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The Mississippi Broadband Enabling Act is headed to the full Senate after the Energy Committee approved it at its meeting Tuesday.

House Bill 366— which would allow rural electric power associations to provide broadband service to their customers — will reach the Senate floor unaltered from its final House version that was approved on January 15.

Energy Committee Chairwoman and state Sen. Sally Doty (R-Brookhaven) said that one of the reasons why the bill would take effect immediately on passage was an April deadline for the EPAs, also known as co-ops, to apply for federal grants to provide broadband service.

Most bills that become law take effect on July 1, the first day of the new fiscal year.

There were two amendments that were shot down on voice votes.

State Sen. John Polk (R-Hattiesburg) wanted a 10-year requirement for EPAs to provide broadband to all of their customers.

State Sen. Josh Harkins (R-Flowood) wanted a reverse repealer, which is a legislative tactic which forces reconsideration before it can reach Gov. Phil Bryant’s desk for a signature.

Harkins voted for the bill, despite voicing some reservations on whether the EPAs would serve rural customers and not try to start building a base in more population-dense suburban areas served by EPAs.

Some of Harkins’ suburban Rankin County district is served by EPAs.

“Obviously, if this bill passes, people are going to have the expectation that they’re going to have fast internet service pretty quick,” Harkins said. “Will these companies try to reach the areas that are under served and not dense areas of population?”

Doty said that if the Legislature gives co-ops the ability to provide broadband service, it’ll be their responsibility to manage those expectations. She cautioned a constituent that stopped her in the grocery store about rural broadband.

“It’s not going to be something that’s immediate and is not necessarily going to be in all parts of the state,” Doty said. “This gives us in Mississippi another option to provide broadband services.”

The bill was authored by House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) and it has several provisions that include:

All too often, ex-offenders are released from prison and unable to land a job because of licensing restrictions.

A criminal justice bill that prioritizes employment opportunities for ex-offenders will achieve the right balance between protecting public safety, protecting law enforcement and protecting crime victims while also helping ex-offenders reintegrate into their families and communities. In particular, Gov. Phil Bryant’s Faith Advisory Council, of which I am vice chair, is focusing our efforts on an important right-to-work reform that will reduce costs and legal exposure for state occupational licensing boards, as well as help people pay taxes, stay out of prison, and stay off of welfare. This reform allows qualified ex-offenders to work in their chosen field unless they have committed a crime directly related to their licensed profession.

In recent years, thanks to the N.C. Dental Board U.S. Supreme Court case, states have been forced to rethink their approach to occupational licensing. In many ways, Mississippi has been a leader in this area, thanks, in part, to the governor’s leadership on the Occupational Licensing Review Commission. More work, however, remains to be done.

In particular, licensing boards should remove blanket bans that prevent ex-offenders from working. These bans are overly broad, facilitated by vague references to “good character” and “moral turpitude.

Now, I’m a big believer in good character. But one of the hallmarks of a good character is the ability to learn from your mistakes and start over. It’s also worth noting that some of these occupational licensing requirements are distantly rooted in racist policies aimed at preventing African-Americans from competing with white workers. In the absence of clear guidelines as to what constitutes “moral turpitude,” it’s easy to see how blanket bans for ex-offenders could be abused to keep the wrong kind of person from getting a license.

Instead of blanket bans, occupational licensing boards should consider the individual circumstances of each offender. As an example, let me share with you Beth’s story, told to me by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Beth’s name has been changed to protect her identity, but the challenges she faces are very real.

Beth is a Mississippi woman who made mistakes, served her time, and then wanted a better life. Upon release, Beth entered school with the dream of becoming a dental hygienist. In order to be a dental hygienist in Mississippi you must earn an associate’s degree and pass at least two national exams. In other words, Beth invested thousands of dollars and years of her life to pursuing her dream of becoming a dental hygienist.

After completing her coursework with honors, Beth discovered she was barred from obtaining a license because of a “good moral character” requirement for dental hygienists.

I don’t know what happened to Beth. I would guess she got another job. After her journey, I doubt she re-entered the prison system. But Beth’s dreams were crushed by red tape. That’s very hard. If I were Beth, I would have left Mississippi. Mississippi refused to take a chance on Beth, it refused to recognize her right to work.

