Bipartisan bill seeks to reduce repeat offenders, end debtor prisons

In a rare show of bipartisan support, lawmakers have sent to the governor a bill that seeks to reduce repeat inmate offenders, do away with debtor prisoners and study sentencing disparities across the state.

Not a single lawmaker in the House or Senate voted against House Bill 387, which is awaiting the governor's signature.

House Judiciary B Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, author of the bill, said the proposals would give released inmates a better chance of getting a job and becoming taxpaying citizens instead of returning to prison. 

Last year, a similar bill was vetoed by Gov. Phil Bryant because of a typographical error that the governor said could have allowed habitual offenders to be released after serving only 25 percent of their sentence.

The version of the bill this year doesn’t allow early release of habitual or violent offenders.

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It does allow those on probation or parole to check in with their probation officers via technology such as FaceTime and Skype to prevent them from having to leave work and risk losing jobs. 

One of the main parts of the bill does away with so-called debtor prisons.

A federal lawsuit filed late last year accused Corinth and its municipal judge of operating a debtor prison by unlawfully jailing poor people for their inability to make bail and pay fines.

"Even though debtors' prisons have been outlawed in this country for more than 200 years, Corinth is running a jail from the Dark Ages in one of the nation's poorest regions — it's shameful," Sam Brooke, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.

In 2015, a similar lawsuit was filed against Jackson, alleging the city was unconstitutionally jailing the poor for not paying fines owed for traffic violations and other misdemeanors — sometimes for months at a time.

The Corinth lawsuit says the city routinely was violating the constitutional rights of people facing misdemeanor or municipal charges by holding them in jail until they pay bail money or their fine, without taking into account their ability to pay, as required by law.

The SPLC and MacArthur Justice Center said they have been investigating the court's practices over the last year. Over the course of the investigation, the groups encountered many indigent defendants who were threatened with jail time or spent a considerable amount of time in jail for their inability to pay court-imposed fines.

Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, said the center and other civil rights organizations like the SPLC will keep filing lawsuits and judicial performance complaints until judges, cities and counties abide by the law.

Gipson said House Bill 387 prohibits a person being jailed for failing to pay fines or court costs.

The bill says a person can only be incarcerated after a court conducts a hearing and examines the reasons for nonpayment and finds, on the record, that the person wasn't indigent.

American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Jennifer Riley Collins called the legislation one of the most significant steps forward in criminal justice reform in the state since the comprehensive reform bill known as House Bill 585 was passed in 2014.

Americans for Prosperity-Mississippi, a grassroots group that believes in limited government, is also praising HB 387.

“By passing HB 387, the House and Senate have made smart, bipartisan progress toward protecting the public, reducing the burden on taxpayers and helping incarcerated individuals successfully re-enter our communities,” said AFP-MS State Director Russ Latino.

Gipson said HB 387 will also create a study committee to review sentencing disparities in the state for the same crime, which he said can vary from zero to 30 years.

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