Mississippi Today
Does a backlog in Hinds County courts justify appointing five judges? Other counties could be far worse
Does a backlog in Hinds County courts justify appointing five judges? Other counties could be far worse
Lawmakers backing House Bill 1020 say Hinds County's backlog of cases is an emergency that justifies having five non-elected judges to pick up the slack.
Cliff Johnson, attorney and director of the MacArthur Justice Center, wants to know whether Hinds County really has the worst case backlog in the state. Bill author Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, has said the bill is a way to address crime in Jackson and the backlog in the Hinds court system.
“Our conclusion at this point is that the Legislature could not have made the decision to appoint five temporary judges to the Hinds County Circuit Court based on any meaningful analysis of that court's dockets as compared to the dockets in any other circuit,” Johnson told Mississippi Today.
The center began calculating the number of open criminal cases in each circuit court district between Jan. 1, 2013 and Feb. 26 before realizing Mississippi Electronic Courts — the only public-facing access to case information — doesn't keep accurate information on pending cases.
Only about half of all counties in the state use MEC. Without data on pending criminal cases, it is difficult to tell if there are case backlogs anywhere and be able to make comparisons, Johnson said.
Hinds County could benefit from additional elected judges, Johnson said, but he couldn't find the basis to determine the need to appoint five temporary judges — a number that is greater than the number of elected judges.
Legislation passed in 2018 gives the Supreme Court chief justice the ability to appoint temporary judges “in the event of an emergency or overcrowded docket.”
Johnson said it is unclear whether the Senate version of HB 1020 references this law to make temporary appointments or if the bill is a “novel attempt” to appoint judges without determining the existence of an emergency or an overcrowded docket.
The Senate's Judiciary A Committee passed HB 1020 with multiple changes: the elimination of a proposed separate, unelected judicial district within Jackson and the expansion of the Capitol Complex Improvement District where the Capitol Police operates.
Hinds County, the Seventh Circuit Court District, had 2,508 pending cases, according to MEC data. That is a load of 627 cases each for four judges, according to the data. Over 230,000 people live in the county.
The First Circuit Court District in the northeast part of the state has 8,522 pending cases. That district also has four judges, and its caseload calculated from MEC data is about 2,130 cases per judge.
That district is made up of seven counties and most of the cases came from the largest, Lee County, which had 2,627 pending cases, according to MEC data.
“As we began running reports on criminal dockets, it appeared to us that the backlog in Hinds County was not significantly worse than many other places in Mississippi,” Johnson said. “In fact, our research showed that according to MEC, even a small county like Lee County had more pending criminal cases than Hinds County.”
Staff from the Lee County Circuit Clerk's Office and circuit court said Wednesday there is no way to know how many open criminal cases there are. Circuit Clerk Camille Roberts Dulaney did not respond to a request for comment.
The state's Administrative Office of Courts tracks information about disposed cases across the state, but not current criminal cases, Johnson said. The office's annual report shows disposition numbers for criminal cases and counts during a 10-year period.
Spokesperson Beverly Kraft referred comment about case backlogs to Greg Snowden, director of the Administrative Office of Courts. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Accurate caseload counts are among issues raised about HB 1020, which is seen by many Jacksonians as a takeover of local control.
“This bill would make Mississippi a model for red states with blue capital cities. At its core, this bill is about lawmakers giving themselves the ability to outmaneuver the federal government,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a statement. “So, by policy or through actually preventing people to vote, it still reflects the poorest version of Mississippi.”
The latest version of HB 1020 also gives the Capitol Police concurrent jurisdiction throughout Jackson and beyond the Capitol Complex Improvement District. It would require the city and the Department of Public Safety to sign a memorandum of understanding.
Lumumba said the memorandum isn't really an agreement between the two parties, and a spokesperson confirmed he would not sign one.
The bill says failure to execute a memorandum of understanding will not affect Capitol Police's jurisdiction within Jackson, and any disputes about law enforcement function of Capitol Police in the city would be resolved in favor of the DPS commissioner, who oversees the force.
JXN Undivided, a coalition of community groups such as the People's Advocacy Institute, One Voice and the Mississippi Center for Justice, is speaking out against HB 1020 and circulating a petition titled “Jackson is NOT for the Taking!”
“What is happening in Jackson, Mississippi, is ruthless,” the petition reads. “It is racist. It is dangerously anti-democratic. And it must stop!”
As of Monday, the petition has received over 1,800 signatures and will be sent to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, the body that is set to vote on HB 1020.
JXN Undivided also has an open survey for people to share information about their encounters with the Capitol Police, including how officers treated them and how many encounters they have had.
