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Reddit AMA recap: Rankin County Sheriff’s Department’s ‘Goon Squad’ with Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield

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Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield, Mississippi Center of Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today fellows, answered your questions on Reddit about the Rankin County Sheriff's Department's “Goon Squad,” a loose band of deputies who allegedly tortured residents for years.

Read their answers below and visit this page for more investigations on Mississippi sheriffs.

Some questions have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Do you think that there are likely other Goon Squads across the state? And if so, how can we uncover them?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Great question! That's definitely been on our minds as well. It's hard for us to say at this point whether there are other ‘Goon Squads' across the state. We've heard about similar allegations of abuse in other departments. We haven't looked into whether any of these are related yet.

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It was clear from the start with the Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker case that the “Goon Squad” wasn't limited to the Rankin County Sheriff's Department. One of the men was a Richland PD officer. But we don't know the full extent of this overlap between departments or even how involved this one officer was in other incidents.

To find out more we're going to use the same old shoe leather reporting methods. to people who say they've experienced this type of conduct, file records requests with the departments and pursue these questions doggedly until we find answers.

Q: How could someone without a journalism degree (but a degree nonetheless) get involved with work like this?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Do you mean doing investigative work? I would throw out a little bit of caution there. One thing to consider is the sensitivity and danger of this case for so many of the people involved. Our investigation was backed by a whole team of editors, lawyers and investigative reporters and the New York Times and Mississippi Today with decades of experience in pursing investigations ethical and legal guidelines.

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But there are aspects of this that anyone can pursue. Any citizen can file public records requests with these departments that abide by Mississippi's public records laws. You can attend county board of supervisor meetings and local protests and press conferences where leaders and activists are discussing this issue to learn more. And you can try to talk with public officials about their conduct and what they're doing to prevent these kinds of abuses.

It's so important for everyone to be engaged, informed, curious and invested in these issues.

Q: What is the state of FOIA law(s) in Mississippi, as to other states, and are head sheriffs in Mississippi an elected or appointed position? If elected, did that in any way play a role in the, for lack of a better phrase, culture of lawlessness that developed in that office?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

The FOIA laws here are similar to other states. Actually the time span in which agencies have to respond is pretty quick here—only seven days. But like with all states, the reality is that responsiveness is going to vary by agency. Each agency has their own resources and cultures around facilitating public access to records. And there are specific provisions of the law that apply to different agencies and circumstances. I'm going to shout out Robert Wentworth at the MS Department of Public Safety as one of the most considerate, professional and swift public records administrators I've ever worked with. If you have specific questions about the laws, I'm happy to try to dig around and learn more for you.

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Sheriffs are elected positions. One important aspect of how the role operates is that Sheriff's don't have other offices that they are beholden too. For instance, local departments are usually overseen by municipal governments, which typically have the ability to fire department leaders. But that's not true for Sheriff's. Their departments can be investigated by other law enforcement agencies like MBI and the FBI for criminal conduct. And their budgetary decisions have to be approved by the county board of supervisors. But it's really hard to fire a sheriff for doing a bad job. They really have to be deposed through elections for the most part.

Whether that accounts for the lawlessness in the department, I can't say. But I would point out that Sheriff's typically have a lot power politically and legally within the counties they oversee. Our investigative is trying to explore what kinds of abuses can occur in these departments with the current state of oversight.

Q: What consequences do you reasonably expect them to face for their actions? What consequences are you hoping for?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Our job as reporters is to try to get the truth out there. What happens after that is best left up to the public.

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I can say that the sentencing guidelines for the crimes the six officers indicted this summer are currently facing are steep. They could be serving decades in prison. And that's just for those two incidents.

Q: How do we stop this happening again? Can the law be changed to prevent it being set up by other people? If so, who is stopping that from happening?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

As a reporter I might not have the best answer for this question.

I think it's important to consider all the things that went right in this situation and helped bring the truth forward as a model for how to prevent similar abuse in the future.

