mississippi politicians quibble over medical marijuana

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. Gov. Tate 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.

READ MORE: How regulated should Mississippi medical marijuana be?

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. Both chambers passed their versions with an overwhelming vote, that if it holds would be “veto-proof.”

READ MORE: Senate overwhelmingly passes Mississippi medical marijuana

The original bill said that marijuana growing operations would be allowed in areas zoned for agricultural and industrial business. The House added commercial zoning to the bill. The Mississippi Municipal League objected to this, Blackwell and Yancey said, so on Tuesday the bill was changed to say growing would be allowed in commercial zones only if the local government approves it.

The measure allows local government boards to opt out of having medical marijuana businesses in their cities or counties, but voters can override this with a referendum.

Reeves has not said whether he agrees with the changes. If it is passed on to him he could sign the bill into law, veto it, or let it become law without his signature — a symbolic move governors sometimes do to show they disagree with a measure but will not block it.

Ken Newburger, director of the Mississippi Medical Marijuana association was among several advocates at the Capitol on Tuesday. He said that while the overall process has been long, lawmakers have “moved with lightning speed” this session to get a measure passed.

“I think the governor is going to sign it,” Newburger said. He said chronically ill patients are looking forward to “better quality of life” and having an alternative to opioids and other pharmaceuticals, and the new industry in Mississippi will begin creating jobs.

DeAundrea Delaney, president of the Mississippi chapter of Minorities for Medical Marijuana, said her group and others will soon begin education and job fairs

Both Blackwell and Yancey said they have not had any communication with or from the governor on the bill recently. But both said the bill has safeguards to ensure Mississippi’s program does not become a de facto recreational program, expand the black market or become infiltrated by organized crime.

Mississippi’s proposed program has a list of specific, chronic medical conditions for which a patient can be certified to use marijuana. It allows only indoor growing by licensed growers and creates a “seed to sale” monitoring system. Blackwell said he studied other states’ experiences with medical marijuana programs, and crafted his bill to avoid problems. In hearings Blackwell held this summer, lawmakers heard from officials in Oklahoma, which has had problems and where a medical marijuana program has become a de facto recreational one.

“We will not be Oklahoma 2.0,” Blackwell has said. “We have qualifying conditions and you have to have a bona fide relationship with a medical practitioner. There, you can bump your funny bone and get it.”

The post Lawmakers say they’ll send final medical marijuana measure to governor Wednesday appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Kizzetta McClendon met Tony Boyd in November of 2019, and just four months later, she said, he was trying to kill her.

Boyd allegedly shot her in a car wash parking lot in Morton “in broad daylight,” as she says, less than a mile away from the police department. She picked that location to meet Boyd because she thought it would be safe.

Over the course of a year and a half after the shooting, McClendon says she has been fighting for her life. Boyd allegedly attempted to run McClendon over with a car. Months later, he raped her in a grocery store parking lot, according to police documents.

After all three alleged violent crimes, Boyd was granted a bond and given the ability to walk free — despite the fact the Mississippi Constitution requires judges to revoke a person’s bond if he commits a felony while out on bond for a previous felony. 

There are many stories like this in Mississippi, where no centralized domestic violence crime database exists and enforcement of piece-meal domestic violence laws are subject to the whims of police, judges and district attorneys. 

Mississippi Today’s ongoing series has revealed a disjointed legal system in municipal and justice courts, where the majority of domestic violence cases are heard, and a criminal justice system that largely fails these victims.

Meanwhile, victims of domestic violence like McClendon are often left to live in constant danger of repeated attacks.

A victim ‘trapped in a box’

McClendon said her years-long battle to escape Boyd has been exhausting.

She’s spent the last two years advocating for herself: pushing police officers to make an arrest, questioning court clerks, judges and district attorneys, placing phone calls and visiting courts and police departments across Scott County trying to get information about the status of her cases. She often gets the runaround, which leaves her feeling deflated and discouraged. 

McClendon said she endured months of abuse from Boyd, beginning shortly after she met him in late 2019. Just 10 days before the alleged shooting the following March, he strangled her with an extension cord and men’s dress tie, she said.

There were threats before that, and it would only escalate when she would try to distance herself, she said.

She didn’t leave her house except to go to work, and each time she did, she did a scan of her surroundings to make sure he wasn’t outside waiting for her.  

“I got to the point where before I would leave for work, I would look outside to make sure he wasn’t in the bushes. I would call him on FaceTime just to see if he was in his home before I walked outside to get in my vehicle … to make sure he wasn’t out there waiting to kill me,” she said of her daily routine.

After she was shot in the shoulder and arm on March 23, 2020, she remembers her first thought when she woke up in the hospital: She could finally be free of him. He had tried to kill her and it didn’t work, she said, and now he would be put away forever.

