Currie, House revive prison reforms Senate killed

• State Rep. Becky Currie aims to review the inmate welfare fund and reduce prison deaths, among other reforms passed by the House.

The Mississippi House of Representatives has inserted language from its measures aimed at improving the wellbeing of inmates into Senate bills after the House bills died.

State Rep. Becky Currie (R) introduced the strike-all amendments to SB 2041 and SB 2778 in an effort to keep her prison reform efforts introduced earlier in the session alive. 

The move was made after the Senate Corrections Committee declined to take up several of Currie’s bills, including HB 1744. That bill would have tasked the Mississippi Department of Corrections with establishing a plan for HIV, Hepatitis C and women’s health care within the prison system. Now that language, among other provisions, has been added in the two Senate bills. 

Rep. Currie told the House that the implementation of the strike-all amendments to the Senate bills are not expected to incur additional costs to the state.

SB 2041 in its original form focused on researching dyslexia in the prison population. That bill was similar to Currie’s HB 1735, which called for a study on the number of inmates with dyslexia who enter the prison system.

“And what it is for us is we’re going to be able to say if 50 percent of inmates have dyslexia we may need to look at dyslexia and putting more money into that earlier for children,” Currie described. 

Grant funds are expected to be used to conduct that study if the bill becomes law.

The Senate bills also now include language from HB 1743, that died in committee as well. It included a provision for MDOC to provide a consolidated statement on the inmate welfare fund for committee review. 

“Why do we not want to look at the inmate welfare fund? Why do they not want us to look at the inmate welfare fund?” Currie asked. “So I am inserting this in this bill.”

Another provision added through her amendments to both bills dealt with the bidding process for inmate healthcare contracts. Currie’s strike-all language would ensure the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration is in charge of that process instead of MDOC.

“We’re going to have a fair bidding process. We are also including that our hospitals be able to bid which will help the hospitals and hopefully decrease the amount of money we spend on healthcare,” Currie explained.

Her strike-all amendment also allows parolees who attend and participate in church services to receive “some days” off their parole.

Currie’s amendment to SB 2778, while including all of the provisions added to SB 2041, includes a reverse repealer. 

“It is a simple repealer bill, but I am adding everything that I just said before to this bill also,” Currie explained. “I am adding the RFP bill, the Hepatitis C, the religious part where you would get some parole days off if you attend church and… inmate welfare fund committee.”

One of Currie’s goals with the prison reform effort is to see a reduction in prison population deaths. While Currie said she did not have an exact number of inmates who have died while in state custody, she did say that within the last week about eight inmates aged between 20 and 30 have passed away.

“They’re a ward of the state and we pay a lot of money to take care of them, and we’re not getting our money’s worth,” Currie said.

The measures will be sent back to the Senate for consideration.