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A few years ago, a state law was introduced that mandated that MBI look into any officer involved shootings in Mississippi. That's what got them on the scene right away when Michael Jenkins was shot. And it's our understanding that MBI began to see signs of wrongdoing and that's when the Feds were brought in.

In all of the cases we looked into, no one was shot.

Also, the justice department conducted an incredibly swift and thorough investigation and provided a lot of detail to the public about what they found. The criminal information that was produced during the officers' indictment gave a detailed walk through of everything they did that night. This helped bring clarity and attention to the issue.

What we see in both cases is outside agencies with mandates to investigate wrongdoing by law enforcement agencies acting swiftly and informing the public.

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Whether this should have happened sooner and what checks and balances to put in place to ensure that it will in the future is a bigger question it might be best to ask your local congressional leaders.

I'll add that accountability in policing is a massive issue nationally with a long history. If you're looking for an introduction into the legal frameworks for holding police accountable I'd personally recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Shielded-How-Police-Became-Untouchable/dp/0593299361 It's definitely got an argument it's putting forward, but it's also a really comprehensive look at the legal frameworks currently in place and how they came to be.

Q: Is the justice department still investigating the department or other officers?

Click for Brian Howey's answer.

Yes, the Justice Department is still investigating the Rankin County Sheriff's Department. A days after our story published, the DoJ published this press release, asking for anyone who'd experienced abuse at the hands of Rankin deputies to contact them as soon as possible.

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Q: A couple of months ago, an attorney with the Rankin SO resigned (I think his last name was Holly), what can you tell us about his resignation? Also, I read where there were 6,000 write in votes opposing Sheriff Bailey, which lead me to wonder, what are the legal/political mechanisms available to Rankin county voters to remove Sheriff Bailey?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Paul Holley was the department's lawyer. He then briefly became undersheriff before resigning in Oct. We're not sure exactly why he resigned. He made a public statement that didn't explain exactly why he left. We found department records that showed Holley was present at one on of the incidents we reported on. We don't know what if any involvement he had though. He's working for the Attorney General's office now I believe.

The most direct and powerful legal mechanism voters have to remove Bailey is to vote during the next election. Also there needs to be organizing to rally a contender. He ran unopposed this year.

Q: Have you taken a look at how many people Christian Dedmon has shot (or how many officer involved shootings he has been present for) vs any other officer at a different agency? because i think that could be interesting.

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Click for Brian Howey's answer.

Thanks for this question! In addition to the shooting of Michael Jenkins, we know that Christian Dedmon was present during the fatal shootings of Pierre Woods and Shawn Fondren, and that he fired his weapon during the incident involving Shawn Fondren. How that compares to officers at other agencies depends on which agency and which officer you're looking at. Many police officers go their entire careers without firing their weapons in the line of duty. A few have been involved in several shootings. As a deputy who was present for at least three shootings, Mr. Dedmon appears to fit somewhere in the middle of those two poles.

Q: Could y'all speak a little about the of Rankin that a lot of these incidents took place and did anything about the locations in particular facilitate officers ability to get away with unethical behavior?

Click for Brian Howey's answer.

This is a great question. Based on the incidents we reviewed, the majority of these alleged torture cases occurred in low-income neighborhoods in Rankin County. Many of these local residents described near-nightly raids in their communities. Certain neighborhoods, such as the Robinhood community in Brandon, Miss., were especially popular areas for the deputies. So yes, location was a factor, but it's more complicated than that…

Nearly all of the people targeted by the deputies were suspected drug users or small-time dealers. Combine their income with their drug use, and you have a group of people who are unlikely to be believed by authority figures. And that's exactly what we saw: even in cases where people lodged complaints, filed lawsuits, and fought their criminal charges, even when they showed up to court visibly injured, there doesn't appear to have been any serious investigation conducted by anyone with the authority to do so. I hope that answers your question!