Let me tell you another story. This story is about a man named Richard Chunn. In 1981, Richard pled guilty to marijuana possession in Texas. After that, he stayed clean and stayed out of prison. He ended up in Mississippi where he obtained work as a licensed bail agent. In 2011, however, the Mississippi legislature passed a law prohibiting bail agents from getting a license if they have a felony conviction. Richard lost his license.

But Richard is a fighter. He wasn’t going to let Mississippi’s bureaucracy deprive him of his livelihood. Richard sued, arguing that this Mississippi law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The state Supreme Court agreed with Richard, in a case decided in January 2015. Among other things, the Mississippi Supreme Court said:

“[The state’s] rationale utterly fails. The reasoning that supports the government's purpose—lack of trust—may apply to some felonies. For example, a conviction for embezzlement certainly calls into question the offender’s trustworthiness. But the statute’s broad reach includes many felonies that bear no relationship to trustworthiness.”

Citing a similar case out of Connecticut, the Court observed that such laws fail “to consider probable and realistic circumstances in a felon’s life, including the likelihood of rehabilitation, age at the time of conviction, and other mitigating circumstances” with the result that “many qualified ex-felons are being deprived of employment.”

The Court also acknowledged that while “there is no doubt that the State could logically prohibit and refuse employment in certain positions where the felony conviction would directly reflect on the felon’s qualifications for the job. … A person’s God-given, constitutional liberty to engage in a profession should not so easily be extinguished by the government.”

The Court’s conclusion bears repeating: “A person’s God-given, constitutional liberty to engage in a profession should not so easily be extinguished by the government.”

Also worth reflecting on is this. While the scope of the Chunn decision is very limited – it only applies to bail bondsmen – the reasoning in the case is very clear. Under the Chunn case, the good character clauses imposed by many boards in Mississippi have a good chance of being challenged in court.

The fix is simple: pass legislation requiring occupational licensing boards to list specific criminal records that disqualify a person from receiving a license, but only where the offense is rationally, specifically and directly related to the duties and responsibilities of the licensed occupation.

Cleaning up our occupational licensing laws to let ex-offenders work is a win-win for state occupational licensing boards and for the people of Mississippi. As mentioned, it would reduce the legal exposure of the boards. In addition, it would remove barriers that keep ex-offenders from working.

According to a recent study published by Arizona State University, states with heavier occupational licensing restrictions have much higher 3-year recidivism rates. By making it easier for ex-offenders to work, Mississippi will see a reduction in crime and a reduction in prison costs.

Finally, according to the Miss. Supreme Court, the right to work – which includes the right to be free from irrational occupational licensing burdens – is protected by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The freedom to work is a civil rights issue and encouraging people to work is good for families and communities. This would be a commonsense fix that follows the growing number of states in helping ex-offenders turn their lives around and supporting their families by finding work in a variety of diverse professions.

School choice advocates rallied on the south steps of the state Capitol Tuesday to celebrate past legislative victories and press the legislature for further expansion.

Both Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn spoke at the rally, which was attended by school children from around the state.

“This is not about politics, but people,” Reeves said. “It’s about giving parents more options for their kids. I believe that parents know best what’s best for their kid, not some bureaucrat sitting in Jackson.

“It should not matter what a kid’s zip code is or what their mom or dad does for a living. Every kid in our state deserves a chance at success and this is about ensuring that every kid gets that opportunity.”

The Legislature has made key strides in the past seven year in furthering school choice statewide.

Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law a bill in 2012 that created a scholarship for children with dyslexia. The next year, he signed a bill that authorized the creation of charter schools. In 2015, the state’s education scholarship program for children with special needs was signed into law by Bryant.

There are now five charter schools in the state.  Only one — Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School — is outside the Jackson metro area.

Reeves said he supports expanded funding for the ESA program, which will expire in 2020. This means the Legislature will need to pass a reauthorizing bill in this session or the next to keep it alive.

Due to funding restraints, the ESA program is open to less than 500 students with special needs, and parents can use an allotted $6,637 on tuition, tutors, books and other educational aids. Many sit on a waiting list.

Cleveland mother Leah Ferretti, who has two sons with dyslexia, spoke at the rally and asked attendees if they knew any program like the ESA one that has a 91 percent parent satisfaction rating in the PEER report.

