Title 47, Prisons and Prisoners; Probation and Parole

If a regional facility authorized under Section 47-5-931 experiences a disruption in the housing of state inmates due to a natural disaster in which the Governor has declared a disaster emergency under the laws of this state or the President of the United States has declared an e…

Concurrent with the execution of a contract for housing of state offenders as authorized by Sections 47-5-931 through 47-5-941, the sheriff of a county where the facility is located is designated as the Chief Corrections Officer for the facility housing state offenders, and in th…

Sections 47-5-931 through 47-5-941 shall be full and complete authority for the exercise of all powers and authority granted herein and no requirements or restrictions of law which would otherwise be applicable to acts of the county or sheriff or the Department of Corrections sha…

(1) Offenders are encouraged to participate in work programs. The chief corrections officer as created in Section 47-5-935, with ratification of the board of supervisors of the county in which a correctional facility established pursuant to Sections 47-5-931 through 47-5-941, is …

In addition to housing offenders for the Department of Corrections, the Chief Corrections Officer may house pretrial detainees, county offenders and other persons legally subject to incarceration by order of a court of competent jurisdiction. All offenders are to be housed in acc…

The Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management of the Department of Finance and Administration and the State Board of Health are hereby authorized and directed, upon the passage of this section, to institute permanent annual structural and environmental inspections …

(1) (a) The Department of Corrections may contract with the Bolivar County Regional Facility for a five-year pilot program dedicated to an intensive and comprehensive alcohol and other drug treatment program for not more than two hundred fifty (250) inmates. The Bolivar County Re…

In addition to any other authority granted by law, the Department of Corrections may contract with the Wilkinson County industrial development or economic development authority for the private incarceration of not more than one thousand (1,000) state inmates at a facility in Wilk…

(1) The Department of Corrections, in its discretion, may contract with the board of supervisors of a county to be determined by the department, to house not more than five hundred (500) adult male maximum security state inmates in a maximum security regional correctional facilit…

The Mississippi Department of Corrections may contract with the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority or the governing authorities of the Municipality of Walnut Grove, Leake County, Mississippi, to provide for the private housing, care and control of not more than one thousand five…

The Department of Corrections shall contract for the purposes set out in Section 47-5-943 for a period of not more than twenty (20) years. The Department of Corrections may include in the contract, as an inflation factor, a three percent (3%) annual increase in the contract price…

The correctional facility authorized in Section 47-5-943 shall provide any juvenile offender housed in the facility with continuing education throughout his incarceration which leads to the presentation of a high school diploma or High School Equivalency Diploma equivalent. The f…

The members of the executive department, except the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and judicial departments of the state and members of the Legislature, shall with advance notice to the commissioner be admitted into the correctional system or any facility thereof, and other pl…

The correctional facility authorized in Section 47-5-943 shall provide each juvenile offender housed in the facility alcohol and drug counseling and treatment throughout his incarceration.

(1) If a second public or private correctional facility for juvenile offenders is constructed, then the facility shall be located in Kemper County. The facility shall comply with the requirements and standards established in Sections 47-5-943 through 47-5-951. (2) If a third publ…

There are hereby created classification hearing officers and disciplinary hearing officers of the correctional system to be appointed by the commissioner.

This chapter shall be known as the “Probation and Parole Law.”

(1) There is created the Mississippi Re-Entry Council. The purpose of the council is to create effective strategies to assist former inmates in their return to the general population, to reduce the recidivism rates of inmates, to increase public safety, and to reduce budgetary co…

All salaries and expenses incurred in the carrying out of this chapter shall be paid out of funds appropriated by the legislature for the support and maintenance of the probation and parole board. All accounts, including salaries, shall be approved and allowed by the board, and t…

A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of all business. A decision to parole an offender convicted of murder or a sex-related crime shall require the affirmative vote of three (3) members. The board shall maintain, in minute book form, a copy of eac…

The board shall adopt an official seal of which the courts shall take judicial notice. Decisions of the board shall be made by majority vote, except as provided in Section 47-7-5(9). The board shall keep a record of its acts and shall notify each institution of its decisions rela…

(1) Within one (1) year after his admission and at such intervals thereafter as it may determine, the board shall secure and consider all pertinent information regarding each offender, except any under sentence of death or otherwise ineligible for parole, including the circumstan…

(1) 47-7-18 No inmate convicted of a sex offense as defined by Section 45-33-23(h), a crime of violence as defined by Section 97-3-2, or both, nor an inmate who is eligible for geriatric parole shall be released on parole without a hearing before the Parole Board as required by S…

It shall be the duty of all correctional system officials to grant to the members of the board or its properly accredited representatives, access at all reasonable times to any person over whom the board may have jurisdiction under this chapter; to provide for the board or such r…