To test how accurate MEC's case information is, Mississippi Today reached out to the seven circuit court clerks in the First District.
Tishomingo County, the smallest in the circuit court district, has 467 open criminal cases, according to MEC data. It's a number that Circuit Clerk Josh McNatt said is fairly accurate, but may be “a little over exaggerated” but no more than 5 to 10%.
He has been having conversations with the district attorney, judges and public defenders in the county about how to track case information better.
“I've been keeping up with this myself because I've been concerned about caseloads,” McNatt said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=223444
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1964
May 2, 1964
Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, two 19-year-old Black Americans, were simply trying to get a ride back home. Instead, Klansmen abducted them, took them to the Homochitto National Forest, where they beat the pair and then drowned them in the Mississippi River.
When their bodies were found in an old part of the river, FBI agents initially thought they had found the bodies of three missing civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
Thanks to the work of Moore's brother, Thomas, and Canadian filmmaker David Ridgen, federal authorities reopened the case in 2005. Two years later, a federal jury convicted James Ford Seale. He received three life sentences and died in prison.
Ridgen did a podcast on the case for the CBC series, “Somebody Knows Something.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann shuts down House Republican idea to let voters decide Medicaid expansion
After House Republicans asked Senate leaders to agree to a proposal that would place Medicaid expansion on November's statewide ballot, Senate leader Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the idea had no legs in his chamber and added that expansion talks were likely done for the year.
House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, announced the idea in a statement Wednesday night and pointed out it had become clear over the last few days that House and Senate Republicans were still far from agreement over the best way to expand Medicaid coverage.
The bill narrowly escaped death on Wednesday afternoon until House Democrats forced a procedural vote that granted everyone more time to find compromise.
“This session proved that a consensus has formed and we all share the same goal: to provide healthcare access to low-income Mississippians,” White said. “Creating a referendum process for this issue is a clear direction forward. We hope that our colleagues in the Senate will take this opportunity to finally hear from the electorate once and for all.”
About an hour after White announced the referendum idea, Hosemann poured cold water on the idea with a statement of his own.
“We had some discussions with senators today about the possibility of a non-binding referendum on the ballot and the idea was not well received,” Hosemann said. “We are disappointed in the outcome this year, but value the discussions which occurred this session — the first time this Legislature has seriously considered healthcare reform in our state.
“I remain committed to finding ways to increase access for working Mississippians who otherwise do not have the resources for a simple check-up or an extended hospital stay,” Hosemann continued. “A strong work requirement, with necessary exceptions, is a bottom line for many Senators. We look forward to continuing the conversation on access to healthcare in the future.”
READ MORE: Lawmakers buy one more day to reach Medicaid expansion compromise
The House's full proposal was not made available on Wednesday night, but White's statement said the proposed referendum would be two-fold: Voters would decide if they think Medicaid should be expanded to the working poor and if the program should include work requirements for recipients.
House Democratic caucus leadership supported the House Republican effort, saying in a statement Wednesday night that if the language in the House's referendum is “very clear” and allows working Mississippians to get the “health care we know that they need,” then they would likely support the new proposal.
“We are excited about the opportunity to finally give the people of this state a chance to voice what we know to be — that they want this, and they want it as quickly as possible,” read a statement from Reps. Robert Johnson and Daryl Porter, the House Democratic leaders.
The statewide ballot referendum idea was seen late Wednesday as a renewed chance for Republicans to find an expansion agreement — something that had become elusive during the first legislative session that expansion was earnestly considered.
At the heart of the Senate and House disagreement was a requirement that mandated Medicaid recipients work — a provision that the federal government had blocked in 13 other states.
House and Senate Republican negotiators earlier in the week agreed to a deal that would expand Medicaid only if a strict work requirement was approved by the federal government. House Republicans, who had previously proposed an expansion program that would go into effect even without federal approval of a work requirement, caved late Monday and agreed to the Senate Republicans' demand to include the make-or-break work requirement provision.
But House Democrats, who had for weeks vowed to not support any expansion plan that included a work requirement, fulfilled that promise on Wednesday and threatened to vote against the Republican bill on the House floor. The Democrats' dug-in position against the bill would likely have killed the proposal, which needed a three-fifths majority vote to pass.
Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Ebenezer, said he was one of 29 Democrats who would not vote for the agreement as it stood on Wednesday. He said he was unsure whether he would support the issue going to a statewide referendum.