“The door is closing on our babies in 2020 unless the repealer is removed,” Ferretti said. “Our program needs a new funding mechanism so it can meet the growth and the need we are desperately asking for.

“We’re calling on you legislators to allow every student in Mississippi the opportunity to succeed and not be confined to in an environment that is discriminatory or denies their civil rights.”

Also a recent report by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) spotlighted several issues with the ESA program that could be helped with action by the Legislature.

Right now, the program’s unused funds don’t roll over from one year to the next and instead go back to the general fund. The program uses a lottery system to decide what families receive the money and PEER recommends adding prioritization for families that have been on the wait list.

Also, PEER said that the Mississippi Department of Education hasn’t administered the program as effectively as possible by prioritizing those with active individualized education program as required under law.

According to PEER, as of June 29, there were 197 students on the waiting list. Since most scholarship recipients from the year previous will continue in the program, there are only a few slots that open up for new enrollees each year. As of August, there were only 47 open slots.

In fiscal 2018, taxpayers disbursed $2,057,815 for the ESA program, with 94 percent being spent on tuition, with the rest spent on education aids such as software or textbooks.

Numerous conservative organizations sent a letter to Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, and Speaker Philip Gunn yesterday asking leadership to oppose reinstatement of administrative forfeiture in Mississippi.

Last year, the process known as administrative forfeiture was not renewed in the legislature. Administrative forfeiture allows state can take property valued under $20,000 and forfeit it by merely providing the individual with a notice.

The full letter said:

Governor Phil Bryant, Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves, and Speaker Philip Gunn:

As you know, during the last legislative session the Mississippi legislature allowed legislative authority for administrative forfeiture to expire at the end of June. This was a significant and important step in addressing problems with civil asset forfeiture and continuing Mississippi’s path in being a national leader in criminal justice reform.

Conservatives rightly understand that private property rights are the bedrock of a free society, and the bar must be high for a government to seize property from its citizens and transfer ownership to the state through forfeiture litigation. Civil forfeiture is controversial because it often means innocent people losing their property to the state in processes that are complex and divorced from the prosecution of the crime that was the basis for the initial seizure.

While criminal forfeiture can and should be used to deprive criminals of their ill-gotten gains, cases of abuse throughout the country show that civil forfeiture—particularly when done administratively and not before a judge—has resulted in untold numbers of innocent property owners losing their vehicles, guns, cash, and other property without ever being charged with or convicted of a crime and the proceeds going to supplement law enforcement agencies’ budgets.

A growing number of states have crafted legislation to rein in the process of civil asset forfeiture and protect private property owners, and the leaders in reforms, New Mexico and Nebraska, have ended civil forfeiture and replaced it with criminal forfeiture, to address the legitimate needs of law enforcement to confiscate the fruit of crime.

Administrative forfeiture is particularly worrisome. This particular practice has come under increasing scrutiny due to its circumvention of judicial safeguards. Administrative forfeiture allowed agents of the state to take property valued under $20,000 and forfeit it by merely providing the individual with a notice. In order to appeal the ruling, an individual was required to file a petition in court and incur significant legal fees. For these reasons, administrative forfeiture was viewed as a particularly pernicious policy that placed lower-income property owners in the impossible situation of deciding whether to pay a large legal bill to get their property back.

For these reasons, we are asking you to oppose reinstatement of administrative forfeiture in Mississippi.

Sincerely,

Jon Pritchett, CEO
Mississippi Center for Public Policy

Aaron Rice, Director
Mississippi Justice Institute

Grant Callen, President
Empower Mississippi

Marc Levin
Right on Crime

Lee McGrath, Senior Legislative Counsel
Institute for Justice

Jason Pye, Vice President of Legislative Affairs
FreedomWorks

David Safavian, General Counsel
The American Conservative Union

A PDF of the letter can be found here.

The Mississippi legislature held a policy hearing on criminal justice reform Monday and there was plenty of agreement among corrections officials, prosecutors, law enforcement, judiciary, and interest groups.

These include spending savings from removing non-violent offenders from the state’s inmate population into job training and drug treatment programs, changing the state’s bond system, reducing the amount of controlled, post-incarceration supervision for non-violent offenders and removing “good faith” clauses from occupational licensing regulations.

The goal is ultimately to build on House Bill 585, which was designed to refocus prison space on violent and career criminals, strengthen community supervision and ensure certainty in sentencing.

