The Jackson Public School District is expanding pre-kindergarten services through a $9 million grant from the state, allowing them to serve more 4-year-olds in the city.
The grant comes from the statewide early learning collaboratives program, which are pre-K programs made up of partnerships among school districts, Head Start agencies, childcare centers, and nonprofit groups. The state’s early learning collaboratives have earned high marks for quality on national reports, but have previously been critiqued for limited access.
The JPS collaborative will serve an additional 460 students and is part of a move to double the number of students served statewide by fall 2022. By August, 30 collaboratives will be serving more than 6,000 children across the state.
The Jackson collaborative includes JPS, Jackson State University’s Lottie W. Thornton Early Childhood Center, Little Saints Academy, and Head Start provider Hinds County Human Resource Agency. It will serve 1,226 students, approximately the same number that are currently enrolled in kindergarten with the district.
“The idea behind the collaborative is really to expand access to the same high quality that they would experience in a school-based pre-K program, and to provide the same resourcing and professional development so that you elevate teaching and learning on both ends,” said Michael Cormack, deputy superintendent of JPS.
The collaborative will follow the state’s newly released “Mississippi Beginnings” pre-K curriculum, and will host professional development opportunities once a month on Saturdays. The grant will allow the district to compensate teachers for this additional time, and the trainings will also be open to other childcare professionals that aren’t a part of the collaborative.
JPS Superintendent Errick Greene said in a statement that this grant will help prepare more students to experience success in school. Cormack said the expansion will eliminate the need for considerations of financial need or waiting lists that had previously been a part of JPS’s pre-K admissions process. The program is currently enrolling students and recruiting teachers, and the district is putting an emphasis on trying to get parents to register early so they can plan accordingly.
“I think what’s really exciting is that with the addition of Jackson, we will become the largest collaborative and we will help to build the scale of what the state of Mississippi has been doing,” Cormack said. “Ultimately, we’re hopeful that as we prove this concept and we prove that pre-kindergarten works, that we can help to build to scale the ability to serve all four-year-olds throughout the state. We view that as a part of our challenge, demonstrating what is possible here.”
JACKSON, Miss. – State Auditor Shad White said, “When we issued our civil demands related to the DHS scandal last fall and then turned those demands over to the Attorney General’s Office for enforcement, we knew this day would eventually come. I applaud the team filing this suit and am grateful the state is taking another step toward justice for the taxpayers. We will continue to work alongside our federal partners—who have been given access to all our evidence for more than two years—to make sure the case is fully investigated.”
The Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing 38 people or companies for squandering welfare money that was supposed to address poverty in the poorest state in the nation.
The long awaited civil lawsuit, which intends to claw back roughly $24 million in federal funds misused in a sprawling scandal officials began to unravel almost three years ago, targets famous athletes Brett Favre, former running back Marcus Dupree, former linebacker Paul Lacoste, retired WWE wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase Sr. and his two sons, among others.
The lawsuit details bold disregard from officials and contractors for either effective public spending or for the people they were supposed to be assisting — actions indicative of a state government with a cynical approach to anti-poverty programs.
“I do not understand these people,” attorney Brad Pigott, who wrote the lawsuit, told Mississippi Today by email. “What kind of person would decide that money the law required to be spent helping the poorest people in the poorest state would be better spent being doled out by them to their own families, their own pet projects, and their own favorite celebrities?”
But two entities who received welfare funds through activities referenced in recent criminal pleas — University of Southern Miss Athletic Foundation and tech company Lobaki Inc. — do not appear as defendants in the May 9 filing.
[Editor’s note: A full list of defendants and a copy of the full lawsuit appears near the bottom of this story.]
Nancy New and her son Zach New, who ran a nonprofit that received tens of millions under contracts with the Mississippi Department of Human Services, pleaded guilty in April to several charges bribery and fraud charges related to how they used their nonprofit’s public funding. Much of the money was illegally funneled to other nonprofits or contractors, which were considered “second tier” recipients of the welfare department. The latest civil lawsuit pursues some, but not all of these recipients.
Nancy New admitted to defrauding the government when she paid Lobaki $365,000 to run a virtual reality program. Her son and the nonprofit’s assistant director, Zach New, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for transferring $500,000 to the construction of the physical virtual reality center. He disguised the expenditures as “lease” payments. Zach New also admitted to defrauding the government by transferring $4 million for the construction of the volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi, which was also disguised as a lease.
And yet, they were apparently removed during the drafting phase, because these recipients do not appear among the defendants in the civil suit filed Monday.
