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As of Thursday, votes were still being counted in the Mississippi judicial elections. However, some races are already returning surprising results.
One upset, two runoffs in judicial elections
David Sullivan, a Gulf Coast attorney and son of the late state Supreme Court Justice Michael D. Sullivan, led the incumbent, Justice Dawn Beam, in the southern Supreme Court District 2, Place 2, with about 55% of the vote. Beam seemingly conceded in a Facebook post. Beam, the only woman on the court, took the bench in 2016 after being appointed to fill an unexpired term and was elected to a full eight-year term later that year. She had the endorsement of the state’s Republican Party. Even though her campaign raised more money than Sullivan’s campaign committee as of Oct. 10, Sullivan won more votes.
In the state Supreme Court district that includes Jackson, Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning led the five-way race for District 1, Place 3, seeking to unseat incumbent Jim Kitchens. However, no candidate appears to have won more than 50% of the vote, likely pushing the election to a runoff between the top two candidates on Nov. 26. Branning, who has the support of the state Republican Party, will face Kitchens, a two-term incumbent backed by trial lawyers, according to campaign reports.
The three-way race for Court of Appeals, District 5, Place 2, located mostly in the Gulf Coast, was deadlocked. Amy Lassiter St. Pé narrowly led with 76,762 votes, followed by Ian Baker at 70,457 and Jennifer Schloegel with 70,103. The race will likely head to a Nov. 26 runoff, though it is still too early to determine which two candidates will face each other.
In the Hinds County Court race, Bridgette Morgan, the Jackson Police Department attorney, led Wednesday with 50.2% of the vote, topping incumbent Pieter Teeuwissen and attorney Yemi Kings. However, absentee ballots were still being counted Thursday and could force a runoff. Kings trailed Morgan with 32% of the vote, followed by Teeuwissen, the incumbent, with 18%. Morgan ran as a political outsider with less than $2,000 in campaign funding as of her July 10 report. All results are unofficial until certified by election officials.
Jackson city budget passes with $200,000 for youth center
Earlier this year, The Marshall Project - Jackson reported on Jackson’s delayed effort to establish youth curfew centers. Last month, the city’s fiscal year 2024-2025 budget went into effect, with $201,172 devoted to the mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery for its youth engagement program, called the Reviving the Village Initiative.
In an August budget hearing, Safiya Omari, the mayor’s chief of staff, asked for funding to cover salaries, programming and a curfew public service announcement campaign.
With the budget passed, the city’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery is working to identify a site for its center, Executive Director Keisha Coleman told The Marshall Project - Jackson. The center is slated to have two employees: an outreach specialist and a program manager. In the meantime, Coleman said she is working with community-based organizations, including Operation Good, to build a community outreach program.
The initiative stemmed from discussions around youth violence and the City Council's passage of a curfew ordinance. Initially, the pilot for Reviving the Village was to run between Memorial Day and Labor Day in 2024, and include multiple centers. With the roughly $200,000 budget, Coleman said the plan will be scaled down significantly. She termed the funding a drop in the bucket but remains hopeful that it will be used as seed money to prove the program’s potential.
Hinds County set to lose control of troubled jail
A panel of judges from the U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals has approved the federal takeover of the troubled Hinds County jail.
The ruling came Oct. 31.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in 2022 appointed a receiver — who would answer to the court, not local officials — to take over management at the Raymond Detention Center in Hinds County after finding that constitutional violations remained ongoing at the jail despite agreements following a 2016 lawsuit by the Department of Justice over Hinds County jail conditions.
Hinds County appealed the takeover order, which has remained on pause throughout the appeals process. The order by Reeves in 2022 came after a string of jail deaths as well as riots and escapes.
Last week, the three-judge Fifth Circuit panel approved the start of the takeover, though the panel did tell Reeves to revise his order to limit the receiver’s authority over the county’s jail budget. The receiver will not be able to order salary increases for jail employees on his own authority or spend more money on medical care.
Hinds County is planning a new jail in Jackson. It closed part of the troubled Raymond facility last year and relocated about 200 prisoners to a privately run facility in Tallahatchie County, about 150 miles north.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the county would appeal to the full Fifth Circuit or when the court-appointed receiver might begin management of the facility.
Auditor report urges more reentry resources
Mississippi could save taxpayer dollars and reduce its prison population if the state spent more money on programs that help keep recently released incarcerated people from violating the law again, according to a recent report released by State Auditor Shad White.
The report found that the state’s recidivism rate of 35% is about average for the nation, but lags behind some other southern states such as North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The report recommended that Mississippi look to those states and implement individualized case management and mental health interventions for people released from state prison to help them rejoin their local communities.
The report cited state data showing that of the people who are released on parole but then sent back to prison, 90% were returned for “technical violations” rather than committing a new crime. Technical violations include failing to meet with a parole officer as required. Current procedures call for people who are ordered to serve more time for technical violations to be held in technical violation centers rather than be sent to a state prison.
The report suggests that more resources could help people on parole avoid technical violations, saving the state money.
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