In 2018, Gov. Phil Bryant signed another round of criminal justice reforms, HB 387, into law that created a “safety valve” option that allows judges discretion in applying mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders and prohibited incarceration due to the inability to pay a fine or fee among other reforms.

“In all of the corrections conferences I’ve attended, I’ve heard how Mississippi has taken steps forward,” said state Rep. Bill Kinkaide (R-Byhalia), who chairs the House Corrections Committee. “We want to embrace common sense reforms to enhance public safety while being good stewards of taxpayer funds.”

All parties agreed that more needs to be done to end the so-called “revolving door” of recidivism, where offenders keep reoffending and reentering the system because they lack the ability to find employment and build a life outside crime.

“We need to help these people (offenders) be successful or else you have to put them back in prison. That’s the bottom line,” said U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett, who was state judge from 1992 to 2004. “Everything that happens to that person in the criminal justice system affects their ability to be successful. Reentry needs to be addressed meaningfully by Mississippi.”

Starrett told the committee that the amount of time ex-cons spend on supervised release needs to be reduced in half. One reason he cited for reducing post-incarceration supervision was that most recidivism occurs in the first year for inmates after release.

According to Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall, taxpayers have saved $45 million since the enactment of the first round of reforms in 2014. According to Hall, the state’s inmate population was reduced by 11 percent after passage.

She told the joint committee that savings from those inmate population reductions need to be invested in job training and drug treatment programs and pay hikes for correctional officers, who are some of the lowest paid nationally.

Those concerns over spending on job training and drug treatment for offenders were amplified by Hal Kittrell, representing the Mississippi Prosecutors Association, Judge Prentiss Harrell of the 15thCircuit Court of Mississippi, and Sheriff Steve Rushing of Lincoln County, the president of the Mississippi Sheriffs’ Association.

Helping ex-cons enter the workforce was also a concern for the experts testifying before the committee. The Mississippi Center for Public Policy’s Vice President for Policy, Jameson Taylor, recommended that the committee eliminate “good faith clauses” in occupational licensing regulations that prevent ex-felons from receiving occupational licenses. He cited two cases where ex-cons were unable to receive occupational licenses because of these clauses.

Jennifer Riley-Collins, the president of the Americans for Civil Liberties in Mississippi, told the committee that the state’s cash bail system needs to be changed since it disproportionately affects poor families.

California was the first state to eliminate its cash bail system.

She said the state’s average inmate population in county jails, where offenders await trial, averaged about 12,000 or so daily. Of those, she said 56 percent of them can’t afford bail.

“Taxpayers are footing the bill for a system that favors the wealthy and it’s not making our communities any safer,” Riley-Collins said. “You have to pay or you stay. If you can’t afford to pay, you have to stay.”

A new national survey shows that Americans continue to support school choice.

As National School Choice Week kicks off, polling from the national polling firm Beck Research on behalf of the American Federation for Children, finds that 63 percent of Americans “giving parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.”

While school choice is often considered both partisan and controversial, and certainly receives more negative than positive press, it is supported by 72 percent of Hispanic voters, 66 percent of African American voters, and 61 percent of white voters. Ideologically, 75 percent of Republicans back school choice, as do 62 percent of independents and 54 percent of Democrats.

On specific questions, polling finds:

This year, some 40,000 National School Choice Week events are planned throughout the country. The goal is to raise public awareness of all types of education options for children, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, online learning, private schools, and homeschooling.

The largest event in Mississippi will be held at the State Capitol on Tuesday, January 22.

New Census data shows income tax free states as the big winners when it comes to adding residents.

Because of our federalist system, we have 50 states competing with one another for talent, opportunity, and economic resources. Each state is largely free to dictate what they believe is the appropriate level of taxation, regulation, and size of government.

The annual Census estimates help answer the questions of what Americans prefer. With the most recently released data, we once again see low-and-no-income tax states growing.

The two hardest-hit states were New York and Illinois, which lost 48,000 and 45,000 residents, respectively. These states, home to the largest and third largest cities in the country, are both known for burdensome regulations and outsized taxes.

Unfortunately, Mississippi joined New York and Illinois in the group of nine states that lost residents last year. After a small growth last year, Mississippi lost more than 3,000 residents between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018. This marks the third time in four years that population has declined.

Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Florida, Washington, Colorado, and Texas were the eight fastest growing states, in terms of percentage growth. Each state is known for low taxes and a business-friendly climate. By “business-friendly,” we don’t mean corporate cronyism, monopoly protectionism, and regulatory capture schemes for the companies with the greatest legal and lobbying resources. Instead, we mean states with a predictable and low regulatory and tax hurdle for all shapes and sizes of businesses.

So, do people simply decide they are willing to leave a current high-earning job in a high-tax state to avoid income taxes? Not likely. The truth is taxes aren’t the single driver. Opportunity plays a major role, too. These two factors are incontrovertibly linked.

So, what can Mississippi do to become one of the beneficiaries of American migration? It can focus on fostering a climate that attracts and supports entrepreneurs, whether home-grown or imported, and small business owners. Where entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive, private capital is attracted, in the form of investors, to ideas that improve the lives of citizens.

It has always been true that the pursuit of financial gain, through the private profit and loss system, has been the greatest driver of economic prosperity. When small companies become big companies, the economic benefits to that community are infinitely greater than when government tries to orchestrate them.

Mississippi is a place with gracious people, beautiful surroundings, a temperate climate, and an alluring culture. It’s the kind of place that should thrive when the economy is strong and people are free to flee less hospitable places. Why are we not thriving? Because opportunities have been inadvertently limited by government policies. In short, our preference for federal grants and state-based (public) solutions have thwarted the way a free market economy is designed to work.

We rely on the government for too much. Whether for a grant, a subsidy, an incentive, a contract, or a job, we have far too much public sector involvement in our economy. Indeed, 55 percent of our economy is controlled by the public sector. Such behavior does not lead to sustainable economic growth. In prosperous economies, government plays the important but limited role of protecting liberty, property and enforcing contracts; it does not try to control the allocation of economic resources.

Another significant problem we have, which adversely impacts the opportunities to start and run a small business, is our regulatory environment. Although some progress has been made in the area of new regulatory review, we lack a mechanism to repeal or “sunset” outdated or unnecessary regulations. We need a non-governmental, independent review board with the authority to roll back our excessive regulatory environment, beginning with occupational licensing.

The other driver is our business-related sales and property taxes. In Mississippi, we tax land, buildings, inventory, and equipment at higher rates than all surrounding states. Higher taxes reduce business activity. We make this situation worse when we provide tax exemptions to new companies, shifting even more of the tax burden to existing companies. If we have to offer major tax credits to companies to come here, that proves previous lawmakers created an unfavorable business tax climate. Rather than targeting new companies or industries with tax relief, we should target all companies and industries with a lower business tax climate.

Mississippi can make policy adjustments that maximize our potential to participate more fully in a national economy that is prospering like never before. Every state in the South has benefited from the resulting migration of people escaping high tax states with the exception of Mississippi and Louisiana. If we reduce the cost and burden of government and focus our efforts on creating an economy driven by private entrepreneurs and small business owners, the evidence shows us that economic growth and prosperity will follow.

This column appeared in the Daily Journal on January 20, 2019.

Most of Mississippi’s public universities receive passing grades for their policies on protecting free speech, but that doesn’t mean an issue is far away.

Conservative speakers at campuses nationwide have been either disinvited or have drawn protests designed to shut the event down.

Shelby Emmett, the Director of the Center to Protect Free Speech at the American Legislative Exchange Council, says execution of even a well-written freedom of speech policy can be problematic.

Both of the state’s largest universities — Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi — earned green ratings from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education on their speech codes. This means that their policies don’t seriously imperil free speech.

Emmett worked at FIRE before joining ALEC.

“I remember when they contacted and reached out for help with their codes, which is great,” Emmett said. “It’s great to see schools take the initiative, contact organizations to make sure they have their written codes up to par. On paper, it looks like they’re doing it right. But there also are some schools with bad ratings, bad codes, whether they’re free speech zones or very vague or over broad regulations.

“Even the schools with great policies, you want to make sure they’re doing it the right way.”

Emmett says nationwide that vague speech codes at universities that are more concerned with offending an individual rather than protecting freedom of expression were designed with good intentions, but are now being used by politically savvy students to take over and change the culture of the institution.

