A new thriller/comedy starring Richard Speight, Jr. (Supernatural, Band of Brothers, Justified). Written by Casey Dillard and directed by Glenn Payne. Follow us @drivenmovie on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook. https://twitter.com/drivenmoviehttps://www.instagram.com/drivenmovie/https://www.facebook.com/drivenmoviellc/ “Emerson Graham’s nights as a cab driver are filled with annoyances and inconveniences, but until tonight, never attacks and disappearances. After picking up a mysterious passenger her evening goes from working a job to performing a quest as they must race against the clock to defeat a force of evil. The meter is running.”
While the arguments to keep the flag are similar to 2001, the opposition to it is louder and from a wider base. The winds of change are definitely blowing.
Burl Cain responds to a reporter’s question after being introduced by Gov. Tate Reeves as the new commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections on Wednesday, May 20, 2020.
After only brief questioning about legal and ethical allegations he faced in Louisiana, a Senate panel on Tuesday unanimously approved Burl Cain’s appointment to run Mississippi’s troubled prisons system.
Cain’s appointment by Gov. Tate Reeves now moves to the full Senate, which is expected to confirm him as Mississippi corrections commissioner.
“I was investigated – three investigations and it was all totally unfounded,” Cain, former warden of Angola prison in Louisiana, told members of the Mississippi Senate Corrections Committee. “That’s why I stand before you today. I’ve been totally investigated and I’ve come out clean. I was exonerated.”
Cain said he has four main tenets for fixing Mississippi’s prison system: “Good food … Good medicine … Good playing … and good praying.”
Mississippi’s prison system, long plagued by violence and claims of inhumane conditions, is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation and multiple lawsuits. Since late last year, the system has seen dozens of inmate deaths and injuries, including from riots and fights.
“We’ve got to have churches in our prisons,” Cain said, “with inmate pastors in the pulpit to change their own people … Failure is not an option. We’ve got to fix it.”
Cain said he plans to solve severe staffing shortages in Mississippi prisons in part by reducing red tape and hiring requirements such as applicants having to pay for a physical from a private doctor. He said he’s already hired 22 people in a couple of weeks since Reeves appointed him, pending Senate confirmation.
Cain, 77, has worked in corrections for 40 years, and was warden at Angola for 21 years.
He resigned at Angola in 2015 amid allegations that he misused public money. In 2017 a Louisiana legislative watchdog audit found that corrections employees performed work on Cain’s private home, some apparently while being paid by the state. The audit also claimed he received free benefits such as appliances and flat screen televisions and lodging at Angola for his relatives.
A series by The Advocate newspaper raised questions about Cain’s real estate dealings with friends and relatives of inmates.
Cain was neither indicted nor convicted on an allegations. Reeves said Cain was thoroughly vetted by a selection panel he appointed to find a new MDOC chief and chalked Cain’s problems in Louisiana up to politics.
As warden at Angola, Cain was both credited for turning around one of the nation’s most violent, troubled prisons and criticized for enacting harsh punishments of inmates.
On news of his Mississippi appointment by Reeves, the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union in a statement said: “Burl Cain left a legacy of corruption, cruelty and callous disregard for the human lives in his custody.
“From denying people access to medical care to holding three innocent men in solitary confinement for decades, the brutal conditions he oversaw at Angola were an affront to justice and human dignity … While professing to believe in redemption and decarceration, his record makes a mockery of those claims.”
Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who had asked Cain on Tuesday about past allegations, told Cain, “I’m satisfied … We’ve been provided information that corroborates that exoneration.”
Sen. Sollie Norwood, D-Jackson, told Cain that he had received numerous calls and emails from constituents urging him to vote against Cain’s confirmation.
“I believe in second chances,” Norwood told Cain. “I appreciate what you’ve said and I believe you. I’m going to have to vote against what some of my constituents are saying, but I believe you’ve hit all the buttons that need to be touched.”
Senate Corrections Vice Chairman Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, asked Cain for assurances that Mississippi prison contracts and spending – rocked by past corruption that landed a former commissioner in prison – would be aboveboard and avoid “even the appearance of impropriety.”
Cain assured him it would.
Cain, who will be paid $132,000 a year as head of Mississippi corrections, told lawmakers he plans to remain involved in the Global Prison Seminaries Foundation he helped found. He said he has asked the Mississippi Ethics Commission for an opinion on whether he can maintain a paid position with the foundation.
