We All Pay: Mississippi’s Harmful Habitual Laws

The Houser Family

We All Pay: Mississippi’s Harmful Habitual Laws

The Houser Family

"That's a life that was thrown away. A family that's been torn apart."

Paul Houser is currently serving what amounts to a life sentence due to the state’s extreme habitual penalties. For his son, Dusty, and the rest of Paul’s family — including a grandson who never really got an opportunity to know him — being indefinitely separated from Paul is a huge burden to bear.

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The Housers are far from the only Mississippi family affected by these extreme laws. 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.

Mississippi could prosper better if they weren't paying for all these people in prison.
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On top of these extreme sentences, people can have extra years, decades, or even life imprisonment added to their sentences if they have previous convictions. When Paul was convicted of a minor drug offense, prosecutors used two old offenses, driven by his decades-long struggle with addiction, to sentence him to 60 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

As a result of these harmful laws, Mississippi currently has the third highest imprisonment rate in the country, and there are thousands of people — like Paul — serving extreme sentences due to the state’s habitual laws.

Habitual penalties have landed Mississippi in an incarceration crisis. And #WeAllPay. Please share the Houser’s story and learn more at www.FWD.us/WeAllPay.

Paul Houser's son, Dusty (Left), and grandson Kyler (right).