Pigott, the former U.S. Attorney who was hired by MDHS to craft the lawsuit, and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, who is also on the suit, have not discussed their process for choosing which welfare recipients to pursue in the case. Many, but not all, of the defendants received demand letters last year from the State Auditor’s Office, the agency that originally investigated the case. The athletic foundation and Lobaki did not.
MDHS was ready to file this lawsuit over six months ago, shortly after independent auditors completed a forensic audit of the welfare program, according to media reports. But the attorney general’s office, which has authority over lawsuits filed on behalf of the state, had to give the agency the green light.
“We wanted this suit to be the best possible suit for the people of Mississippi and we weren’t going to work on any artificial timelines to get a final product,” Michelle Williams, a spokesperson the attorney general’s office, told Mississippi Today last week.
At the center of the welfare scandal is the state’s decision to contract with New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center and another nonprofit called Family Resource Center of North Mississippi to run a state-sanctioned program called Families First for Mississippi. John Davis was the director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services at the time, answering to the governor who appointed him, Phil Bryant. Christi Webb ran the nonprofit in the north.
By 2017, the second year of Davis’ administration, the state was making unprecedented up-front, multi-million dollar payments to the two nonprofits. Most of the money came from a flexible federal block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF.
The lawsuit seeks to establish that Davis and Nancy New agreed together to disregard federal laws that stipulate how states may spend federal welfare dollars. Davis would push millions to the two nonprofits, which used the funds on pet projects, and in exchange, the nonprofits would pay for things that Davis wanted, such as hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contracts to his family members and wrestler friends and luxury travel arrangements for himself, the lawsuit says.
“That illegal quid pro quo agreement and conspiracy between Davis and New resulted in all of the transfers of TANF funds for non-TANF purposes,” the lawsuit reads.
Mississippi Department of Human Services is asking the court for damages of $23.3 million from Davis and $19.4 million from Nancy New and her nonprofit. These figures represent many of the same expenditures.
But the lawsuit also asserts that the people and organizations who received funding from the nonprofits, who are named as defendants, are also liable because they knew they were receiving payment indirectly from MDHS, “which was not designed or authorized to donate public funds for the private enrichment of wealthy individuals or organizations.”
The lawsuit also says none of the recipients possessed special skills that would allow them to be paid as a contractor for the state’s anti-poverty program, and that they knew they were selected despite lacking experience or qualifications in TANF programming and without a competitive selection process.
The civil complaint represents just the first step of the state’s pursuit of repayment, and attorneys may amend the filing to add defendants when the discovery process is underway.
Circumstances outlined in the lawsuit echo Mississippi Today’s reporting in its investigative series, “The Backchannel,” including Brett Favre’s involvement in the use of MDHS funds to purchase personal investments in the pharmaceutical start-up Prevacus, which was developing a treatment for concussions.
Favre already knew that Nancy New had access to millions in few-strings-attached federal grant funds because he got her to pay $5 million towards the new volleyball stadium that the quarterback was credited with helping build at their alma mater University of Southern Mississippi, texts show.
Favre encouraged his business partner, Prevacus founder Jake Vanlandingham, “to solicit Nancy New to use MDHS grant proceeds to invest in the stock of Prevacus,” the lawsuit reads.
“She has strong connections and gave me 5 million for Vball facility via grant money. Offer her whatever you feel like,” Favre wrote Vanlandingham by text, Mississippi Today first reported.
This text came just two days after the two men met with then-Gov. Phil Bryant to discuss how to elevate and find funding for the company.
While the lawsuit highlights the Prevacus payments — which are also the subject of criminal charges against New and Davis — it does not scrutinize the role of the former governor Phil Bryant, who was also offered stock in the company.
During his last year in office, Bryant used his political influence to help advance Prevacus’ interests. The governor was set to accept the stock after he left office, texts show, but arrests derailed his arrangement.
These details do not appear in the initial civil complaint filed Monday.
The lawsuit describes the Jan. 2, 2019, meeting at Favre’s home, during which he, Vanlandingham, Davis and Nancy and Zach New discussed the deal. On paper, the parties agreed that the News would pay Prevacus $1.7 million in exchange for the promise that Prevacus would locate its clinical trial sites in Mississippi. Later, the News would funnel more money into an offshoot called PreSolMD, which Vanlandingham said was developing a preventative cream.
“That representation of that motive or purpose, for investing $1.7 million of TANF funds into Prevacus and/or PreSolMD, was false,” the lawsuit reads. “The written Agreement was a sham, as it concealed the material fact that the actual purpose of the transaction was financially to benefit Defendants Nancy New, Zach New, Jesse New, Jacob Vanlandingham, Brett Favre, Prevacus and PreSolMD.”
The New nonprofit also paid Favre individually $1.1 million under a contract with Favre Enterprises that required the athlete to “speak at three different public events, and one ‘keynote address,’ and that Favre sign autographs at events promoting MCEC itself.”