Corrections Chairman Juan Barnett said he had previously talked with Cain about closing Parchman, and asked him again Tuesday whether that might be an option.
Cain said: “If I close Parchman it means failure. We’ve got to fix it. We are going to fix it.”
We will see another pleasant start to the day Wednesday with temperatures in the lower to mid 60s at sunrise. Expect mostly sunny skies and temperatures warming up! High temps will be in the mid to upper 80s. Calm wind becoming north northeast around 5 mph in the morning.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear, with a low around 65. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Lawmakers during the legislative session at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, May 28, 2020.
Legislative leaders on Monday said Mississippi’s state budget for the coming year should be able to limp along with cuts to agencies of less than 5 percent despite the pandemic-fueled recession.
Earlier projections had been more dire, with double-digit cuts to state agencies in the offing.
Budget experts told lawmakers Monday that the pandemic recession so far hasn’t been as bad as once feared, and retail sales, income and corporate taxes have not tanked as sharply as first projected.
“The bottom line is the national economy appears to be recovering … and the state economy is also improving,” said State Economist Darrin Webb.
For the current budget year that ends in two weeks, lawmakers said the governor could dip into the state’s “rainy day fund” to cover about a $47 million shortfall in the roughly $6 billion budget.
For the fiscal 2021 budget that starts in July, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann noted that earlier projections had been for a massive shortfall of $800 million or more, which would have forced cuts around 12 percent. Cuts that steep could have crippled many state agencies and forced massive cuts in services.
Instead, the estimated shortfall for fiscal 2021 is about $275 million.
The shortfall for 2021 was reduced, in part, by lawmakers “pushing” about $275 million in income taxes that normally would have gone into the current budget into next year’s because the filing deadline was extended to July 15.
House Speaker Philip Gunn said he was “encouraged” that shortfalls appear to be less than earlier projections. He said lawmakers have been discussing cuts averaging 4.8 percent but, “We believe we can get by with cuts of not quite that much.”
Lawmakers are hoping to set a budget and end this year’s legislative session by next week. Monday’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee was a major step in that process – determining how much money lawmakers have to spend.
Chris Howard, director of the state Department of Rehabilitation Services, said any cuts will be tough for his agency – which uses much of its state funding to draw federal funds at a 3-1 match, and spends most of its money on salaries and direct services for people with disabilities.
“But 10-12 percent – we’re definitely glad to hear the cuts aren’t looking that bad,” Howard said. “… Every dollar we lose in state funding, we stand to lose $3 in federal funding.”
Lawmakers said that the state’s rainy day fund is full at about $550 million, and that the governor has authority to use up to $50 million to fill the $47 million budget hole for the current year. Gov. Tate Reeves’ office on Monday did not immediately respond to a request for comment about lawmakers’ plan.
Webb warned lawmakers that while things are not as bad as once predicted, the state economy still faces “many unknowns,” including a potential “second wave” of the pandemic forcing more shutdowns of the economy.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
The materials used to collect specimen from those potentially infected with COVID-19 is shown in a mock COVID-19 specimen collection at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds in Jackson, Miss., Monday, March 23, 2020.
Legislative leaders confirmed on Monday that an employee who occasionally works at the state Capitol has tested positive for COVID-19.
The employee works for the Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees state building and grounds, including the Capitol. No other details on the employee or case were immediately available.
House Speaker Philip Gunn announced Monday afternoon that additional safety precautions will be imposed in the House, such as not all the members being in the chamber at the same time.
“We are trying to maintain a safe environment,” Gunn said.
Some members will listen to debate via the intercom system from rooms off the chamber and only come to the chamber to ask questions, speak on bills or offer amendments.
“We are asking everyone to wear a mask,” he said. “We have not mandated it, but we think it is appropriate.”
Earlier this year the legislative leadership had strict safety precautions in place but in recent days have relaxed through guidelines.
In late March, a Capitol Police officer reportedly tested positive for coronavirus. This was while the Legislature’s session was on hiatus because of the pandemic. Lawmakers resumed their session in late May and are hoping to finish it next week.
Access to parts of the Capitol and legislative proceedings have been limited, and people entering the Capitol have their temperature checked and must answer medical questions.
So far there have been no reports of any of the 174-member state Legislature testing positive for COVID-19.
