Mississippi Can Use Existing

Laws to Safely Reduce Its

Exploding Prison Population
March 2023

Background
Mississippi currently has the highest imprisonment rate in the nation. High incarceration
rates for those who are no longer public safety threats are not healthy for communities or
the local economy. They create intergenerational cycles of crime and poverty. They destroy
families. And despite arguments to the contrary, the data shows almost no correlation
between high incarceration rates and community safety.1

The Mississippi legislature has continued to try addressing this problem by providing the
Executive Branch with the tools to ameliorate the rapidly rising prison population in the
state. However, the Mississippi Department of Corrections and Parole Board are not
effectively using these authorities. Parole grant rates have dropped, presumptive parole
is not being used to the fullest extent, “earned time credits” are being restricted, and other
statutory tools are being underutilized. The result is that people who are no longer public
safety threats and would otherwise be eligible for release remain in prison longer than
necessary to accomplish the twin goals of deterrence and proportionate retribution.

1
Doug Hamilton, et al., “Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility,” Pew Charitable Trusts (2010).

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Years of evidence have shown that long periods of imprisonment do not reduce crime.2
In fact, more than 30 states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia have been able to cut
their prison populations while maintaining or reducing crime rates. Yet, Mississippi’s prison
population continues to increase, wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars without making
communities any safer.

After lawmakers expanded parole eligibility in 2021 the prison population was safely
reduced to its lowest point in 20 years, all while strengthening the state’s workforce and
reuniting families. However, that decline did not last. Parole grant rates plummeted from
a monthly average of 72.4% in 2021 to a monthly average of 37.0% in 2022. Individuals who
had been eligible for parole long before the 2021 expansion began facing routine denials
and unusually lengthy set-off periods.3 Admissions to prison on parole revocations for
technical violations4 increased 80.3% from 649 to 1,170 between July 2021 and June
2022.5 People are being denied parole or sent back to prison for non-criminal conduct
and continue to serve long sentences. Neither approach to public safety has been shown
to actually work.

Because Mississippi is not fully utilizing evidence-based strategies and existing

mechanisms to safely reduce the prison population, the prison population has increased
by nearly 3,000 people in the year since the notable decrease. This includes nearly 1,300
more people in prison for drug offenses today than there were a year ago.6

This growth caused Mississippi’s prisons to hit 92% capacity in January 2023. The
Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) has responded by bringing more than 2,000
additional prison beds online since December 2022, which is not a sustainable solution.
If the prison population continues to increase at this same rate, Mississippi prisons are

2
Damon M. Patrick, Travis C. Pratt, Cheryl Lero Jonson, and Francis T. Cullen, “Custodial Sanctions and Reoffending:
A Meta-Analytic Review,” Crime and Justice, Vol. 50, 2021,
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/715100?journalCode=cj.
3
Parole grant rate and hearing information based on analysis from January 2021 to October 2022. Setoff periods based
on analysis of hearing data received in response to MDOC records request.
4
Technical violations are minor violations of rules governing people on parole, such as being late for a check-in, crossing
county lines, or testing positive for drugs or alcohol. They are not new crimes. To be sure, people on parole should be held
accountable for breaking such rules. But there are other, more proportional mechanisms for holding people accountable
than simply returning them to prison. The high number of readmissions due to technical violations is exacerbating the
issues in MDOC.
5
Technical violation revocation information based on analysis of data from Quarter 3 and 4 of 2021 and Quarter 1 and 2
of 2022.
6
Mississippi Department of Corrections, Monthly Fact Sheets, February 2022-January 2023.

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likely to exceed capacity in less than a year. This is all while the U.S. Department of Justice
continues its ongoing investigations into multiple prisons across the state.

It’s not too late for Mississippi to fully utilize existing laws and available administrative tools
to change course. The following recommendations provide guidance on how Mississippi
can immediately address its growing prison population while continuing to prioritize public
safety and bolstering the state’s workforce.

Mississippi Leaders Can Implement Responsible Solutions

To Safely Reduce The Growing Prison Population
Mississippi can hold people accountable and still ensure people have a meaningful second
chance to return to their communities, rejoin the workforce, and take care of their families.
Fully exercising existing authorities under state law can safely decrease the current prison
population and prevent future increases without compromising public safety.

Fully utilizing Mississippi’s parole laws will incentivize rehabilitation and

safely reduce incarceration without compromising public safety.