One of the reasons for the emotional distress components of speech codes was to provide a calm, welcoming environment for veterans returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. She said like most things, this was abused.

She also said that administrators who don’t like a particular subject can let their personal opinions get in the way of protecting all speech if the university doesn’t have strong procedures in place to prevent it.

“I feel for the administrators because they’re between a rock and a hard place,” Emmett said. “They’re dealing with a campus population that wants a certain level of comfort and they’re also paying tuition, which they need to be catering first and foremost to their consumer base.

“It’s easy for me to tell them to get over it when I sit here in the luxury of my office and I’m not actually dealing with a 19-year-old who’s offended that Ben Shapiro came to their campus.”

Not all of Mississippi’s institutions of higher learning receive such high marks from FIRE.

FIRE rates the University of Southern Mississippi and Alcorn State University as yellow, which means some of their policies can restrict a more limited amount of free expression or could be used to ban protected expression. Jackson State University received a red rating from FIRE, which means the university has policies in place that can clearly and substantially restrict protected speech.

Emmett, along with Zack Pruitt of Alliance Defending Freedom, were in Jackson this week for Mississippi Center for Public Policy’s Liberty Luncheon on campus free speech.

Mississippi’s civil asset forfeiture database gives citizens a window into the world of forfeiture.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy is performing an analysis of the data for the first 18 months the database law has been in effect and the biggest takeaways from it are the myriad unknowns.

First, here is what can be confirmed using only the database. The value of the 315 seizures added up to $2,314,648.24 or $7,490 per seizure.

Removing a large outlier forfeiture — the bust of vape shops in Rankin County for selling synthetic cannabinoids also known as spice by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics that led to a more than $600,000 in forfeitures — and the average forfeiture value shrinks to $5,422.

Only three seizures were of $100,000 or more and three more had a value of at least $60,000. Only 25.1 percent of all forfeitures occurred on the state’s two primary drug corridors: Interstates 10 and 20.

As for the unknowns, there are plenty since the law requires only law enforcement agencies to list the description and value of the item seized, a copy of the notice to intent to forfeit, any petitions by property owners to contest the forfeiture and any judge’s order that would include those that cover final disposition of the seized property.

There are no requirements that law enforcement agencies list the type of drug that was involved with the seizure, the circumstances of the seizure or whether charges were filed in connection with the seizure.

Of the 315 forfeitures listed in the database up to December 31, only 137 listed the drug that led to the forfeiture. On the boilerplate notice of intent for forfeit used by many agencies such as the MBN, there is a blank line for listing what drug was involved. Most of the time, it was left blank.

Also, only 91 out of the 315 listed the circumstances that led to the forfeiture, such as a traffic stop or an outstanding felony warrant.

Some law enforcement agencies went above and beyond when it came to reporting requirements to maximize transparency.

The North Mississippi Narcotics Unit — which pools the resources of law enforcement agencies from five counties in the northern part of the state — includes the incident reports in all of its forfeiture documentation. From these, a reader can glean the circumstances of the seizure, the amount of contraband involved and the charges that were filed in connection with the seizure.

There were other law enforcement agencies who had the same laudable level of commitment to transparency: the police departments of Corinth, Prentiss, Byram, Kosciusko and Eupora and the sheriffs’ departments of Pearl River, Alcorn, DeSoto and Madison counties.

All included the incident reports in their forfeiture paperwork.

What law enforcement agencies are seizing is also interesting. Cash seizures represented 47.1 percent of all forfeitures. In two instances, they seized as little as $50.

There were 54 vehicles (average value of $4,974) and this represented 17.1 percent of all seizures.

As for weapons, law enforcement officers seized 63 rifles, 53 pistols and 12 shotguns. There were also 16 cell phones seized, with the vast majority being iPhones.

Last year, the Mississippi Legislature quietly allowed the law that authorized administrative forfeiture to expire. This type allowed law enforcement agencies to seize property with a value less than $20,000 and not even have to file paperwork with a court explaining the basis for the seizure.

There were 47 administrative forfeitures listed in the database, some of which came after the law that authorized them expired on July 1. The average administrative forfeiture was $6,038 and only 12 of the 47 was for $4,000 or more.

There have been some large busts, but most of the time when it comes to civil forfeiture in Mississippi that is not the case.

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