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Q: Is there a federal investigation into RCSO?

Click for Brian Howey's answer.

Yes, the Justice Department has investigated the incident involving Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker and filed charged against 5 deputies and a local police officer for their roles in that incident. Those six officers also face state charges for the same incident. The DoJ's investigation is ongoing, and shortly after we published our investigation, the department requested more information from anyone who'd experienced abuse at the hands of Rankin deputies.

Q: Are there any additional members to the goon squad that were not present for this incident? Or is good squad use to describe the entire RCSO?

Click for Brian Howey's answer.

It's difficult to say who was officially a “member” of the Goon Squad, which was a night shift of patrol deputies at the Rankin County Sheriff's Department. What we can say is that we used department incident reports, dispatch records and Taser logs to identify 20 deputies who were listed as present during the additional alleged torture incidents we uncovered. Five of those deputies are currently facing criminal charges. What role those additional 15 deputies played in these incidents is hard to determine, but we were able to identify several deputies who have so far eluded criminal charges and who appear to have triggered their Tasers during several of these alleged torture incidents.

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Q: Has the county leader commented on any of this? Gains, Cross? Have you attempted to talk with them?

Click for Brian Howey's answer.

We asked for comments from several local leaders before we published our story, they either declined to comment or did not respond. We will continue to ask!

Q: Do you know of any recall efforts or protest?

Click for Brian Howey's answer.

There have been several protests at the Rankin County Sheriff's Office and other locations around county, as well as numerous calls for Sheriff Bryan Bailey to resign. We've been told there are additional protests in the works as well.

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Q: We're being told time and again about this kind of behavior from law enforcement. What realistically can change, even with more and more reports from media outlets like yourselves, and what defense do you have against cops with a vendetta against your media, a la Kansas's Marion County Record raid?

Click for Brian Howey's answer.

I think these would make for great questions for your local, state and national lawmakers, who have the power to implement stronger accountability mechanisms for law enforcement agencies, something we've seen happen across the country in the wake of George Floyd's murder. One thing our and our colleagues' reporting has exposed is the general lack of effective accountability mechanisms for sheriff's departments, especially in Mississippi. That this extreme level of alleged misconduct could continue for nearly 20 years before triggering a serious investigation by a higher authority is astounding. This can change, but that change requires action by local, state and national representatives. As journalists, all we can do is deliver the truth and hope that voters and lawmakers put that information to good use.

As reporters, our best defenses against anyone that seeks to quash the of the press are the First Amendment and voters. We're extremely lucky to enjoy constitutional protections that enshrine our ability to do our work with little fear of reprisals. But we've never seen a greater threat to press freedoms than we are seeing today. We rely on the public and elected officials to hold accountable anyone who seeks to infringe on those rights and protect our ability to do hard-nosed reporting. We also rely on readers who support good journalism, especially local journalism! So if you want to keep reading investigative reporting like Nate's and my deep-dive into the Goon Squad, make sure to support your local outlet!

Q: Have you had to make changes to your own lifestyle out of safety / have you ever feared for your own safety after all of this? With how insane these accounts are, I'm concerned for you all.

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Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

I really appreciate this question and your concern for us. We definitely had to manage safety issues throughout the reporting process. We have a whole team at the Times devoted to this that we consulted with. We had to think a lot about how to protect ourselves and our sources. Fortunately, everything's worked out fine so far. But it's definitely been a stressful part of this process.

Q: Have you looked into other areas of Mississippi for similar corruption and/or scandals?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Jerry Mitchell and Ilyssa Daly, two amazing reporters on our team, did incredible investigations into the Clay County Sheriff's Department and the Noxubee County Sheriff's Department. You should definitely check them out!

Q: Do you truly believe the Sheriff wasn't aware like he is saying?

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Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

I think we found some compelling evidence that the Sheriff had been alerted that there was a problem. Multiple sources told us they filed complaints, wrote letters, sent facebook messages to the sheriff directly or called him on the phone to talk about the abuse of these same deputies.