Parole is an important data-driven tool that incentivizes people to demonstrate their

readiness to return home and successfully contribute to their communities.
Mississippi’s parole expansion in 2021 was an important step to safely reduce the
state’s dangerously high prison population, but state leaders must continue to fully
exercise their parole powers.

The substantial drop in parole grant rates for eligible individuals combined with an
increase in revocations from parole for technical violations is largely responsible for the
increasing prison population over the last year. By severely restricting who is released on
parole and adding long set-off periods before individuals can be considered again, the
Parole Board is removing critical incentives for people in prison to participate in available
programming and rehabilitation efforts while incarcerated. These routine denials
disregard and discourage the strides people have made toward rehabilitation inside
prison as well as efforts made to secure employment, treatment, and housing upon their
release. Parole is ineffective if individuals are denied even when they demonstrate
rehabilitation and support for their reentry.

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In recent testimony to members of the Mississippi Legislature, the Parole Board chair also
described denying release to parole-eligible individuals who planned to access treatment
and educational programming in the community as part of their conditional release
period.7 This is counter to smart on crime measures that help reduce recidivism.

Mississippi Code Ann. § 47-7-3 grants the Parole Board the authority to require an
individual to complete any required drug or alcohol rehabilitation program in the
community as a condition of parole. Under Miss. Code Ann. § 47-7-18, the Parole Board
must consider an individual’s ability to complete their case plan requirements like
educational, treatment, or vocational programs while in the community. Rather than
granting the opportunity for people on parole to use these community-based resources
as law allows, the Parole Board chair described denying parole to people solely for them
to complete programming while incarcerated. Given the limited program capacity in
prisons, this will unnecessarily delay the release of some people who can safely complete
community programming. In turn, this is constraining already minimal corrections
resources, while holding back potential employees eager to join Mississippi’s workforce.

The Parole Board should carefully review each case that comes before it, but this review
must consider a person’s current rehabilitation status and plans for reentry. Doing so will
ensure that the possibility of parole continues to function as an incentive to encourage
people who have taken advantage of the time and opportunities available to them to
prepare for their return home. It is critical that the Parole Board fully utilizes the authority
of the state’s parole laws to help incentivize rehabilitation and release individuals who do
not pose a public safety risk.

Fully implementing Mississippi’s presumptive parole statute will prioritize

public safety and more effectively use government resources.

As part of the Republican-led HB 585 reform package passed in 2014, Mississippi

legislators established “presumptive parole,” to streamline the administrative procedures
of the Board. Under Miss. Code Ann. § 47-7-18, people are eligible for release to parole
supervision if they were convicted of nonviolent offenses and meet specific criteria,
including following institutional rules and serving at least 25% of their sentence.8

7
See Testimony to Joint Corrections’ Recidivism Study Committee, Nov. 29, 2022, available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9Tqn9Xh6udM. As discussed at the end of this hearing, the Parole
Board does not keep any data regarding grounds for denial in an electronic form that would allow verification of this
testimony or a deeper analysis of these trends.
8
Miss. Code Ann. § 47-7-18 (Presumptive Parole).

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This presumptive parole policy, already in use in states like Oklahoma, allows
eligible individuals to be released on their eligibility date as long as they have met the
requirements of their case plan, their discharge plans have been set, they have not
experienced any recent disciplinary issues, and a hearing was not requested by
interested parties.

To date, this policy still has not been implemented and it does not appear that anyone
has been released under presumptive parole. Numerous individuals who are eligible
remain in prison, which wastes scarce staff resources that would be better allocated
to more serious cases.

At the end of 2022, MDOC and the Parole Board announced their intention to begin
implementation of presumptive parole in April 2023. However, recent testimony to the
legislature by agency leadership indicates a misunderstanding that likely conflicts with
both the letter and the intent of the policy as written.9 The proposed process would add
several additional administrative steps to presumptive parole, wasting the Parole
Board’s resources on people who were convicted of nonviolent offenses and have
clearly demonstrated their rehabilitation by meeting the law’s requirements.

Presumptive parole is an evidence-based policy that was designed to streamline

release for individuals who have served a specific portion of their sentence as required
by Miss. Code Ann. § 47-7-3 and demonstrated their rehabilitation. The law recognized
that these individuals should be released on supervision and also required MDOC to
provide transitional housing so it was not a barrier that prolonged their incarceration.10
An estimated 1,721 people in prison today may already meet the offense and time served
requirements, making a full and proper implementation of Miss. Code Ann. § 47-7-18
a critical tool to safely reduce the prison population.