But that wasn’t the case. Morton Municipal Court Judge Whitney Adams initially set his bond at $300,000. Paperwork from his initial appearance in front of Adams shows the conditions were that he not have any contact with McClendon and a handwritten section that says: “Other conditions: Danger to community.”

But a month later, Adams reduced the amount to $100,000. On June 4 — less than three months after McClendon was shot — Adams reduced the bond again to $75,000, and Boyd was able to post bail, according to documents from the Morton Municipal Court.

Adams did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about why Boyd’s bond was reduced twice. 

Boyd walks free – again 

In September 2020, about six months after the shooting, Boyd allegedly tried to run McClendon over with his car at a bank in Forest, according to police documents. Former Forest Municipal Court Judge Norman Brown set his bond at $25,000, according to documents from the Scott County Detention Center. 

Those who get arrested must come up with 10% of the total bond amount, meaning Boyd was able to post $2,500 or arrange payment and be released.

Boyd bonded out again. 

Several months later, Boyd allegedly accosted McClendon in a grocery store parking lot and raped her, according to police reports. He was given another bond of $150,000. Forest Municipal Court prosecutor Evan Thompson told Mississippi Today the court has no records of either bond being set, but records from the Scott County Sheriff’s Department show all the bonds set by Brown. 

Brown, who is now retired, declined to answer multiple questions sent by email and refused an interview when approached by the reporter in the courtroom.

Following the latest arrest, Boyd remains in jail. Technically, if he could come up with the money today, he could walk out — and potentially hurt McClendon once again. 

Boyd’s attorney Shawn Harris did not respond to several requests for comment from Mississippi Today.

“It’s very clear that either the prosecutor or certainly the municipal court judge failed this victim repeatedly and put her at heightened risk of dangerous lethal intimate partner violence,” said Dorchen Leidholdt, the director of the Center for Battered Women’s legal services at Sanctuary for Families in New York, the largest dedicated legal services program for survivors of domestic violence in the country. 

“To me it’s shocking that after he committed felony-level crimes he was actually able to be released on multiple occasions. And what we know about domestic violence – especially domestic violence of this level of severity – is that it escalates,” said Leidholdt, who also teaches domestic violence and the law at Columbia University.

Officials disregard history of alleged abuse 

Almost a decade earlier, Boyd stabbed his then-girlfriend Lenore Gray over 20 times, resulting in a punctured lung and neck wounds that made her unable to speak for months. She said he stabbed her for the same reason McClendon said her shot her – both refused sex with him. 

Gray’s then 6 and 8-year-old boys were in the room next door when she was stabbed, she said.

“I stayed in Jackson (at the University of Mississippi Medical Center)” recovering from the injuries, she said, and incurred thousands of dollars in medical bills.

She also had to attend physical therapy to regain use of her fingers as a result of her attempts to fight him off of her.

After pleading guilty in 2012, Boyd served about four years in prison before being released on parole. He remained under the supervision of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for 14 months, according to MDOC.

Gray said she heard about his release through social media — the same way she found out what happened to McClendon years later.

She said when she heard about the series of attacks on McClendon, including the shooting, she broke down.

“What are they going to do, wait until he kills somebody?” Gray said. “There’s obviously something wrong there.” 

District Attorney Steven Kilgore’s office currently has all three of Boyd’s cases involving McClendon. When asked if he knew why Brown repeatedly granted Boyd a bond — thus allowing him to get out of jail and allegedly commit more crimes — he said he didn’t know.

“We were not involved at that point” in the case, he said, noting his office does not receive cases until law enforcement hands them over. 

Because the state has no centralized system tracking these crimes, often a judge in one court may not be aware of what has happened in another court, he said.

“Ideally, somebody that knew about it would say, ‘Hey, this guy was already out on an aggravated assault,’ but that doesn’t always happen,” said Kilgore.

But that doesn’t explain why Boyd was given a bond for the rape charge — both it and his previous domestic violence aggravated assault charge were heard in Forest Municipal Court. 

And Robbie Wilson, the Grenada County prosecutor and an advocate for domestic violence victims, said it is true there’s no centralized database, but all it takes is the prosecutor placing a phone call to find out about pending cases in other courts. And because prosecutors are the one communicating with the victims, he or she is best suited to follow up on additional information the victim provides.

“But you have to want to do your job. You have to care,” Wilson said. “If the prosecutor doesn’t present it (the information about someone being out on bond), the judge often doesn’t even know it.”

Kilgore, the district attorney, again said he didn’t know why Boyd still has a bond today. 

“If he does have a bond on that third one, we’ll make sure that’s pulled and file a motion to revoke bond,” he said.