Q: Have you guys heard of the Pasco Sheriff FL squad of deputies that would target and harass citizens? You guys should look into it. They are being sued but rumor is it is still ongoing. No physical torture but definitely psychological. I wonder how similar these groups operated.

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Yeah! There was a great investigation on this by the Tampa Bay Times. Truly insane. It seems like that was a case where official department policy went haywire, leading to potentially unconstitutional conduct rather than a group of officers engaging in explicitly criminal conduct and covering up their actions, like what's been alleged here. But there are definitely some important overlaps, good point!

Q: Are you guys going to do an investigation into the city police departments within Rankin County? like Pearl Brandon or Richland? I read where the Pearl Police Chief was involved in at least one of the incidents. Will he be investigated? Do you think that he should be allowed to lead a force if he was apart of the Goon Squad?

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Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Great question! We're still looking into the level of involvement of officers at other departments. One Richland PD officer was involved in the Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker case. And we reported that the current Pearl Police Chief, Dean Scott was present at least one of the incidents in our story when he was a Rankin Sheriff's Deputy. Whether that raises questions about his fitness for office is for the community and their representatives to decide. But it's an important question!

Q: It amazes me that these people, Baltimore's infamous gun trace task force, LAs ‘gang', all operate for years before doing something stupid and getting caught. You'd think with social media, these folks would tend to gravitate together. Were you able to find any social media ties between this bunch and officers at other departments that would be outside their locale?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Great question! We found that some of the these deputies had social media contacts with officers at other departments. That alone doesn't say much, but it's definitely a lead. We haven't spotted anything overt about collaboration in misconduct on social media though.

Q: Were they gooning for someone bigger than the sheriff?

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Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

That's a big question. We're hoping to find the answer. Still very unclear at this point but if we find anything you'll know about it. Stay posted.

Q: What is the likelihood other such “gangs” are operating across Mississippi LEOs? I believe this kind of thing is an off-shoot of the militarization of local police — in the metro area, how many SWAT teams, response teams, drug task forces, etc., are there? Probably a mind-blowing number of teams, and they probably all share the same 25-50 personnel.

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

We're definitely looking into similar conduct across different departments. We didn't find that the events we reported on in Rankin had to do with any militarization of the department. But we haven't looked into that issue in the area. Definitely worth further exploration. Great questions!

Q: Have any of the accused made a statement about their alleged actions?

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Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

Not yet. We expect that the officers who've been indicted will speak at their sentencing in January. And others may come forward with time. But so far we've been met with silence.

Q: How much support does the goon squad have from locals and other citizens of Mississippi? How many, cops or otherwise, wish they could get away what those guys did? Do you believe a majority of Mississippi citizens agree that a person's civil rights are forfeit as soon as they're accused of a crime?

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

I know that the mood in Rankin County shifted a lot after the federal indictment came down this summer and after our story dropped last month. A few months ago we heard a fair amount of skepticism about what was going on in the department. Now we're hearing pretty unanimous outrage.

I can't speak for cops or the majority of Mississippians. But I can say that most of what we've heard from community members in the area in the past few weeks—including people involved in law enforcement—has been condemnation of these deputies's actions.

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Q: Do you know if they could possibly be charged for sexual assault since they apparently used a sex toy during the torture.

Click for Nate Rosenfield's answer.

The Federal case against the officers were related to constitutional violations, not criminal charges. The state cases against the 6 officers in August were criminal. They were mostly related to covering up evidence. Hunter Elward, who fired the gun in Michael Jenkins mouth, was charged with assault. There were no charges related to the sexual violence. That doesn't mean state prosecutors couldn't have pursued those charges or won't in other cases, but so far that hasn't been their strategy.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=313608

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Federal panel prescribes new mental health strategy to curb maternal deaths

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For help, call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262) or contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Spanish-language services are also available.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Milagros Aquino was to find a new place to live and had been struggling to get used to new foods after she moved to Bridgeport from Peru with her husband and young son in 2023.