9
Testimony to Joint Corrections’ Recidivism Study Committee, Nov. 29, 2022, available at https://www.youtube.com/
watch?app=desktop&v=9Tqn9Xh6udM; Testimony to Senate Corrections Committee, Jan. 11, 2023, available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwbtnbdWm8w.
10
Miss. Code Ann. § 47-5-28(e) requires the MDOC Commissioner to contract for at least 100 and for as many as 800
transitional reentry center beds to place individuals in need of housing upon release to supervision. As of Feb. 13, 2023,
the state’s transitional housing capacity was 58 and just 7 beds were occupied.

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Removing non-statutory Earned Time restrictions and allowing people to
earn day-for-day credits for some offenses under Meritorious Earned Time
will incentivize rehabilitation and safely reduce the prison population.

Earned Time makes prisons safer by providing incarcerated people with incentives
and a path towards release that helps support rehabilitation, reduce recidivism, and
improve public safety.11

Simply stated, if a person in prison has earned time credits to lose, he/she will be more
diligent in complying with the rules of the prison.

MDOC has an internal policy that denies various categories of Earned Time Allowance,
Trusty Earned Time and/or Meritorious Earned Time (collectively “Earned Time”) to an
estimated 677 people who would otherwise be eligible by statute based on their crime
of conviction.12 The law has built in public safety protections that deny Earned Time
if an individual has attempted escape, is currently serving a court-ordered house
arrest, also known as the Intensive Supervision Program (ISP), or has an out-of-state
or federal detainer.13

Since 2009, Mississippi’s statute has also granted MDOC broad discretion to award
people in prison an unlimited amount of Meritorious Earned Time, or MET, to incentivize
“positive and worthwhile accomplishments for their personal benefit or the benefit of
others.”14 These credits can be earned by individuals convicted of numerous offenses,
and encourage participation in educational and other programming by allowing people
to demonstrate their rehabilitation, and reach post-release supervision sooner.
Currently, MDOC is underutilizing their discretion to offer MET as another incentive
to promote rehabilitation.

Edward J, Latessa, Melissa Lugo, Amanda Pompoco, Carrie Sullivan, John Wooldredge, “Reducing Inmate Misconduct
11

and Prison Returns with Facility Education Programs,” University of Cincinnati, American Society of Criminology,
Criminology & Public Policy Vol. 16, Issue 2 (2017).
12
Miss. Code Ann. §§ 47-5-138.1, 47-5-139 and 47-5-142 detail the offense-based restrictions for each program, which
include exclusions for people with life sentences, people convicted as “habitual offenders,” people convicted of a sex
crime, and those convicted of numerous serious offenses.
Miss. Code Ann. § 47-5-139. Mississippi Department of Corrections, “Earned Release Allowance - Eligibility and
13

Supervision,” SOP Number 15-04-01, Initial Date 10-01-2020, Effective Date 10-01-2020.
14
Miss. Code Ann. § 47-5-142.

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MDOC’s denial of the full Earned Time accrual allowed by state law disincentivizes
rehabilitation and unnecessarily lengthens prison terms, without any public safety benefit.
Not fully utilizing Earned Time is out of step with states across the nation and runs counter
to a large body of research on correctional best practices.15 Numerous studies have shown
that Earned Time programs lead to reduced recidivism rates, and simultaneously help
safely reduce the prison population.16 MDOC must update its internal administrative
policies regarding Earned Time to align with state law, and allow those who have earned
it the chance to return to society and become productive citizens.

Allowing time served in jail before trial to be counted in Earned Time

calculations and applying this policy retroactively will relieve pressure
on the prison population and advance public safety.

In addition to offense-based exclusions, MDOC does not factor in the time a person
serves in jail pretrial toward their Earned Time calculations, even though a person’s
time spent incarcerated pretrial is counted against their overall sentence. This decision
disproportionately harms individuals convicted of nonviolent offenses, those serving
short sentences, and those whose cases are adjudicated in courts with large case
backlogs or other processing delays. It likewise compounds the impact of the trial
penalty. Described by the American Legislative Exchange Council as “inconsistent with
public safety,” the trial penalty is where individuals who assert their constitutional right
to trial by jury often face more punitive sentencing than those who accept a plea deal.17
Trial can take longer than a plea deal, and when compounded with the trial penalty and
without pre-trial Earned Time calculations, those who choose to go to trial could end
up with disproportionate sentences.