Neither Favre nor his company, the lawsuit reads, “ever performed any such speaking or autograph ‘services.’ Certainly no services were performed by Favre that had anything to do with the pursuit of lawful TANF purposes.”
The lawsuit asks for a $3.2 million judgement against Favre and $1.1 million against his company. It also asks for $2.1 million from Vanlandingham and his companies.
The civil complaint also chronicles how Davis’ brother-in-law Brian Smith and his nephew Austin Smith, the DiBiase wrestlers, friends of the wrestlers, Brett Favre and his pharmaceutical venture, and other football players came to receive millions in welfare funds.
While Davis was living at the same residence as the Smiths, he got the nonprofits to pay his sister’s husband Brian Smith or his companies over $600,000 in a nine-month span, including a $150,000 lump sum on his first pretend day of employment and $365,050 through a fake “lease” on a building that did not exist. Davis also arranged for the nonprofits to pay his 24-year-old nephew Austin Smith, who also lived at the same house, $426,397 over 17 months. They said he was teaching coding skills to needy students.
“He was not,” the lawsuit reads.
A Hinds County grand jury reindicted Davis in late March on new bribery and conspiracy charges. The new indictment says he acted in concert with or aided, among others, his sister, Twyla Smith, and her husband, the brother-in-law Brian Smith, but officials have not charged any of the Smiths.
After developing a close relationship with Teddy DiBiase Jr., Davis elevated the wrestler within the department and arranged for him and his companies to receive payment from the nonprofits, the lawsuit says. The wrestler received over $3 million in anti-poverty funds to, among other things, “address the multiple needs of inner-city youth,” the lawsuit reads, though he possessed no qualifications to provide TANF services. He received duplicate payments of $700,000 from each nonprofit, “but not in exchange for services actually performed by Teddy DiBiase,” the lawsuit reads.
“Teddy DiBiase, who spent most of his workday hours accompanying John Davis at MDHS offices and on trips, made no substantial effort to supply any such contractual services, either as an individual or through any organization or entity,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit says Nancy New’s other son Jess New, an attorney and director of the Mississippi State Oil and Gas Board, helped arrange legal entities for Teddy DiBiase so the wrestler could receive more welfare funds.
Davis also directed New to transfer $30,000 in TANF funds to the Northeast Mississippi Football Coaches Association, the lawsuit says, as a reward for the organization selecting Teddy DiBiase as its 2018 banquet speaker.
Teddy DiBiase’s brother Brett DiBiase also received duplicate payments from each of the nonprofits totaling $600,000 and “never performed services of any significance which served any lawful TANF purpose.” Brett DiBiase, who also went to a luxury rehab clinic in Malibu on the nonprofit’s dime and was paid as a contractor while he was there, is the only TANF subrecipient to face criminal charges. He pleaded guilty to fraud in 2020 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
The lawsuit also alleges the luxury treatment center, Rise in Malibu, knew or should have known they were receiving funds illegally, and names the facility as a defendant.
Davis got the nonprofit to pay for his travel, including first class flights, a luxury hotel suite and a chauffeured limousine, to visit Brett DiBiase in California while he was in treatment.
The lawsuit says Teddy DiBiase urged Davis to divert $1.7 million in TANF funds to his father Ted DiBiase Sr.’s ministry called Heart of David. The department contracted directly with the ministry to provide services for eligible needy people. “After receiving TANF funds pursuant to those contracts, however, they substantially ignored all lawful TANF purposes (and all of the interests of all potential beneficiaries or lawful TANF services).”
Ted DiBiase Sr. used some of the money for his personal expenses, did not maintain any personnel files or a financial management system, and while his organization maintained a website, one of the only visible, public facing products of the program, “the website content was entirely created at MDHS expense by an employee of MDHS, as ordered by John Davis,” the lawsuit reads. Davis, Webb and Family Resource Center employee Amy Harris also arranged for the nonprofit to pay Ted DiBiase Sr. a lump sum of $250,000 for motivational speaking.
When he received the check, Ted DiBiase Sr. emailed his sons, “Look what I got today!” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit asks for almost $2.9 million in damages from Teddy DiBiase and the same from his companies, almost $2 million from Ted DiBiase Sr., $1.7 million from Heart of David, $824,258 from Brett DiBiase, $48,000 from his company Restore2 LLC, and $160,000 from Rise in Malibu.
The lawsuit says Teddy DiBiase Jr. also urged Davis to divert TANF funds to a consulting and management services contractor Adam Such. Davis got Webb to pay Such $250,000, the lawsuit says, to pretend to operate a “Center for Excellence” and a “referral network,” though “nothing of substance was expected of or delivered by Such.”
