In his executive budget recommendations for the new fiscal year, Governor Tate Reeves has endorsed two changes to the parole process for Mississippi’s inmates – something that has garnered the public’s attention in earnest over the last two years. Both are aimed at increasing the parole board’s agency in parole decisions for the sake of public safety.
The first of the changes Reeves recommended was an amendment to the current law that allows a large number of offenders to be paroled without a hearing before the parole board. Instead, Reeves said all parole decisions should be discretionary under the board’s purview, requiring each case to go through a hearing to remedy what he said to be a “shortcut” to public safety.
“Each and every offender is different. Their crimes are different, their criminal histories are different, and their risks to the public are different,” Reeves wrote in his recommendation. “This change will help to ensure that dangerous offenders are not mandatorily released into our communities without full review and consideration by the Parole Board.”
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The second recommendation is aimed at redefining violations of offenders who are on parole, which often allows those offenders to stay out of prison if the offense falls under the “technical violation” category. Reeves stumped for all new offenses from those parties to be excluded from the definition.
“This change will ensure that the Parole Board will have the necessary discretion to revoke parole for any parolee who commits a new crime,” he continued. “Increased ability by the Board to revoke a parolee’s release will better protect the public and hold lawbreakers accountable when they commit new crimes instead of upholding their commitment to reentering our lawful society.”
In recent years, the parole board’s power and process have been brought to the public’s attention after several controversial decisions concerning violent parolees.
Frederick Bell, a Grenada man convicted of double murder, was initially granted parole in 2022 by the board, which claimed that Bell had been rehabilitated after 31 years in prison. But the decision was later reversed when it was found that the parole board did not abide by a state law requiring the public be notified via a local newspaper before even being considered for parole. The decision was nullified, and Bell was subsequently resentenced to life without parole at the rehearing after thousands of emails and letters from the public demanded he remain in prison.
The latest incident concerned James Williams III, a man convicted of murdering his parents in 2005, when he was paroled after one of the technical violations that Reeves hopes to disallow. Williams was first paroled in April of 2023 but was arrested six months later after drunkenly wrecking his car in Pearl and being charged with DUI. The crime resulted in the parole board ordering Williams to spend a year in prison to potentially reinstate his parole.
But days later, the family of Williams’ victims said they learned secondhand of the convicted murderer’s release on a technicality, which required Williams to only spend just 90 days in prison before being released again on parole because the DUI was a misdemeanor offense.
State lawmakers and other leaders have publicly pushed back on the state’s parole process, including nearly 30 members of the Mississippi House of Representatives signing a letter of criticism ahead of Williams’ initial release. State Sen. Angela Burks Hill, a Republican who chairs the Senate Constitution Committee, said in September that lower courts with “an agenda” have developed a track record of allowing parole release on technicalities.
“I don’t think most Mississippians think that somebody ought to be able to be arrested for three misdemeanor new crimes,” Hill said. “The first thing we need to do is look at public safety. Give the parole board authority to revoke for a new crime. If the lower courts are going to continue to say we can’t revoke for a misdemeanor crime, we have no choice but to clear up that statute.”
Hill and others’ pushback appears to have been heard with Reeves’ recommendations directly addressing the cited discrepancies. With the 2025 Mississippi legislative session looming, the power and decision-making process of the parole board seems to be building as a primary topic to address.