When Aquino, now 31, got pregnant in May 2023, “instantly everything got so much worse than before,” she said. “I was so sad and lying in bed all day. I was really lost and just surviving.”

Aquino has lots of company.

Perinatal depression affects as many as 20% of women in the United States during pregnancy, the postpartum period, or both, according to studies. In some states, anxiety or depression afflicts nearly a quarter of new mothers or pregnant women.

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Many women in the U.S. go untreated because there is no widely deployed system to screen for mental illness in mothers, despite widespread recommendations to do so. Experts say the lack of screening has driven higher rates of mental illness, suicide, and drug overdoses that are now the leading causes of death in the first year after a woman gives birth.

“This is a systemic issue, a medical issue, and a human rights issue,” said Lindsay R. Standeven, a perinatal psychiatrist and the clinical and education director of the Johns Hopkins Reproductive Mental Health Center.

Standeven said the root causes of the problem include racial and socioeconomic disparities in maternal care and a lack of systems for new mothers. She also pointed a finger at a shortage of mental health professionals, insufficient maternal mental health for providers, and insufficient reimbursement for mental health services. Finally, Standeven said, the problem is exacerbated by the absence of national maternity leave policies, and the access to weapons.

Those factors helped 105% increase in postpartum depression from 2010 to 2021, according to the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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For Aquino, it wasn't until the last weeks of her pregnancy, when she signed up for acupuncture to relieve her stress, that a social worker helped her get care through the Emme Coalition, which connects girls and women with financial help, mental health counseling services, and other resources.

Mothers diagnosed with perinatal depression or anxiety during or after pregnancy are at about three times the risk of suicidal behavior and six times the risk of suicide with mothers without a mood disorder, according to recent U.S. and international studies in JAMA Network Open and The BMJ.

The toll of the maternal mental health crisis is particularly acute in rural communities that have become maternity care deserts, as small hospitals close their labor and delivery units because of plummeting birth rates, or because of financial or staffing issues.

This week, the Maternal Mental Health Task Force — co-led by the Office on Women's Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and formed in September to respond to the problem — recommended creating maternity care centers that could serve as hubs of integrated care and birthing facilities by building upon the services and personnel already in communities.

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The task force will soon determine what portions of the plan will require congressional action and funding to implement and what will be “low-hanging fruit,” said Joy Burkhard, a member of the task force and the executive director of the nonprofit Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health.

Burkhard said equitable access to care is essential. The task force recommended that federal officials identify areas where maternity centers should be placed based on data identifying the underserved. “Rural America,” she said, “is first and foremost.”

There are shortages of care in “unlikely areas,” including Los Angeles County, where some maternity wards have recently closed, said Burkhard. Urban areas that are underserved would also be eligible to get the new centers.

“All that mothers are asking for is maternity care that makes sense. Right now, none of that exists,” she said.

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Several pilot programs are designed to help struggling mothers by training and equipping midwives and doulas, people who provide guidance and support to the mothers of newborns.

In Montana, rates of maternal depression before, during, and after pregnancy are higher than the national average. From 2017 to 2020, approximately 15% of mothers experienced postpartum depression and 27% experienced perinatal depression, according to the Montana Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. The had the sixth-highest maternal mortality rate in the country in 2019, when it received a federal grant to begin training doulas.

To date, the program has trained 108 doulas, many of whom are Native American. Native Americans make up 6.6% of Montana's population. Indigenous people, particularly those in rural areas, have twice the national rate of severe maternal morbidity and mortality compared with white women, according to a study in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Stephanie Fitch, grant at Montana Obstetrics & Maternal Support at Billings Clinic, said training doulas “has the potential to counter systemic barriers that disproportionately impact our tribal communities and improve overall community health.”