Davis similarly arranged for TANF money to go to Teddy DiBiase’s business associate Nick Coughlin, an aspiring actor and reality TV contestant who worked for powerful law firm Butler Snow and in the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office in 2020, though he is not an attorney. His degree is in business and marketing from Mississippi College, according to his resume. His resume says his skills are in marketing, brand management, economic development and motivational speaking.
Coughlin received almost $169,000 “to perform vague tasks such as having ‘conversations with industry leaders,’” the lawsuit reads, though he and his company “never engaged in any substantial activity … much less did they do anything toward pursuing lawful TANF purposes.”
Former linebacker and Jackson native Lacoste, described as “active in political affairs in Mississippi,” the lawsuit says, knew or should have known that Davis ran a government agency charged with assisting the disadvantaged when the athlete proposed the director divert money to his fitness program. His company Victory Sports Foundation received $1.3 million to conduct “fitness boot camps” in Flowood, Madison and Pascagoula, the lawsuit says, which were not lawful under TANF guidelines.
The lawsuit asks for $1.3 million in damages from Lacoste and his company.
Both nonprofits paid Marcus Dupree large salaries to act as a “celebrity endorser” and “motivational speaker,” and the New nonprofit effectively purchased and paid the mortgage on a 15-acre property in Flora in the name of Dupree’s nonprofit, Marcus Dupree Foundation, but which the athlete used as his private residence.
The lawsuit asks for $371,000 in damages from Dupree and his foundation.
The lawsuit also attempts to recoup funds from four other entities that it says illegally received TANF funds, SouthTec, Inc., Chase Computer Services Inc., Warren Washington Issaquena Sharkey Community Action Agency and Soul City Hospitality. Mississippi Today first reported that Jackson restauranteur Jeff Good’s nonprofit, Soul City Hospitality, received federal funds through a sublease agreement with the New nonprofit for a project that was supposed to turn “ugly” produce into meals for poor residents. The program fed no one.
The lawsuit asks for damages, plus additional awards for legal fees, from the following defendants:
John Davis ($23,256,224)
Brian Smith ($615,894)
Austin Smith ($426,398)
Nancy New ($19,403,504)
Mississippi Community Education Center ($19,403,504)
New Learning Resources Foundation Inc. ($6,513,393)
Zachary New ($2,100,000)
Jesse New ($2,654,221)
Magnolia Strategies LLC ($554,221)
Family Resource Center of North Mississippi ($3,852,720)
Christi Webb ($3,852,710)
Amy Harris ($250,000)
Brett Favre ($3,200,000)
Favre Enterprises ($1,100,000)
Jake Vanlandingham ($2,100,000)
Prevacus, Inc. ($2,100,000)
PreSolMD, LLC ($2,100,000)
Ted DiBiase Sr. ($1,971,223)
Heart of David Ministries Inc. ($1,721,223)
Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. ($2,897,487)
Priceless Ventures LLC ($2,197,487)
Familia Orientem LLC ($700,000)
Brett DiBiase ($824,258)
Restore2 LLC ($48,000)
Rise in Malibu ($160,000)
Adam Such ($250,000)
SBGI LLC ($250,000)
Nicholas Coughlin ($168,733)
NCC Ventures LLC ($168,733)
Paul LaCoste ($1,309,183)
Victory Sports Foundation, Inc. ($1,309,183)
Marcus Dupree ($371,000)
Marcus Dupree Foundation ($371,000)
SouthTec, Inc. ($137,935)
Chase Computer Services, Inc. ($375,750)
Soul City Hospitality LLC ($200,000)
Warren Washington Issaquena Sharkey Community Action Agency ($49,190)
Many of the dollar figures calculated in the lawsuit represent overlapping debts, meaning the total the state could recoup from all defendants is roughly $24 million.
For example, the amount owed by Brett Favre, $3.2 million, includes the same $1.1 million owed by Favre Enterprises, so the total that the state seeks to recoup from those two is $3.2 million.
While Favre has returned $1.1 million to the state, the money is sitting in an account at the State Auditor’s Office, which means, for purposes of the lawsuit, he still owes the money to the welfare department.
Because the money flowed from Davis’ department and most of it through Nancy New’s nonprofit, the lawsuit claims Davis and Nancy New are jointly liable for the large amount that they and others illegally spent. If any of the subrecipients pay their damages, that would likely reduce the debts for Davis and Nancy New.
If the court assesses damages, the welfare department can force the defendants to disclose their assets and ability to pay to ensure the state recoups as much as possible. In cases where the court determines damages are owed due to fraudulent actions, the defendants will not be able to get rid of those debts by filing for bankruptcy.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has declined several interview requests from Mississippi Today about the welfare scandal, but it said in a statement in 2020 that it was waiting for the state’s investigation to conclude before attempting itself to claw back misspent funds.
