Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann made a stopover in Indianola on February 17 to visit with the guests attending the Mid Delta Law Enforcement Coalition Luncheon and share his views on education and prison reform.
Sunflower Police Chief Bobby Walker hosted the event and is responsible for inviting the lieutenant governor to be the guest speaker. Walker shared how he inadvertently encountered Hosemann’s youngest son when he recently visited the town and asked him if he thought his dad would come and speak to the coalition.
Walker said he was both pleased and surprised when a city clerk told him that Lt. Governor Hosemann was on the phone in response to his invitation.
In his address, Hosemann stressed that education is an invaluable solution to the ongoing problems with the state prison system. “The whole corrections issue starts with education, just about everything does,” Hosemann said.
The first-term lieutenant governor asserted, “Our first bill that our senators passed out was to raise our starting teacher’s salary to $37,000 a year and raise our teacher assistants another $1,000, but that’s just the first part.” He said that was only part of a comprehensive plan that will also fund the state’s 50 collaborative Pre-K programs.
He explained the goal of his initiative, “It’s where we go in and reach in to our five-year-old children and give them the education they need to be competitive when they reach the first grade.” He added that both components are part of the overall work that the Senate will do to affect education in general.
Hosemann declared that the proposed pay raises would elevate Mississippi teachers’ salaries to a level that is above the surrounding states, but emphasized there was a more important benefit. “It was important that the first bill that came out was on education and it shows you not only the fact that we have individuals in Mississippi that are growing now and going into different arts, but that we give our teachers the respect.”
Hosemann stressed that it was his goal to see the state’s children learn well, grow and go forward. He mentioned a planned meeting with the state education department to discuss the accountability model used in the state’s grading systems. That model determines which schools get which grades. His intent is to address career technical education because it should be part of the accountability model and according to him it is not.
Hosemann asserted that vo-tech classes should no longer be considered unimportant. “There’s no credit given for career technical education. So if there is no credit given for it, there is no emphasis necessarily for it.” Hosemann said only 24 to 25 percent of the children get a baccalaureate degree and a college education. “The other 75 percent need a good job,” he said.
Hosemann said the education bill got a unanimous vote and it was the first time that has happened.
He told the law enforcement officials that his goal was to use education as a means of keeping them (children) out of the criminal system unless they are applying for a job. “What we’re trying to do is get kids where they don’t come see you,” he said, “We’re starting right here when they are 5 years old and I’m going to keep them out of your hair unless they’re going to be working for you.”
Turning his focus towards the prisons, Hosemann said he had noticed last year during a late summer visit to Parchman that the situation in Unit 29 was unacceptable based on how prisoners were being kept. He talked about the excessive heat and living conditions.
He said Parchman is antiquated. “It’s 120 years old, Unit 29 is not acceptable,” he said. Hosemann mentioned the governor’s intent to close the unit and relocate the 1,500 inmates who are housed there. He called that a short-term answer; however, they are looking at other solutions and facilities for a long-term resolution.
He said the prison is woefully understaffed and as a result, the prisoners only get one hour a day outside of their confinements. “They’re just like you would be if you were locked up 23 hours a day. They’re angry and mad and they don’t have a future, so with that comes violence and gangs and others.“
He stressed that there are about 750 guards employed, but 1,800 positions available and the salaries range from $26,000 to $33,000 annual gross pay.
Hosemann further stated that the days of releasing the prisoners without a skill, trade or education are over. He also mentioned how the system has been guilty of releasing inmates back into society who have nowhere to go.
He said, “First thing is they need to be treated as humans who will be coming back into our neighborhoods.” He mentioned that thousands of inmates are released each year and Hosemann stated that at least 400 who were released didn’t even have a home to go to.
And addressing the chiefs and sheriff, he said, “And I don’t want you to have to be picking them up and sending them back. That’s the most expensive and timely thing we can have and it’s also dangerous for you,” he said.
Hosemann talked about educating the prisoners while they are being detained, “We can’t just keep them there without giving them any foresight, or any skill they can use when they get out,” he said, “The whole criminal thing evolves around education, making sure people can get a job, making sure our workforce is trained specifically.”
However, alluding to the recent turmoil at the state’s facility, he implied that the progress towards addressing the education component for the prison and the correction system is being temporarily impeded by that.
In addition, he said they are working hard to make sure that when inmates are released they have a skill for which they can get paid. “Now as simple as that sounds, I don’t know that we’ve been doing that before. And that will be a major component to whatever we end up doing on the rest of it,” said Hosemann.
He indicated that he has visited the prison since the riots and said that upcoming bills will also address sentencing guidelines.
In addition to his views on education and prisons, Hosemann touched on other topics, such as new proposed legislation that will increase the life insurance benefits for law enforcement officers from $100,000 to $250,000. “I hope of course it’ll never be used, but when you look at the economy of the world today and you have a young mom with two children, $100,000 is not going to go very far raising that family,” he said.
Hopefully, effective in July if it can be worked out in the budget, the state employees will be receiving a pay increase. Hosemann said 1,034 state workers make less than $21,000 per year, so the first thing is to bring those below that up to that mark and then give one to two percent increases for the rest.
He indicated that the state has 5,000 to 6,000 open positions that they can’t fill because the salaries are not competitive with private enterprise.
Hosemann also talked about economic development and promoted the upcoming census, the importance of an accurate count and its importance to the Delta’s economy.
The Lt. Governor indicated that he spent a year and a half identifying peoples whose addresses may not have been in the system and found 40,000 new addresses across the state where people have either constructed new homes or pulled up mobile homes. “Those are all people who would not have had an address 10 years ago,” Hosemann said.
He added, “Y’all need to tell everybody to fill out the census.”
With regard to economic development, he said, “It’s like ‘Field of Dreams’, if you have an educated workforce people will come and hire them, if you don’t have one nobody comes, so we need to have an educated workforce.”
He mentioned the future collaborations between high schools and community colleges. “In your high school curriculum will be dual credit courses that give you credit for college courses.” He added that some would be career technical courses.
Mayor Desiree’ Norwood provided the welcome address for the gathering, Representative Otis Anthony offered prayer and Senator Derrick Simmons introduced the Lt. Governor.