“I think we as a Legislature should do it — that's what people hired us to do,” Clark said. “I wouldn't be just totally opposed to that idea, but sometimes the devil is in the details. What would be put before the people? Would it be a clean expansion proposal, or something else? I am 85% sure the citizens of Mississippi would pass something that is a clean Medicaid expansion proposal.”
Note: This article will be updated.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Lawmakers buy one more day to reach Medicaid expansion compromise
Facing a late Wednesday deadline, the House and Senate procedurally voted to give themselves at least one more day to deliberate a proposal that could make Mississippi the 41st state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
House and Senate Republican negotiators earlier in the week agreed to a deal that would expand Medicaid only if a strict work requirement for recipients was approved by the federal government. House Republicans, who had previously proposed an expansion program that would go into effect even without federal approval of a work requirement, caved late Monday and agreed to the Senate Republicans' demand to include the make-or-break work requirement provision.
But House Democrats, who had for weeks vowed to not support any expansion plan that included a work requirement, fulfilled that promise on Wednesday and threatened to vote against the Republican bill on the House floor. The Democrats' dug-in position against the bill would likely have killed the proposal, which needed a three-fifths majority vote to pass.
With the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Biden administration unlikely to approve Mississippi's Medicaid expansion plan with a work requirement, Senate Republican leaders have expressed optimism that Donald Trump would be reelected and that he would approve Mississippi's plan.
However, the realpolitik is that Trump has loudly voiced his opposition to Medicaid expansion, and his approval of Mississippi's work requirement would usher expansion in for the Magnolia state over the wishes of a Republican governor (Tate Reeves) whom he supports. When he was president, the Trump administration approved Medicaid work requirements for some states, but only as a means of limiting participation where it had already been expanded, not to help a state implement expansion.
Waiting on approval from CMS under either Biden or Trump could keep Mississippi's expansion of coverage as it now stands in limbo indefinitely.
“We will vote for Medicaid expansion,” Rep. Robert Johnson III, the House minority leader, said after the recommittal on Wednesday. “This is not Medicaid expansion. At least we got a do-over.”
Johnson said that shy of going back to the original House position — or removing the work requirement the Senate demanded — House Democrats want to remove language that says the state would reapply for work requirements each year while expansion remains in limbo until such time as a work requirement is approved. He said the Democrats told the Republican leadership that they would agree to the work requirement, but not reapplying on an annual basis for the work requirement wavier. Instead, he said the state should apply once for the work requirement and if it is rejected by federal officials the Legislature should act to remove the requirement.
“We're not saying we are against the work requirement,” he said, adding House Democrats oppose it because it would keep Medicaid from being expanded,
Johnson added, “We're saying fine, we will try that once and show you it will not work, then we move on (removing the work requirement and expanding the program).”
When it was clear the House Democrats' dissension might kill the expansion program, House Republicans moved to recommit the bill to conference committee. The Senate Republicans followed suit a few minutes later, effectively extending the deadline for a final plan to be hammered out between House and Senate negotiators until 8 p.m. Thursday.
House and Senate Republican leaders declined to comment about what they may bring to the negotiations or what the next few hours may look like. House Democrats claimed a small victory and reiterated their desire to pass an expansion plan that would actually go into effect and provide health coverage to an estimated 200,000 Mississippians.
As news of the recommittal spread quickly through the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, many people floated the notion of placing a Medicaid expansion issue on a statewide ballot, where voters could mandate what they wanted lawmakers to do.
“I have heard talk about that, but it would confuse voters with a work requirement,” Johnson said, adding he would support placing Medicaid expansion without a work requirement on the ballot.
Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Ebenezer, said he was one of 29 Democrats who would not vote for the agreement as it stood on Wednesday. He said he is unsure whether he would support the issue going to a statewide referendum.
“I think we as a Legislature should do it — that's what people hired us to do,” Clark said. “I wouldn't be just totally opposed to that idea, but sometimes the devil is in the details. What would be put before the people? Would it be a clean expansion proposal, or something else? I am 85% sure the citizens of Mississippi would pass something that is a clean Medicaid expansion proposal.”
As the extraordinary politics played out on Wednesday, dozens of clergy and other citizens came to the Capitol to express their support of expansion. Many Capitol attendees specifically said they did not support the compromise plan that included the work requirement.
“There are people in Mississippi who are sick, hurting, in pain and broken,” said the Rev. Dawn Douglas Flowers, a minister at Parkway Hills United Methodist Church. “We have a way to enter into that brokenness and offer healing right away. I hope lawmakers can find a way to compromise and allow Medicaid expansion to happen now because what they've come up with is just a delay. The work requirement will not allow us to get help to people who need help today. We can't just kick the can down the road any longer.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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