John Davis and a young former procurement officer for the agency, Gregory “Latimer” Smith, are now the only people with pending criminal charges related to the welfare scandal. Smith, who is facing conspiracy, embezzlement and fraud charges, did not allegedly receive any of the funds himself. Hinds County recently charged Davis in a superseding indictment and the judge rescheduled his trial for Sept. 26, 2022.
Nancy New and Zach New, who pleaded guilty to separate federal charges for bilking public school funds for their private school, recently received plea deals in the state welfare fraud case. The deals ensured that they would receive no additional time beyond their federal sentence for their crimes in the welfare case. They agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.
None of the other civil suit defendants have faced criminal charges, which come with a higher burden of proof than civil charges.
Federal authorities have also not brought any criminal charges in the welfare scandal.
The U.S. Attorneys Office and FBI have declined to comment, but recent plea deals indicate their investigation is ongoing.
An April report issued by the United States Department of Justice found that conditions in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman violated the US Constitution. The report was the culmination of a two-year investigation by the Department of Justice and examined whether Mississippi prisons violated constitutional protections.
This investigation was launched under the Trump Administration Justice Department on the heels of a weeks-long prison riot at Parchman that generated national media attention.
Here’s a breakdown of what the report means, what the investigation found, how it impacts Mississippians, and what comes next.
How is this unconstitutional?
Congress granted statutory authority to the Department of Justice to investigate state prison conditions for Constitutional violations. These violations center around two provisions: the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law. Previous court decisions establish the precedent for what constitutes a constitutional violation.
Courts have been clear that the Constitution does not require that prisons be comfortable, nor that they be free of violence. When determining whether conditions in a prison constitute cruel and unusual punishment, courts use a two-pronged test.
Conditions must result in “extreme deprivation of the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities,” and prison officials must also act with “deliberate indifference” to these conditions.
The investigation into Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman examined mountains of evidence and concluded that conditions there meet these conditions, resulting in a violation of the basic Constitutional rights of individuals housed there.
What did the investigation find?
The report issued by the Department of Justice is over 60 pages long and contains dozens of examples of conditions inside Parchman. Many of these stories resemble something from a horror novel.
Through documentation provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections, the Department of Justice paints the following picture of life inside Parchman:
Extreme Violence: Attacks are common, brutal, and often go unresolved. People incarcerated as well as correctional officers are regularly faced with life-threatening violence. Attacks often go unseen, perpetrators are rarely identified, and there are no consequences.
Lack of Supervision: Entire units often go unpatrolled four hours at a time. People incarcerated resort to calling 911 dispatch to alert guards to violence or receive medical attention. Fires have been set to receive attention from correctional officers.
Uncontrolled Gang Activity: Lack of supervision presents a leadership vacuum which is filled by gangs. Criminal gangs exert control over the population on a regular basis.
Excessive Contraband: The prison is flooded with contraband regularly. Cell phones, drugs, and weapons are readily available. Cell phones and weapons facilitate collaboration for violence within the prison. The presence of drugs undermines potential rehabilitative programming.
Deplorable Conditions: People incarcerated are routinely denied the ability to shower. Raw sewage can encroach into living quarters. Lack of air conditioning causes metal buildings to reach temperatures in excess of 120 degrees, exacerbating medical issues.
Lack of Treatment: Mental health services are substandard, resulting in a lack of treatment for people with mental health issues. This contributes to outbreaks of violence and suicides. Suicidal threats are ignored and facilities are not up to par, allowing people on suicide watch to complete suicide.
Endemic Understaffing: A staffing analysis revealed that Parchman is understaffed by up to 50 percent. This is a root issue contributing to many of the problematic conditions within the facility. Understaffing results in situations where one guard is assigned to supervise 180 people for 12 hours at a time, with no ability to walk the housing unit and supervise the people incarcerated there.
Why should we care?
All individuals are entitled to basic constitutional protections, even when incarcerated.
Setting aside the constitutional concerns, conditions in Parchman present a clear danger to public safety. Lack of supervision causes diversion of law enforcement resources to maintain order in the prison. The 2019 riots required the Department of Corrections to seek assistance from the local Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol to restore order. This diverts law enforcement resources from the communities they serve.
Ninety-five percent of people incarcerated in Mississippi prisons will be released at some point. Subjecting them to a miserable existence surrounded by constant violence makes it near-impossible for them to seek any sort of rehabilitation, and increases the likelihood that they will commit another crime when they are released.