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Twelve states and Washington, D.C., have Medicaid coverage for doula care, according to the National Health Law Program. They are California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Medicaid pays for about 41% of births in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jacqueline Carrizo, a doula assigned to Aquino through the Emme Coalition, played an important role in Aquino's recovery. Aquino said she couldn't have imagined going through such a “dark time alone.” With Carrizo's support, “I could make it,” she said.

Genetic and environmental factors, or a past mental health disorder, can increase the risk of depression or anxiety during pregnancy. But mood disorders can happen to anyone.

Teresa Martinez, 30, of Price, Utah, had struggled with anxiety and infertility for years before she conceived her first child. The joy and relief of giving birth to her son in 2012 were short-lived.

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Without warning, “a dark cloud came over me,” she said.

Martinez was afraid to tell her husband. “As a woman, you feel so much pressure and you don't want that stigma of not being a good mom,” she said.

In recent years, programs around the country have started to help doctors recognize mothers' mood disorders and learn how to help them before any harm is done.

One of the most successful is the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms, which began a decade ago and has since spread to 29 states. The program, supported by federal and state funding, provides tools and training for physicians and other providers to screen and identify disorders, triage patients, and offer treatment options.

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But the expansion of maternal mental health programs is taking place amid sparse resources in much of rural America. Many programs across the country have run out of money.

The federal task force proposed that Congress fund and create consultation programs similar to the one in Massachusetts, but not to replace the ones already in place, said Burkhard.

In April, Missouri became the latest state to adopt the Massachusetts model. Women on Medicaid in Missouri are 10 times as likely to die within one year of pregnancy as those with private insurance. From 2018 through 2020, an average of 70 Missouri women died each year while pregnant or within one year of giving birth, according to state government statistics.

Wendy Ell, executive director of the Maternal Health Access in Missouri, called her service a “lifesaving resource” that is free and easy to access for any health care provider in the state who sees patients in the perinatal period.

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About 50 health care providers have signed up for Ell's program since it began. Within 30 minutes of a request, the providers can consult over the phone with one of three perinatal psychiatrists. But while the doctors can get help from the psychiatrists, mental health resources for patients are not as readily available.

The task force called for federal funding to train more mental health providers and place them in high-need areas like Missouri. The task force also recommended training and certifying a more diverse workforce of community mental health workers, patient navigators, doulas, and peer support specialists in areas where they are most needed.

A new voluntary curriculum in reproductive psychiatry is designed to help psychiatry , fellows, and mental health practitioners who may have little or no training or education about the management of psychiatric illness in the perinatal period. A small study found that the curriculum significantly improved psychiatrists' ability to treat perinatal women with mental illness, said Standeven, who contributed to the training program and is one of the study's authors.

Nancy Byatt, a perinatal psychiatrist at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine who led the launch of the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms in 2014, said there is still a lot of work to do.

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“I think that the most important thing is that we have made a lot of progress and, in that sense, I am kind of hopeful,” Byatt said.

Cheryl Platzman Weinstock's is supported by a grant from the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=359245

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New law gives state board power to probe officer misconduct

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-05-16 10:59:23

The state's officer certification and board now has the power to investigate enforcement misconduct.

Gov. Tate Reeves signed the bill making it official.

Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, who pushed for the legislation, said that House Bill 691 authorizes the Board of Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training “to launch its own investigations into officer misconduct. This change, along with the funding to hire two investigators, will improve the board's ability to ensure officer professionalism and standards.”

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The new law in the wake of an investigation by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at and The New York Times into sheriffs and deputies across the state over allegations of sexual abuse, torture and corruption.

Tindell said the new law will “improve law-enforcement training in Mississippi by requiring all law enforcement officers to continuing training throughout an officer's career.”

Under that law, deputies, sheriffs and state law enforcement officers will join police officers in the requirement to have up to 24 hours of continuing education training. Those who fail to train could lose their certifications.

Other changes will take place as well. Each year, the licensing board will have to on its activities to the and the governor. 

