In Mississippi, where 97% of incarcerated individuals eventually return to society, stable reentry housing plays a critical role in determining success or failure.

Sadly, over 75% of those released from prison find themselves back behind bars within five years. This sobering reality prompted a group of UC Berkeley Law students, including myself, to collaborate with the MacArthur Justice Center during a spring 2024 visit to Mississippi. There were three reasons we wanted to make the long trip from California to Mississippi for an in-depth exploration of reentry housing for those who have paid their “debt to society.”

First, we have a strong working relationship with the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, and together we identified reentry housing as an area that could use the kind of landscape analysis we were well-situated to tackle.

Second, we wanted to see if Mississippi had any ideas on how to fix housing, because, let’s be honest, California isn’t a shining example of effective housing policy. And third: blues, delicious food and Southern hospitality. We found all three.

Our years-long partnership with the MacArthur Justice Center focuses on discrete projects about criminal justice reform, culminating with a spring break Mississippi trip. This year, we sought to understand Mississippi’s reentry housing issues from the perspectives of the government, private sector, nonprofits, faith communities and incarcerated individuals. We condensed our findings into a report with policy recommendations, which can be found at https://law.olemiss.edu/macarthur-justice-clinic/.

Our stakeholder discussions produced three main policy recommendations: addressing barriers for returning citizens, infrastructure improvements to Mississippi’s reentry ecosystem and reframing the reentry narrative. Each of these contain multiple, actionable suggestions to be considered by policymakers and community leaders throughout the state. I’ve summarized each bucket below, but I encourage you to read our report to learn more about specific recommendations.

The first issue, addressing barriers to reentry, analyzes the experience of incarcerated individuals getting ready to go home. Finding a safe, stable place to live after prison is extremely difficult for most incarcerated people: many come from circumstances where going “home” is not an option but can’t access resources to find somewhere else to live. Fortunately, improving access to information and connection to existing resources will cost the state little or nothing while removing significant hurdles for incarcerated people.

Secondly, improving the infrastructure of Mississippi’s reentry system encompasses a broad spectrum of initiatives, ranging from interagency cooperation to data management regarding homelessness.

While it is impossible to explain all seven sub-sections here, the takeaway is that some policies (or lack thereof) create perverse incentives or undermine agencies’ and organizations’ abilities to achieve their goals. The good news is that there are some creative fixes underway. For example, Mississippi’s pilot work release program is already being implemented and seeing noteworthy improvements in outcomes.

Lastly, reentry needs a reframe from kitchen tables to the Capitol Building. Shifting public perception — from viewing returning citizens as liabilities to recognizing their potential contributions — can foster bipartisan support for rehabilitation efforts, as it has in neighboring states. Emphasizing the value of investing in reentry not only benefits individuals seeking to rebuild their lives but also strengthens communities as a whole.

It is truly a blessing for us Californians to get to learn from the Mississippians working on these issues. In our state, we often throw money at our problems, but not always strategically. What I found in Mississippi is that the lack of government funds necessitates a certain creativity and scrappiness that you won’t find in the Golden State.

I won’t lie and say things are going great in Mississippi — there’s work to be done (as with anywhere). What I will say is that, as I left this state to head back out West, I had an unshakeable feeling that Mississippi’s fledgling work-release program might be the blueprint that could get our country out of this endless cycle of over-incarceration and recidivism, blue and red states alike.

Hopefully our report offers value to the smart and dedicated people working on these issues in Mississippi. We offer it not because we have anything to teach, but instead as a compilation of the many things you taught us. Whether in Berkeley or Brandon, Malibu or McComb, we’re in this together! 

— Niki Kates is a third-year law student at the University of California at Berkeley.  She is from Truckee, California and received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Willamette University. 

SCOTT COUNTY, Miss. (WTOK) – The Mississippi Highway Patrol responded to a fatal wreck Monday morning in Scott County.

MHP said 44-year-old Paul Johnson of Jackson, Miss., died in the crash.

Officials said Johnson’s 2009 Chevrolet Express collided with a Freightliner on Highway 25 about 10 a.m.

The Freightliner, which was driven by William Golden, 53, of Little Rock, Miss., was traveling slowly as a crew collected garbage along the route.

The crash remains under investigation by the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

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A massive prehistoric discovery was made in central Mississippi with a seven-foot-long ice-age elephant tusk being found.

Earlier in August, geological survey scientists with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) were notified by avid artifact and fossil collector Eddie Templeton of the giant finding. Templeton was exploring rural Madison County when he stumbled upon the tusk in a steep embankment.

Knowing that leaving the fossil exposed to the current Mississippi heat could dry the tusk out and ultimately destroy it, he acted quickly and called experts to the scene. When paleontological scientists arrived at the fossil site, they found the fossil tusk in quality condition as it was only partially exposed just above the water under a bluff. Based on the strong curvature of the massive tusk, it was suspected that they had encountered a Columbian mammoth and not that of the more common mastodon. This would be the first of its kind for the area.

Mississippi was home to three Proboscideans during the last ice age: the mastodon, gomphothere, and the Columbian mammoth. All three possessed ivory tusks. Mastodons are by far the most common Proboscidean finds in Mississippi as they were browsers, like modern deer, and inhabited a variety of different environments. Mammoths, which were related to modern elephants, are far less common finds in Mississippi as they were open grassland grazers and would have been at home in only a select few environments, particularly the prairie regions of Mississippi. Gomphothere are more closely related to mastodon than to mammoths, but very little is known about their ice-age presence here in the Magnolia State as they are only known from a few isolated teeth found along the Mississippi River.

After carefully removing all of the substances covering the tusk to unveil the fossil in its entirety, it was discovered that the tusk had been deposited entirely intact — meaning it was one whole structure, instead of the more common makeup of fragments that are usually pieced together. 

Preservation methods then took place at the scene to have the fossil ready for transportation. The tusk was then delivered to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science for further curation and careful study. 

Once at the laboratory, the fossil tusk was confirmed by the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science paleontologist as indeed belonging to a mammoth. According to officials, Templeton’s discovery offers a rare window into the Columbian mammoths that once roamed Madison County along the Jackson Prairie of central Mississippi.

Columbian mammoths were much larger than the infamous woolly mammoth that roamed the colder, more northern regions of North America. They grew up to 15 feet at the shoulder and could weigh over 10 tons. These colossal mammals played an important role in maintaining the rich fertile prairie ecosystem, much as their modern elephant relatives do in other parts of the world today.

MDEQ confirms that the ice-age prairie ecosystem of what is now Madison County was also home to herds of now-extinct horses and giant bison, along with giant ground sloths, giant tortoises, and tapirs. It was also home to a number of ice age predators such as dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, American lions, and even the earliest human inhabitants of our region.

More information can be found here.