JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Senate passed its version of a controversial bill Tuesday, allowing for an expanded role of appointed judges and state police in the county court system where the capital city of Jackson is majority-Black.
The revised Senate version of House Bill 1020 would allow the Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice to appoint one judge to work within the existing Hinds County Court system through December 2026. The bill would also authorize the state-run Capitol Police to patrol the entire city of Jackson instead of its current patrol in only parts of the city.
“It is vastly improved from where it started, but it is still a snake,” Democratic Sen. John Horhn of Jackson said of the bill during Tuesday’s debate.
The Senate voted 34-15 to pass the revised bill Tuesday, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.
Supporters of the bill in the majority-white and Republican-led Mississippi Senate and House have said they are trying to improve public safety in Jackson, which has had more than 100 homicides during each of the past three years.
But the bill has been intensely denounced by Black lawmakers for its drastic intrusion on local decision-making and voting rights in the capital, which is Democratic-led and has the highest percentage of Black residents of any major U.S. city.
The version that passed the House about a month ago would create a permanent unelected court system within the Capitol Complex Improvement District, an area the bill would also expand to include majority-white areas of the largely Black city. That is a move that some, like Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, have compared to Jim Crow and apartheid.
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State Senate vote follows testimonies against both versions of the bill
On Monday, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said his office opposes both versions of the bill, even though the Senate version might appear to provide some help.
Owens said they oppose both versions because the Senate version does not address many of the root causes of delays in the local legal system, like funding of the public defender’s office, the state crime lab, and Jackson Police Department.
“I met with my team last night and we discussed the bills, all of the bills, and I’ve got to tell you representative, we’re not interested in a bill that advances our interests as an office but limits other systems that we depend on,” Owens said.
Hinds County Public Defender Gail Lowery testified that her office currently has 4,373 cases it is processing, but its lawyers are paid far less than those at the district attorney’s office, who themselves are often paid less than those in private practice.
The origin of this discrepancy, Lowery said, is that Owens’ office is funded by the state while Lowery’s is funded by the county. Lowery said she too has not been consulted on what her office needs.
“Nobody at this point has asked me or my staff any questions about what our real needs are or to paint a picture about what we’re struggling with to provide constitutional protections to the accused,” Lowery said.
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Expanded role of Capitol Police raises concerns
Joseph Wade, a veteran officer and now assistant chief at the Jackson Police Department, said his department has never been consulted either.
“This is the first time that we’ve been invited to the table to discuss this bill,” Wade said.
That lack of a conversation concerns Wade, particularly as the Senate version would expand the jurisdiction of Capitol Police to include the entire city of Jackson, making it concurrent with the jurisdiction of Jackson police. Wade said there must be some agreement on how the departments will work together.
While that version of the bill includes language about a memorandum of understanding between the departments, it brings its own concerns, Wade said. For one, if a memorandum cannot be agreed to, the state will decide any disputes between the departments. Another concern has to do with a lack of history of the departments working closely together.
Another concern with the expansion of Capitol Police comes with a string of at least five people shot by their officers in the span of three months. One of those shootings proved fatal, resulting in the death of 25-year-old Jaylen Lewis. Lewis’ mother, Arkela Lewis, testified in the hearing as well. She said she has not heard anything from Capitol Police regarding her son’s death, not even a notification that it had happened.
“Any details that I have gotten have been because of my own investigation and talking to people who were there when it happened,” Lewis said. “If these bills pass it would make me afraid for the safety of the rest of my family in Jackson.”
Contributing: The Associated Press