This situation results in a huge drain on taxpayer resources. The state pays overtime to fill in the gaps caused by understaffing, the state is forced to pay increased medical costs as a result of routine violence and poor conditions, and increased recidivism drive up future costs as well.
What’s Next?
In their report, the Department of Justice is unequivocal in its findings: conditions at Parchman are unconstitutional. The report explains that the Department maintains the ability to file suit against the State of Mississippi to correct these conditions. This could happen as soon as June 8, within 49 days of the report’s publication on April 20. A lawsuit could result in federal oversight or control of Mississippi’s prisons. This would place the state in a difficult position, as the federal government could force Mississippi to spend billions of dollars to correct the issues, with little ability to control the outcome. This played out recently in Alabama, where the federal government forced the state to spend billions on prison improvements.
Mississippi can work to proactively address these issues. While the state legislature has adopted a number of justice reforms in recent years, these have not materially changed the situation in prisons like Parchman. Almost all of the issues identified in this investigation are due at least in part to lack of staff and lack of training. With the third highest incarceration rate in the country, Mississippi simply cannot afford to hire and train the number of correctional officers needed to safely operate its prisons.
Improvements will almost certainly require spending more state tax dollars to hire more staff and better equip them. But it’s doubtful that this alone will be enough, as Mississippi simply cannot afford to spend the amount of money required to maintain its oversized prison population.
Reforms will need to target safely reducing the state’s prison population, which can be accomplished with these policy changes:
Reduce long sentences for non-serious offenses: People are currently serving life sentences in Mississippi for drug offenses. The state’s sentencing laws can result in decades-long sentences for non-violent offenses. Limiting these long sentences would allow the Department of Corrections to focus its resources on those incarcerated for serious crimes. For more on sentencing reform in Mississippi, click here.
Expand alternatives to incarceration: Alternative sanctions like drug courts and diversion are proven to provide better outcomes than prison. Mississippi could expand these options to reduce the strain on the state’s prison system, especially for people with mental health issues or problems with substance abuse. Click here for more on drug courts and diversion programs in Mississippi.
Former Gov. Phil Bryant has constantly been in the news in recent weeks thanks to the reporting of Mississippi Today’s Anna Wolfe about his involvement in the welfare fraud scandal that engulfed the Department of Human Services that he used to oversee.
But back in the mid-2000s, then-Auditor Phil Bryant was in the news nearly daily regarding a different instance of government fraud: he was investigating the Mississippi Beef Plant scandal.
The Republican Bryant, a former deputy sheriff, had been projected then as a hard-charging investigator attempting to get to the bottom of how Mississippi leaders spent $55 million in state funds to develop a beef processing plant in rural Yalobusha County that stayed open for just three months — little more than a blink of an eye — before closing for good.
Today, Bryant is a former governor who says he has no idea how at least $77 million in federal grant funds intended to help the state’s poor climb out of poverty were misspent by his Department of Human Services. People who worked for Bryant are facing felony criminal charges related to misspending the funds, but officials haven’t accused Bryant of wrongdoing. Since Mississippi Today’s series published, however, some are calling for Bryant to be investigated.
Bryant said he was not paying attention to his text messages — obtained by Mississippi Today and first published in “The Backchannel” investigation — that showed former Southern Miss and NFL quarterback Brett Favre informing the governor that grant funds were funding a private drug venture that the Hall of Famer had invested in.
When Bryant later received texts about possibly receiving stock in the drug company in exchange for his help while in office, the governor responded, “Cannot till January 15th,” referring to his first day out of office. “But would love to talk then. This is the type of thing I love to be a part of. Something that save lives…”
Shortly after leaving office and after setting up a private consulting firm, Bryant again received the stock offer from drug company leaders. He replied: “Sounds good. Where would be the best place to meet. I am now going to get on it hard…”
During his beef plant investigation in 2004-05, Bryant chastised then-Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell for not comprehending the foolhardy nature of the state investing in the beef plant.
Steve Holland, then a colorful state representative from Lee County, boldly took credit, saying he and fellow northeast Mississippi representative, Billy McCoy, a former House speaker, “birthed” the idea of the beef plant during Natchez Trace commutes to the Capitol. Holland said they believed the project could be a Nissan Plant for rural Mississippi, referring to the auto manufacturing plant that had opened in Canton near Jackson thanks in part to significant state incentives.
Holland’s statement claiming credit was played on a loop on conservative radio. The same radio station decked out a recreational vehicle in beef plant paraphernalia and circled the Capitol reminding people of the fiasco. They said it would be only a matter of time before an ongoing federal investigation, aided by none other than Auditor Bryant, brought charges against those Democrats who “birthed” the beef plant.
