Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
___
Aug. 21
The Greenwood Commonwealth on the state of Mississippi’s understaffed prisons:
Of all the major issues being discussed in this year’s statewide campaigns, one that is largely being neglected is Mississippi’s prison system.
It is a disaster.
Private or public, the places where people are warehoused for their crimes are back to being the kind of hellholes they were before the federal government intervened in the 1970s and told Mississippi it had to do better than this.
Jerry Mitchell, a veteran journalist now calling his own shots at the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, has been zeroing in most recently on the state’s prison system.
His latest installment - which focuses on the state-operated South Mississippi Correctional Institution - is an indictment against the state’s Department of Corrections, the lawmakers who poorly fund the prisons, and most of those who have occupied the Governor’s Mansion for the past couple of decades.
When it comes to incarceration, Mississippi has a history of turning a blind eye to the abuses that go on behind bars. Mitchell writes of just how bad it has gotten at the isolated prison in Leakesville, where inmates are beaten, burned, sometimes killed by other inmates while prison guards do nothing. He tells of one particularly gruesome incident in which an inmate is charged with beating and strangling to death his cellmate. The accused inmate, who argues self-defense, corroborated a report that, despite the loud ruckus during the fight to the death, no one came to the cell until several hours after the killing occurred.
A major problem in the corrections system is understaffing. Pelicia Hall has been saying for nearly her entire two years as corrections commissioner that she can’t find and keep prison guards due to low pay. Mitchell reports that the number of guards at the three state-run prisons has fallen from 905 two years ago to 627 today, a drop of about 30 percent. The prison in Leakesville is the most understaffed, with just one officer for every 23 inmates, a ratio that is two to four times higher than the average in neighboring states and the federal prison system.
What happens when the staffing levels get so low at a prison? The gangs take over, the guards get scared or corrupted, and prison authorities try to keep the lid on the chaos and protect their employees by locking inmates into their cells for the entire day. According to Mitchell, roughly half of the inmates at the Leakesville prison have been on lockdown for seven months straight, and the other half recently joined them. You keep a human being in a cage without relief for long enough, you bar family and friends from visiting, and if the inmates aren’t already mean and crazy, they will be.
One response to the problems in the prisons is to send fewer inmates to them. Mississippi has been making some modest progress there by emphasizing sentencing alternatives, such as drug (or intervention) courts, house arrest and probation.
The prisons, though, never will be emptied, nor should they be. There are certain criminals, particularly those who are violent or incorrigible, from which society must be protected. But it needs to lock people up humanely and not subject them, because of neglect, to unspeakable horrors committed by other inmates or, sometimes, the prison guards themselves.
The Legislature should put more money into paying prison guards commensurate with the dangers they face, but it also needs to hold the Department of Corrections to higher standards and greater accountability.
MDOC has a history of stonewalling when there are obvious problems. It usually gets away with it because lawmakers and governors would rather not know what goes on behind those prison walls.
Such apathy, though, also breeds the kind of inhumane conditions that now exist.
Online: https://www.gwcommonwealth.com
___
Aug. 17
The Vicksburg Post on unsubstantiated threats made at local Walmart stores:
This week, claims about an arrest related to gun violence threats in Vicksburg, Natchez and other Walmarts around the state rapidly spread on social media.
Vicksburg and Natchez police departments quickly called the information false. Vicksburg Police Chief Milton Moore said while the social media post was a rumor, he would have patrols at the store this weekend to ensure Walmart customers, employees and residents are safe.
We commend Chief Moore for his handling of the matter, especially for a busy weekend. Recent attacks this month at an El Paso, Texas Walmart and last month at a relatively nearby Southaven store mean we have to take such claims, however false they might seem, very seriously.
VPD is working to find out where the claims originated, and who is responsible for spreading such rumors.
As they vigilantly work to identify and hold those who created this situation on social media accountable, they need our appreciation and encouragement. We as a community cannot condone the behavior of people who spread rumors such as these. The lives of our residents and our children are too important to let something that could be or could have been a major tragedy go without consequences.
Those in the community who have information about where the claims originated are encouraged and urged to come forward by calling 911 or the police department directly at 601-636-2511.
The goal of our local police force is to keep residents safe. That is to the benefit of us all. Let’s all commit to helping these officers do that by making a firm decision not to tolerate rumors such as the one that surfaced this week or those who create and distribute them.
Online: https://www.vicksburgpost.com
___
Aug. 15
The Enterprise-Journal on warm temperatures in Mississippi:
Given the beastly hot weather of the past few days, this may come as a surprise. But according to a review of federal weather data going back to 1895, Mississippi is right in the middle of the area where temperatures have been increasing at the lowest rate.
This week The Washington Post website featured a story about how warming temperatures are already affecting part of the United States. In some places, such as the East Coast from Maryland to Maine, average temperatures have risen 2 degrees or more. New Jersey and Long Island, in eastern New York, have seen much larger increases of 4 degrees.
The Post’s website included a color-coded map of temperature changes throughout the country between 1895 and 2018. If global warming is your thing, this map is worth a look.
The country’s historical trend was rising temperatures from 1895 to the 1930s, followed by a slight cooling until the 1970s, when temperatures started rising again.
One interesting theory holds that stronger environmental regulations on smokestacks and vehicle exhaust may have contributed to the recent increases. Industrial soot particles had damaging health effects, but they may have blocked some of the sun’s intensity.
The environment is better off without such pollution, and now temperatures are rising in many places. That’s why it’s a shock to see the map’s light tan and light blue colors in a belt from north Georgia west to Oklahoma and even parts of southeast Texas. This means the temperatures in these areas are not rising rapidly, and the website also allows readers to check the change of any county in America.
Pike County’s average annual temperature has increased just 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1895. That is one-third of 1 degree; and it is one-sixth of the country’s average increase of 1.9 degrees over the past 12 decades.
The figures are even lower in neighboring counties: 0.2 degrees in Walthall and Lincoln counties, and 0.1 degrees in Amite County.
In the Jackson area, Hinds County’s average temperature is unchanged since 1895. Rankin County’s and Madison County’s averages actually decreased by 0.2 degrees.
Much of north Mississippi has seen a lower average temperature over the decades. Lafayette County, home to Oxford, must have one of the best records in the country:?It’s average temperature is down 0.7 degrees.
Noting that the South is the only region “that has not warmed significantly since the late 1800s,” the Post says scientists believe oceanic atmospheric cycles played a role in this. But it adds that the region’s temperatures have been increasing since the 1960s along with the rest of the country’s.
Other possibilities for the region’s avoidance of warmer temperatures come to mind. The South has developed tremendously in the last half century, but the region still has a lot of trees. Maybe all the oxygen those pines churn out slows the pace of warming.
Most likely, though, this can be explained by the fact that the South was already hot in the summertime - as the last few days have proven yet again. The story makes it clear that the biggest effects of higher temperatures are milder winters in northern states.
It would be fun for Mississippi to promote itself as showing the rest of the country how to prevent excessive warming. But there is a warning signal in the statistics.
Each county’s chart shows its annual difference from the long-term average. In the last four years (2015-18), and in five of the last seven, Pike County’s average temperature has been 2 degrees higher than its long-term records. If that trend continues, there’s no doubt that warmer weather is on the way.
Online: www.enterprise-journal.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.