Jerry Mitchell

The Clarion-Ledger

Mississippi locks up more people per capita than China and Russia combined, according to the most recent comparison.

The state had 1,155 inmates per 100,000 population in 2013, which was more than China's 121 and Russia's 475, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies and the Prison Policy Initiative.

"The Mississippi prison system is in a crisis of over-incarceration, and that crisis will continue as long as the state imposes wildly excessive sentences, allows private corporations to reap profit from mass incarceration, and locks people up in conditions so nightmarish that some will never recover, physically or mentally," said Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU's National Prison Project.

In response to the problem, a bipartisan task force, chaired by Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, analyzed the state's corrections and criminal justice system, successfully pushed for reforms that lawmakers enacted this year that gave more power to judges to hand down alternative sentences.

He described the new law giving judges more alternatives as "a good tool" to be smarter about crime and corrections, saying he's "happy the Legislature and governor have searched for ways to reduce prison population while being protective of the community."

A year ago, the number of state inmates in all institutions that had ballooned to 22,321, as of last week, had fallen to 19,811, thanks to a large number of paroles. The state Parole Board has reviewed 7,083 cases this year.

An attorney general's opinion, examining the new law in light of existing law, prompted the state Parole Board to have to cancel the parole eligibility of about 1,500 offenders, Steve Pickett, chairman of the state Parole Board, said.

He said he hopes lawmakers will address the issue in next year's session.

Board members have backgrounds in social work, law enforcement and other areas, he said. "The checks and balances for this board is we all work for the governor. The idea that we would willy nilly parole folks is simply not true."

Rapid growth

Over the past three decades, the number of Mississippians put behind bars exploded, growing 300 percent — more than 17 times the population growth.

One reason was because sentencing lengths in the Magnolia State have ballooned more than 28 percent over the past decade.

Mississippi has lengthy mandatory sentences in its criminal code, stripping judges of their usual discretion.

And what power they have they sometimes use to the maximum for fear the public might not re-elect them otherwise.

Some circuit judges worry if they're perceived as soft on crime, they'll face a tough, expensive re-election campaign, former state Supreme Court Justice James Robertson said.

That's why some may give maximum sentences or may hesitate to suppress illegally gained evidence, he said.

He recalled the oft-followed political axiom: "Criminals are universally unpopular, and they can't vote."

Justice Harry Walker "probably had the highest affirmance vote percentage of any justice I served with," said Robertson, who served from 1983-1992, "but he had voted to reverse half a dozen or so criminal convictions."

Walker's opponent highlighted the names of those the justice had voted to reverse and Walker barely survived his reelection bid, 51 to 49 percent, he said.

Mississippi is among the states that adopted the "three strikes, you're out" law, delivering mandatory maximum sentences for third felonies, regardless of what they are.

Mississippi trails only Louisiana and Oklahoma in the number of people it imprisons. Louisiana has 39,147 inmates; Oklahoma, 26,927; and Mississippi, 19,811.

House Corrections Committee Chairman Tommy Taylor said he does believe those who commit violent crimes "should be put away for good."

But in Mississippi, nearly three-fourths of those imprisoned wind up there for nonviolent crimes.

Taylor said rehabilitation programs need to be beefed up so those who leave prison don't return.

"We need to look at running inmates through long-term drug and alcohol treatment when they get in and then refresh that for a month before they're released," he said.

Currently, more than three-fourths of Mississippi inmates are addicted to alcohol or drugs or both.

"We've got to step up to the plate and make sure people at home are safe, that people are not committing the same crimes," Taylor said. "It may cost a little more in the short run, but in the long run, you'll not incarcerate them again."

Incarceration's cost

In spite of imprisoning so many, Mississippi has one of the lowest costs per inmate per day at $42.14 — well below the national average of $64.31. Private prison costs are even lower on average.

More savings have been realized by the state's 2011 release from the 1974 Gates vs. Collier federal court ruling, which brought both changes and oversight to the State Penitentiary at Parchman, and the 2010 shutdown of Unit 32, which has saved the state about $5.6 million annually, Epps said.

The success of the Department of Corrections in state-run facilities is evidenced by its recidivism rate of 32.98 percent over a three-year period, he said. "The low recidivism rate is due to our improving the inmate rehabilitation programs, education programs and workforce training programs."

As for resources, "that goes hand in hand with budget and the ability to pay to house the offenders," he said. "The key word is 'need.' We definitely have plenty of space and resources to keep those offenders who 'need' to be locked up behind bars."

Mississippi taxpayers spend more to keep people in prison than on economic development, disaster relief, drug enforcement, hospitals, hospital schools and the state's entire judicial system combined — $389 million.

Since his 2002 appointment, Epps has seen his own salary rise from $85,000 to $132,761. During that same time, the starting salary of a correctional officer has gone from $17,073 to $22,006.

Taylor said he's heard from officers, wondering when they'll get a pay raise.

"I've told them, 'I wish I could double your salary, but I'm not the one who appropriates your budget, but votes on whether it will be appropriated. Your boss is the one who dictates where the money goes.'"

Epps has repeatedly talked to lawmakers about pay raises for correctional officers.

"A pay increase would certainly benefit staff and would help (the department) attract a wider pool of prospective correctional officers," he told The Clarion-Ledger.

Mississippi taxpayers spend $15,151 to house an inmate for a year. In contrast, it costs a third of that to educate a student.

By spending money now to develop young minds, taxpayers can save millions, said former Secretary of State Dick Molpus, who is pushing for a constitutional amendment that would require the state to provide a quality education for public school students.

"By not supporting our public schools, we are either training low skill, low wage adults who will rely on government assistance to live, or we are keeping our prisons full, which cost us twice what fully funded schools would cost," he said. "The circle of poverty and diminished lives remains unbroken."

The average person inside Mississippi prison has a sixth grade education or less. "Research has shown that a person with an education is less likely to go to prison," Epps said.

When it comes to imprisoning large numbers of citizens, Mississippi is not alone.

Studies show the U.S. leads the world in incarceration with 2.2 million, producing more prisoners than engineers, nursing assistants, secondary school teachers, social workers or lawyers.

That is at least five times larger than the incarceration rate in other democracies and costs the nation $80 billion, according to a Brookings Institution's report.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has thrown his weight behind the Smarter Sentencing Act, a bipartisan bill that backers say would save billions on prison.

If the bill became law, it would adjust federal mandatory sentencing guidelines for certain crimes in hopes of reducing the federal prison population.

Without changes, the federal prison population will surpass the federal prisons built, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has predicted.

The New York Times suggested in an editorial in May that prisons start being graded on their ability to keep inmates from returning.

"The American experiment in mass incarceration has been a moral, legal, social, and economic disaster," the Times wrote. "It cannot end soon enough."

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.