Not allowing pre-trial Earned Time calculations places unnecessary strain on the prison
system for people who could otherwise complete their sentence in a local jail or be safely

15
Indiana Code Sec. 35-50-6-3; Louisiana Code Article 880; Oklahoma Statute Title 57 Sec. 138; Prison Fellowship,
“Earned and Good Time Policies: Comparing Maximum Reductions Available,” 2018. https://www.prisonfellowship.org/
wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GoodTimeChartUS_Apr27_v7.pdf.
Alison Lawrence, “Cutting Corrections Costs: Earned Time Policies for State Prisoners, National Conference of State
16

Legislatures,” 2009. https://www.criminallegalnews.org/media/publications/ncsl_report_on_cutting_corrections_costs

_2009.pdf; David Clark, Ryang Hui Kim, “The Effect of Prison-Based College Education Programs on Recidivism:
Propensity Score Matching Approach,” Journal of Criminal Justice Vol. 41, Issue 3, 2013. https://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/pii/S004723521300024X.
17
American Legislative Exchange Council, “Resolution on Ensuring the Constitutional Right to Trial By Ameliorating the
Trial Penalty,” Model Resolution, December 2022, https://alec.org/model-policy/model-resolution-on-ensuring-the-
constitutional-right-to-trial-by-ameliorating-the-trial-penalty/.

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released to community supervision. Under the current system, two people who receive
the identical sentence for the identical crime could serve distinctly different lengths of
time in prison based on how long they spent in jail before admission to MDOC custody,
even if they are not a public safety risk. Allowing time served in jail pre-trial toward
Earned Time calculations would remedy this issue while safely relieving pressure from
the prison population.

Executive action can safely reduce sentences for drug and property
offenses that would no longer be legal if issued today.

The Mississippi Constitution grants the Governor the ability to issue reprieves or
pardons to people convicted of criminal offenses, and many Mississippi governors have
used this power to commute sentences and pardon individuals in the past. In 2014, as
lieutenant governor, Governor Reeves played an instrumental role in passing HB 585 that
revised sentencing terms for certain drug and property offenses. Now as Governor,
there is an opportunity to grant relief to these individuals and help safely reduce the
prison population.

In Oklahoma, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt used his commutation power to release
people serving sentences for non-violent drug and property offenses that were no longer
applicable under a new law. In the years since, the people who were granted commutations
achieved a remarkable feat—a recidivism rate of just 4%, about one fifth of the state’s
average recidivism rate and one tenth of the national average.18

Mississippi has similar executive authority that could be used to grant relief to individuals
serving sentences that are now illegal for non-violent drug and property offenses. This
could be done within the Governor’s administration or in partnership with an external
commutation program to support individual review and re-entry plans for applicants.
In doing so, the Governor could safely and efficiently bolster Mississippi’s workforce, and
lower corrections costs at the same time.

18
Nolan Center for Justice, American Conservative Union Foundation, “OK Governor Kevin Stitt’s Management of
the Criminal Justice System is Finding Success,” April 5, 2022, https://conservativejusticereform.org/oklahoma
-recidivism-report/.

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Ending Mississippi’s practice of revoking parole for non-criminal technical
violations will support reentry and improve public safety.

Revoking a person to prison for non-criminal violations contradicts a large body of

research demonstrating that swiftness and certainty are much more important than
severity when responding to supervision violations.19 As a result, many states use
graduated sanctions in response to non-criminal violations because it is an opportunity
for probation and parole officers to guide people back towards success. In response
to research on these evidence-based practices, HB 585 included a system of graduated
sanctions to address technical rule violations, codified as Miss. Code Ann. § 47-7-38.
These sanctions included increased reporting, increased testing, loss of earned-
discharge credits, and more. Yet, despite early successes in using sanctions instead
of sending people back to prison, the use of these graduated sanctions has declined
sharply, from over 3,100 sanctions issued in early 2016 to just 851 issued in early 2022.20

By moving away from using graduated sanctions, MDOC has instead resorted back to
the costly and ineffective policy of punishing non-criminal violations with revocations
to prison. These revocations come at a high cost to Mississippi taxpayers and strain
Mississippi prisons with people who likely do not pose a threat to public safety. Between
January and June 2022, the Parole Board revoked 1,236 people back to prison, 95% or 1,170
of whom were revoked for technical or non-criminal violations of the rules of supervision,
such as a missed appointment.21 As a result, the number of people in Mississippi prisons
who were admitted on a parole revocation increased by almost 50% in just six months.