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Tindell thanked Reeves “for signing this important piece of legislation and the legislative who supported its passage, including the author of HB 691, Representative Fred Shanks.”

Shanks, R-Brandon, praised the “team effort with some very smart people who want a top-notch law enforcement community.”

The new law creates a 13-member board with the governor six appointments – two police chiefs, two sheriffs, a district attorney and the director of the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers' Training Academy.

Other members would include the attorney general or a designee, the director of the , the public safety commissioner and the presidents of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police, the Mississippi Constable Association, the Mississippi Campus Law Enforcement Association and the Mississippi Sheriffs' Association (or their designees).

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“We obviously need checks and balances on how law enforcement officers conduct themselves,” said state Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson. “This is a good first step.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Lawmakers punt to next year efforts to expand college aid for low-income Mississippians

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mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2024-05-16 09:49:59

A bill to open a college financial aid program for the first time ever to who are adult, part-time and very low-income fell to the wayside in a legislative session dominated by fights over and K-12 .

The effort to expand the Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant, called MTAG, died in conference after it was from House Bill 765, legislation to financial assistance to teachers in critical shortage areas. The Senate had attached MTAG's code sections to that bill in an attempt to keep the expansion alive. 

This takes Jennifer Rogers, the director of the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid, back to the drawing board after years of championing legislation to modernize the way the helps Mississippians pay for college. 

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“At the end of the day, there was no appetite to spend any additional money on student financial aid,” Rogers said. “Obviously, I'm disappointed.” 

All told, the original proposal would have resulted in the state spending upwards of $30 million extra each year, almost doubling OSFA's roughly $50 million budget. 

The increase derived from two aspects of the proposal: An estimated 37,000 Mississippians who have never been eligible for college financial aid would have become eligible to it, and the scholarship amounts would have increased. 

While college students from millionaire families can get MTAG, the state's poorest students are not eligible, Mississippi previously reported. 

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READ MORE: College financial aid program designed to exclude Mississippi's poorest students has helped children of millionaires

Rep. Kent McCarty, R-Hattiesburg, said he supports efforts to help low-income Mississippians afford college, but that HB 765 was not an appropriate vehicle to do so because it was not an appropriations bill. Attempting to expand MTAG through that legislation would have put the original subject of HB 765, the Mississippi Critical Teachers Shortage Act, at risk.

“We didn't feel it was appropriate to include an appropriation in a bill that had not been through the appropriations ,” he said.

McCarty, a member of the House Universities and Colleges Committee, added that he is in favor of changing MTAG and doesn't understand the logic behind excluding from state financial aid Mississippi college students who receive a full federal Pell Grant, meaning they come from the state's poorest families.

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“What is the purpose of financial aid? To aid those who need financial aid,” he said. “Excluding a group of students because they're eligible for other financial aid doesn't make a lot of sense to me.”

Ultimately, the Mississippi House deemed the proposal too expensive. It never passed out of that chamber's Appropriations Committee. 

READ MORE: ‘A thing called money:' Bill to expand financial aid stalled after House lawmakers balk at price tag

Rogers said she plans to work with lawmakers to convince them that it is a good use of state dollars to invest in financial aid. She added that the support of the business community helped keep the bill alive as long as it did this session. The Mississippi Economic Council supported the legislation. 

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“I don't understand why there is such a hesitancy to invest more in the future workforce of the state,” she said. “I don't understand why there isn't a willingness to invest in student financial aid as a way to help more Mississippians complete meaningful certificates or degrees, valuable certificates or degrees and improve the quality of the workforce.” 

Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, told Mississippi Today that he hopes to take a closer look at MTAG this summer, noting that the Senate's version of the proposal, which also included a last-dollar tuition scholarship, was a priority of the lieutenant governor on last year's campaign trail.

“We had so many issues last session,” DeBar said. “Hopefully there won't be as many next year so we can just focus this year and get it across the finish line.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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