During one radio interview at the time, Bryant said, “You know it is always difficult for me to talk about, but if I remember a report published where the U.S. attorney had told … Judge Biggers that we can expect more indictments, or another indictment would be forthcoming soon … Like I said, this is not over. Every day I’m spending time talking with the U.S. Attorney’s office as we continue this program.”
In the end, a handful of the beef plant contractors served time in prison. They pleaded guilty to embezzling state money and cutting corners that resulted in an already questionable project never having a chance. There were two contractors who pleaded guilty to essentially making campaign contributions to former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove with the expectation of receiving favorable treatment.
Bryant and the beef plant stayed in the news with people speculating that indictments of public officials were just around the corner. But federal prosecutors never charged Musgrove with any quid pro quo. None of the state lawmakers that conservative radio hosts said would face charges were ever charged with a crime.
Then-state Rep. Jamie Franks, D-Mooreville, tried to flip the script on the beef plant in his unsuccessful 2007 campaign against Bryant for lieutenant governor. Franks pointed out that McCoy had inserted language in the legislation “birthing” the beef plant an appropriation of $50,000 for Bryant’s office to monitor the program. Only $10,000 of the funds were spent, said Franks, who accused Bryant of only becoming interested in the project after it abruptly closed days after it opened.
“He simply didn’t do his job,” Franks said.
Bryant countered that he warned people early on of the infeasibility of the project.
At any rate, the facility the state built for the beef plant has now been utilized for nearly 15 years. Frozen food manufacturer Ajinomoto employs about 500 Mississippians at the site — maybe not a Nissan plant, but a significant number of jobs in rural Yalobusha County.
It is difficult to imagine any positive results will come from the welfare scandal and that misspending of $77 million. And today, the statewide conservative network that broadcast so much speculation about pending charges in the beef plant scandal is radio silent on the new revelations in the welfare scandal.
Faculty, who had no formal input on the changes, say the revised criteria are vague and could be easily used by presidents to target outspoken or marginalized colleagues in Mississippi, particularly considering that IHL used similar language to oust liberal professors during the civil rights movement.
As a job protection, tenure ensures that faculty can’t be fired without just cause. IHL’s policy changes create new criteria thatuniversity presidents can use to decide whether to award tenure at the end of the six-year, rigorous review process, including a faculty member’s “collegiality,” “effectiveness, accuracy and integrity in communications,” and “contumacious conduct,” a factor that was previously only included in the board’s dismissal policy.
“It’s not clear what these terms mean in practice,” said Brian LaPierre, the outgoing president of University of Southern Mississippi’s faculty senate. “They’ll have to be defined.”
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says contumacious means “stubbornly disobedient” or “rebellious.” The IHL has included the word in employment contracts for years as a reason a faculty member could be dismissed. But how does IHL define the term?
In an email, spokesperson Caron Blanton wrote the board does not define contumacious conduct in its policies, but that “it is based on the standard definition of the word and aligns with language in tenured and tenure-track contracts.”
As a reason to dismiss a faculty member, contumacious conduct is a somewhat rare standard in higher education. In a 2005 survey, the American Association of University Professors found that the term was included in the dismissal policies of just two colleges.
The term has a long historyin Mississippi. Ever since the Legislature created the IHL in 1943, the board has had “the power and authority to terminate any such contract at any time for malfeasance, inefficiency or contumacious conduct, but never for political reasons.”
‘The time has come to fumigate some of our college staffs’
In late 1963, a year after James Meredith enrolled at University of Mississippi, James Silver was in North Carolina to give a speech on what he called the state’s “closed society.” Silver, a white man born in New York, had taught at UM for 22 years. In that time, he earneda reputation as “a threat to the status quo” in Mississippi due to his support for minimum wage laws, criticism of the Confederacy, and a false suspicion that he was Jewish.
In North Carolina, Silver delivered an acerbic address, telling the audience that white supremacy was so calcified in Mississippi, it had created “a climate where non-conformity is forbidden, where the white man is not free, where he does not dare to express a deviating opinion without looking over his shoulder.”
Almost immediately, segregationist politicians condemned Silver’s talk and called on the IHL board to fire him. A few days later, John Bell Williams, a U.S. representative, told the Mississippi L.P. Gas Dealers Association that “the time has come to fumigate some of our college staffs and get those who will teach Americanism and not foreign ideologies.”
The IHL board was limited in how it could respond to these calls. Just two years earlier, UM had denied tenure to William Murphy, a law professor who was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. The law school almost lost its accreditation, and following the backlash, the board created its first state-wide tenure policies. If IHL fired Silver, it would be risking accreditation all over again.