MDOC and the Parole Board should utilize the existing system of graduated sanctions to
address non-criminal technical violations of supervision conditions. It is a poor use of
taxpayer resources to send people back to prison for non-criminal conduct when there is a
range of alternative sanctions and conditions that can be used to ensure public safety
without increasing the state’s prison population.

19
Michael Haugen, “Getting Technical: Preventing and Responding to Technical Supervision Violations and
Misdemeanors,” Texas Public Policy Foundation, Center for Effective Justice, December 2019,
https://rightoncrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Haugen-Technical-Supervision-Violations.pdf.
20
Mississippi Department of Corrections, HB 585 Measures Report 2022 Qtr 2.
21
Mississippi Department of Corrections, HB 585 Measures Report 2022 Qtr 2.

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Allowing people on supervision to accrue Earned Discharge Credits based
on their conduct rather than their ability to pay fines and fees will improve
public safety.

In 2014, HB 585 also established Earned Discharge Credits, a policy that has been proven
successful in other jurisdictions, which allows people on probation and parole to earn one
day off their supervision sentence for every day they remain in compliance with the rules
of their supervision.22

In the first year after the law was implemented, an average of over 23,000 individuals
earned time off their supervision sentences each month through Earned Discharge
Credits, and more than 6,000 people were discharged early from supervision over the
course of the year.23 Because MDOC immediately implemented Earned Discharge Credits,
there was a 23% reduction in community supervision in the two years after the law went
into effect. As a result, it also ensured MDOC community supervision resources were more
focused on individuals that needed ongoing supervision and incentivized individuals to
successfully reintegrate into their communities.24 Earned Discharge Credits also helped
improve public safety. The number of people on supervision revoked for new crimes
declined by roughly half after Earned Discharge Credits were implemented and crime
rates continued to decline to historic lows.25

The Earned Discharge Credits policy was designed so that those who could not pay their
monthly $55 supervision fee were not penalized for their financial position. Unfortunately,
its use has declined dramatically in recent years. This was reportedly due to an internal
policy of denying credits for people who are behind on payment. MDOC is likely under-
utilizing their discretion to award credits, keeping people on supervision due to their
inability to pay, and jeopardizing participants’ ability to maintain employment.

During 2021, fewer than 4,200 people earned credits each month which is a decline of more
than 80% from the first year after it went into effect, and a fraction of the total supervision
population of around 35,000. This sharp change in MDOC policy meant that thousands of
fewer people were able to be discharged from supervision early, leading to an increase in

22
Miss. Code Ann. § 47-7-40.
23
Data provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections in response to a public records request.
24
Mississippi Department of Corrections, Monthly Fact Sheets.
Pew Charitable Trusts, The Crime and Justice Institute, “Protecting Public Safety and Reducing Incarceration:
25

Successes and Challenges,” 2018, https://www.mdoc.ms.gov/Documents/Pew%20Report.pdf.

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the supervision population without any public safety benefit.26 The failure to reliably
implement Earned Discharge Credits, combined with the failure to reliably utilize a system
of graduated sanctions to address non-criminal violations, contributes to the state’s high
number of technical revocations that are driving up Mississippi’s prison population despite
having no correlated positive public safety effect.

Reversing this internal MDOC policy would safely lower the size of the supervision and
prison populations, restore an effective and evidence-based program to reduce
recidivism, and free up supervision resources to better support people returning home
on parole or other forms of supervision.

Conclusion
Although Mississippi currently has the highest imprisonment rate in the nation,
Mississippi has common-sense laws on the books that have been proven in other states
to cut incarceration while reducing crime and recidivism. It is critically important that
Mississippi leaders act to fully utilize the authority of the parole board, properly implement
presumptive parole, expand Earned Time programs to all eligible offenses, and end the
practice of revoking parole for non-criminal technical violations of supervision.

If fully implemented, the administrative strategies outlined above would safely reduce
the prison population, support rehabilitation and reentry, and continue to advance
public safety in Mississippi.

26
Data provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections in response to a public records request.

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