JACKSON ⢠Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law Thursday significant parole reforms that could make around 2,000 inmates newly eligible for release, a year after rejecting a similar bipartisan bill from lawmakers.
The Mississippi Earned Parole Eligibility Act will take effect in July, loosening several of the state's parole regulations, which are among the strictest in the country. The laws have led to a ballooning prison population over the years with roughly two-thirds of Mississippi's 17,000 prisoners serving sentences that make them ineligible for parole, according to the advocacy group FWD.us.
In vetoing last year's bill, Reeves said it went too far and would "threaten public safety" by potentially releasing violent inmates.