High Cost, Low Return: Mississippi's Ongoing Incarceration Crisis
How we got here and why we still have work to do
Mississippi’s prison population has grown 396% between 1980 and 2022. It currently has the highest imprisonment rate in the world. Despite recent reforms, the Mississippi prison population continues to increase because those reforms were not fully implemented and were too limited for Mississippi to see the same sustained decline in the state’s prison population that other states have experienced. Mississippi’s growing prison population imposes high costs on the state’s economy, communities and families without improving public safety. State lawmakers must continue to make critically needed and evidence-based criminal justice reforms a priority every legislative session and work with criminal justice practitioners to ensure past reforms are fully implemented.
Mississippi's high prison population is driven in large part by its use of habitual sentences.
Long prison sentences have become the norm in Mississippi. First-time drug possession can land you in prison for 20 years. Stealing tools from a garage can result in 25 years behind bars. On top of these already extreme sentences, people can have extra years, decades, or even life imprisonment added to their sentences if they have ever been convicted of crimes in the past because of the state’s habitual laws.
Learn how these extreme penalties keep families apart and hold the state back.
We want to hear from you
At FWD.us, we believe that incarcerated people and their families know what is needed to end Mississippi’s incarceration crisis. If you or someone in your life has been incarcerated in Mississippi, please consider filling out a short survey to get in touch. If you have a loved one that is currently incarcerated that would like to share their own story, please email ms-stories@fwd.us, and we will mail a survey form to their facility.
Mississippi By the Numbers
How Mississippi’s incarceration crisis hurts everyone
1st in the U.S.
Mississippi’s imprisonment rate of 584 per 100,000 residents makes it the highest imprisoning state in the country.
Over 2,500
more people
After reaching a 20-year low at the end of 2021, a dramatic reduction in the use of parole caused Mississippi's prison population to grow by more than 2,500 people from January 2022 to January 2023. Today, more than 19,000 people are in Mississippi prisons.
Nearly Six Months
People in Mississippi's local jails spend an average of 176 days or nearly six months incarcerated before trial, compared to a national average length of stay of 28 days. Mississippi taxpayers spend an estimated $90 million each year to incarcerate people pretrial.
Over 182,000 Mississippians
One in 13 state residents, or over 182,000 individuals, have a felony conviction, each with hundreds of hidden consequences such as excessive fines and fees, bans on employment, and the loss of voting rights.
