Changes Possible For Mississippi’s ‘Three Strike’ Laws

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) –  Proposed legislation would revamp Mississippi’s habitual offender laws if it is approved.

Six proposed bills , all written by Senator Derrick Simmons , would change habitual offender laws, by stopping prior felonies from being used for sentencing, if the felony happened more than a decade ago.  Also, another bill would mandate that the two prior felonies must be violent crimes before  a habitual offender gets life in prison.  The senator says his bills would target only non violent offenders.

“What a lot of data suggests, you have non violent offenders who commit property crimes because of a drug addiction, they’ve never been to prison, but commit petty crimes like felony shoplifting,maybe a grand larceny and on the third felony they may have a possession of a drug charge,” Sen. Simmons said.

Senator Simmons says his bills would reduce the prison population, saving taxpayer dollars. He says some of that money could be better spent on rehabilitation efforts.

“Then we could stop appropriating all the money to corrections and could start giving more money to drug court and to community type programs that would help with the addiction,” he said.

Law enforcement groups statewide, including the sheriff’s association, are vocal in their opposition the senator’s proposed bills.  Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson believes softening the habitual offender, or three strike laws, would send the wrong message.

“There’s no more fear, there’s no more threat, no more tool that we have to ensure our community is kept safe,”Sheriff Johnson said.

Sheriff Johnson says he knows about the high costs of running a jail, but he believes there are more important things to consider.

“The cost to make sure your home and property and family is protected is a price worth paying,” he said.

The deadline for bills to come out of committee is this coming Tuesday.  Bills that don’t make it out of committee will be dead.