(a) For purposes of this chapter, the following words shall have the meaning ascribed herein unless the context shall otherwise require:(a) “Adult” means a person who is seventeen (17) years of age or older, or any person convicted of any crime not subject to the provisions of th…

All information obtained in the discharge of official duty by a field officer as an employee of the Department of Corrections shall be privileged and shall not be disclosed directly or indirectly to anyone other than to (a) the State Parole Board, (b) a judge, or (c) law enforcem…

Except as otherwise provided by law, the Department of Corrections shall have the power and duty to make rules for the conduct of persons heretofore or hereafter placed on parole under the supervision of the Department of Corrections and for the investigation and supervision of s…

When an offender is placed on parole he shall receive, if needed, from the state, civilian clothing and transportation to the place in which he is to reside. At the discretion of the board the offender may be advanced such sum for his temporary maintenance as the board may allow.…

(1) The board may, at any time and upon a showing of probable violation of parole, issue a warrant for the return of any paroled offender to the custody of the department. The warrant shall authorize all persons named therein to return the paroled offender to actual custody of th…

Any prisoner who commits a felony while at large upon parole or earned-release supervision and who is convicted and sentenced therefor shall be required to serve such sentence after the original sentence has been completed.

(1) Every prisoner who has been convicted of any offense against the State of Mississippi, and is confined in the execution of a judgment of such conviction in the Mississippi Department of Corrections for a definite term or terms of one (1) year or over, or for the term of his o…

(1) In consultation with the Parole Board, the department shall develop a case plan for all parole-eligible inmates to guide an inmate’s rehabilitation while in the department’s custody and to reduce the likelihood of recidivism after release. (2) The case plan shall include, but…

(1) Notwithstanding Section 47-5-138, 47-5-139, 47-5-138.1 or 47-5-142, no person convicted of a criminal offense on or after July 1, 2014, shall be released by the department until he or she has served no less than the percentage of the sentence or sentences imposed by the court…

Upon request of the governor the department of corrections shall investigate and report to him with respect to any case of pardon, commutation of sentence, reprieve, furlough or remission of fine or forfeiture. Any attorney of record in the state of Mississippi representing any p…

(1) When it appears to the satisfaction of any circuit court or county court in the State of Mississippi having original jurisdiction over criminal actions, or to the judge thereof, that the ends of justice and the best interest of the public, as well as the defendant, will be se…

(1) The department shall create a discharge plan for any offender returning to the community, regardless of whether the person will discharge from the custody of the department, or is released on parole, pardon, or otherwise. At least ninety (90) days prior to an offender’s earli…

(1) When a court imposes a sentence upon a conviction for any felony committed after June 30, 1995, the court, in addition to any other punishment imposed if the other punishment includes a term of incarceration in a state or local correctional facility, may impose a term of post…

(1) The courts referred to in Section 47-7-33 or 47-7-34 shall determine the terms and conditions of probation or post-release supervision and may alter or modify, at any time during the period of probation or post-release supervision, the conditions and may include among them th…

(1) Any employer of an offender may submit weekly time cards, proof of employment and the results of any required drug tests to the person who supervises an individual placed on parole by the Parole Board or placed on probation by the court in lieu of the meeting requirement desc…

(1) The period of probation shall be fixed by the court, and may at any time be extended or terminated by the court, or judge in vacation. Such period with any extension thereof shall not exceed five (5) years, except that in cases of desertion and/or failure to support minor chi…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, if a court finds by a preponderance of the evidence, that a probationer or a person under post-release supervision has committed a felony or absconded, the court may revoke his probation and impose any or all of the sent…

(1) The department shall have the authority to impose graduated sanctions as an alternative to judicial modification or revocation, as provided in Sections 47-7-27 and 47-7-37, for offenders on probation, parole, or post-release supervision who commit technical violations of the …

(1) The Department of Corrections shall establish technical violation centers to detain probation and parole violators revoked by the court or parole board. (2) The department shall place an offender in a violation center for a technical violation as ordered by the board pursuant…

If, for good and sufficient reasons, a probationer desires to change his residence within or without the state, such transfer may be effected by application to his field supervisor which transfer shall be subject to the court’s consent and subject to such regulations as the court…

(1) The commissioner and the medical director of the department may place an offender who has served not less than one (1) year of his or her sentence, except an offender convicted of a sex crime, on conditional medical release. However, a nonviolent offender who is bedridden may…

(1) The commissioner shall establish rules and regulations for implementing the earned-discharge program that allows offenders on probation and parole to reduce the period of supervision for complying with conditions of probation. The department shall have the authority to award …