Part 2 of 2
As a columnist, I keep hearing horror stories about Mississippi’s criminal justice system. Recently a distraught mother, Lisa Moore, came to my office at The Northside Sun in Jackson. Her 19-year-old ADHD son was sentenced to 50 years for breaking into cars. He will serve a minimum of 12 years before he gets parole. That’s nuts.
One lady was sentenced to five years without parole for one pill box of opioids. Three thousand Mississippians are in jail for technical violations such as not showing up for hearings, driving with suspended licenses, not paying fines and failing drug tests. So it goes.
Mentally ill and addicts are sent to prison instead of treatment, making their already challenging conditions infinitely worse.
In the early 1990s, I was co-chairman of the Metro Jackson Crime Commission with Wirt Yerger. The crack epidemic was raging, the crime rate was skyrocketing and we cried out for more incarceration and got it. I was co-chairman of Gov. Kirk Fordice’s commission for criminal justice reform. We passed sweeping new laws bolstering victims rights. My anti-crime credentials are impeccable.
But over the years I have learned that it is much more complicated. Research is finding better solutions.
It is beyond the scope of this column to write about all the details of how House Bill 1352 addresses reform. It’s a lengthy bill. As voters, we should encourage our representatives to keep moving forward.
The FWD.us gurus, other think tank experts and the conferees are aware of the touch points. For example, people who are in minor trouble with the law are not very organized. Yet the legal system requires them to jump through all sorts of hoops under the threat of imprisonment. Reducing these hoops will lower the incarceration rate. Our current system is designed for failure and imprisonment. We need a reality-based system that gets people in crisis back on track, not stuck in jail.
One example is suspending drivers licenses for minor drug possession and failure to pay fines. You can’t function in Mississippi without a car, so people drive anyway, get caught and go to jail, setting them down a vicious spiral alienation, resentment and destruction.
Make no mistake: Law abiding citizens need to be protected from truly violent, incorrigible criminals. But our incarceration of the non-violent depletes our resources to fight those genuine threats to public safety.
This is not a new story. God gave Moses a lot of laws but we couldn’t help but break them. The wages of sin was death. It got so bad God was about to wipe away humankind.
God came up with a new plan. Christ came to earth, ushering in a new covenant based on grace, faith, forgiveness and redemption. Only then did mankind begin its slow climb out of barbarity.
For a state that overwhelmingly professes Jesus as our King, we sure have an Old Testament criminal justice system. It didn’t work very well for God. It’s not working very well for Mississippi.
Wyatt Emmerich is president of Emmerich Newspapers. Reach him at wyatt@northsidesun.com.