As of press time, such a motion did not exist.

A pattern in Scott County – and Mississippi

Advocates and former police officers who worked in Forest and Scott County say what happened to McClendon does not surprise them. 

Stephanie Stockton, a former advocate with the Care Lodge in Meridian, visited Forest Municipal and Scott County Justice Courts as part of her job. Her goal was to make sure domestic violence victims knew there were services out there to help them go through the legal system, which can be confusing and daunting.

Officials from the courts would not coordinate with her and often made things more difficult for victims, she said. 

When crimes occur, either law enforcement or the victims can press charges. In domestic violence cases, victims will often either press charges and later drop them or decline to press charges at all. They do this for a variety of reasons including love, finances or fear of retaliation from the abuser. 

The law accounts for this and requires a police officer to file charges if he or she witnesses or sees evidence a crime has occurred. But two police officers who formerly worked with the Forest Police Department say when officers would file domestic violence charges, former Judge Norman Brown — the same judge who repeatedly granted Boyd bond — would simply dismiss them. 

This particularly bothered James Creel, one of those former officers who now works in another department. A family member of Creel’s was a domestic violence victim. 

“He (Judge Brown) will tell you straight off the bat that if the victim didn’t sign the affidavit and the warrant, it’s not happening — it’s going to be thrown out,” said Creel. “It makes you (as a police officer) feel like you’re backed into a corner and silenced.”

Brown, again, declined to offer comment or answer questions for this story. Thompson, the city prosecutor, did the same.

The state’s disregard for domestic violence crimes and victims is perhaps most obvious at the level of the attorney general’s office. Despite the offer from an organization to help the state institute a domestic violence fatality review, or a review of deaths caused by domestic violence for the purpose of preventing future deaths, further discussion and planning never materialized, according to Neil Websdale, the director of the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative.  

Michelle Williams, the deputy chief of staff for the attorney general, said the person in communication with Websdale is no longer with the attorney general’s office.

As such, Mississippi remains one of only five states in the nation with no such review.

Inaction by law enforcement

Six months after the shooting, McClendon said Boyd kidnapped her in an attempt to take her to her family’s home so she could tell them they were dating again. When he stopped at a fast food restaurant in Forest and was reaching for the food through his window, she jumped out of the car and attempted to run into a nearby bank, but its door was locked, the police report said.

She then ran to the area of the ATM machine, where Boyd then tried to run her over with his car, according to the report. After she jumped out of the way, he hit a Tahoe and fled from the scene, the report said.

Boyd was only arrested and booked over two months later — which Forest Police Chief Will Jones said was likely because officers in the jurisdiction where he lived were unable to locate him. 

According to McClendon, however, she gave officers addresses of where he lived and worked, and even told them when he was on the clock. It wasn’t until she reached out to the mayor of Forest that anything was done. 

Mayor Nancy Chambers confirmed to Mississippi Today she has spoken with McClendon about her case, including recently making phone calls to the police department and the district attorney’s office. 

Because Boyd was out on bond for the shooting charge in Morton, McClendon expected he wouldn’t be given a bond after he was arrested for allegedly attempting to run her over. But then-Forest Municipal Court Judge Norman Brown set a $25,000 bond.

Four days later, Boyd came up with enough money and was released. 

“They told me he’s entitled to a bond unless he does capital murder,” McClendon said. “I went to the judge, I went to the DA, I went to the circuit court clerk and told them, ‘He’s already out on bond for shooting me, how are y’all going to get him another bond?’”

She spent the following months “cooped up,” as she said, out of fear. She only left the house for necessities.

Just three months later in March 2021, McClendon was leaving a grocery store in Forest and saw him waiting for her in the parking lot. 

“I thought I’d seen a ghost. I thought I was fixing to die,” she recalled of the moment. 

As she was getting into her car, Boyd appeared and prevented her from shutting the door, according to the police report. There, in the parking lot, he raped her, she told police.

She went that night to report the rape to the Forest Police Department but was told to come back the next day, she said, because no one was available to take her statement. 

She decided to call a domestic violence shelter in the Jackson area, which told her to immediately come to their clinic for a rape kit. 

She and an advocate from the shelter returned the next day to the police department, she said. When they met with a sergeant in the department, McClendon said she was discouraged from filing the charges.

“He was saying things like, ‘Cases are real hard to prosecute, and they can get real nasty. It’s going to be really hard for you,’” McClendon recalled. “Had she (the advocate) not been here, I would’ve given up. I wanted to leave, and she encouraged me to stay.” 

Forest Police Chief Will Jones said an officer would not discourage anyone from filing charges.

“It was probably the weekend, and the investigator was not in the building … There was no officer that was going to discourage her from filing charges,” Jones told Mississippi Today.

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