Nonetheless, five months later, wire reports announced the board believed it had found a way to fire Silver that “would not be taken on political grounds.” The board undertook an investigation, hiring private detectives to follow Silver and ultimately landed on 15 reasons to fire Silver for “contumacious conduct.”
The reasons were primarily statements Silver made in his address about the riot at UM when a segregationist mob erupted in violence and killed two people after Meredith enrolled. The board also asked Silver to account for his activities on the night of the riot, and to provide a list of his “endeavors in recruiting new doctoral candidates, students and faculty members.”
It seemed the charges were set to go through, until the board abandoned them just a few months later in 1964 by allowing Silver to take a leave of absence to teach at University of Notre Dame.
Faculty at other universities in Mississippi weren’t as lucky. That same year, Alcorn State University’s president fired two faculty members, Paul and Bessie Taylor, for contumacious conduct. The Taylors believed they were targeted because they were members of the American Association of University Professors, an advocacy organization, historian Joy Ann Williamson-Lott wrote in her book “Jim Crow Campus.”
The AAUP complained, but the Taylors never got their jobs back, because the board backed the president.
“In other words, the board cared enough about the status and reputation of the state’s white flagship public institution to appease accreditation boards,” Wiliamson-Lott wrote, but that same concern did not extend to faculty at the Black colleges.
‘What defines collegially? Is it me being nice to you?’
The new policies also remind many faculty of a more recent firing at UM. In late 2020, the university suddenly terminated Garrett Felber, a tenure-track professor in the history department, because he did not sufficiently communicate with his chair, Inside Higher Ed reported. Provost Noel Wilkin told the outlet the decision to not renew Felber’s contract was based on “multiple instances where Dr. Felber refused to speak” with his chair, which “made it impossible to maintain a productive working relationship.”
Felber, who settled with the university last year, has said he never refused to talk with his chair. He maintains he was targeted for criticizing administrative decisions and because he organized for prison abolition. Felber noted that just a few months before he was fired, his chair had praised his research and service to the campus.
Tenure is traditionally awarded based on three criteria: Teaching, research and service to the university. These standards are usually elaborated on in handbooks that universities create with input from faculty. For instance, a handbook might define a faculty member’s “service” to the university as participating in the faculty senate or advising a student organization.
Some Mississippi universities address collegiality in their handbooks but do not require it as a criteria for tenure. At University of Southern Mississippi, candidates for tenure are evaluated on their collegiality but only in the context of the three traditional areas.
Jackson State University appears to be the only school that considers “professional collegiality” as a specific criteria for awarding tenure. Jackson State defines collegiality in forms faculty use to apply for tenure by listing a number of criteria, such as showing up to class on time and participating in university functions like convocation.
Still, some faculty say even those standards are slippery.
“What defines collegially? Is it me being nice to you? Is it me being collaborative across departments? It’s the most vague of all of the areas of which you are examined,” said Robert Luckett, a tenured history professor and the director of Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center. “I don’t think that anyone has taken it seriously as something that impacts your actual promotion and tenure.”
The AAUP has never approved of “collegiality” as a reason to fire or not grant tenure to a faculty member, because of the possibility for abuse, said Greg Scholtz, the director of the organization’s academic freedom department.
The organization often advises faculty who are negotiating with their universities on language in handbooks or contracts. Scholtz said that in cases where universities have insisted on including “collegiality” as a criteria for tenure, the AAUP asks that the factor be evaluated the way USM does: In conjunction with a candidate’s teaching, research or service, not on its own.
Last week, PEN America and FIRE, nonprofits that advocate for free speech in higher education, sent a joint letter that called on the IHL to roll back the policy changes. It’s unlikely the board will do that, which means universities will need to incorporate these policies into handbooks in the fall.
KB Melear, a University of Mississippi professor who specializes in employment law, said it could take a lawsuit for faculty to get better definitions of the new criteria.
Though if a faculty member did sue over the new “collegiality” criteria, it’s likely the university would win the case. A 2010 law review article co-authored by Mary Ann Connell, the former general counsel for UM, found that the courts sided with the university “almost every time” a faculty member claimed collegiality was used to discriminate against them.
“The way that collegiality has been viewed by the courts, it’s been more toward your work environment and productivity and relationships,” Melear said. “I would think it would be quite easy to litigate that, and I think probably that might happen.”
A two-plus year investigation that began under the Trump administration has resulted in a scathing report from the Department of Justice on the status of Mississippi prisons.
Empower Fellow J. Robertson talked about what was in this report and what it means for the state:
OCEAN SPRINGS — Just a few hours before a congressional candidate’s forum was slated to begin on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo’s staff called event organizers and said he couldn’t make it because he had “meetings dealing with national security.”
But as all six of Palazzo’s Republican challengers were still on stage sharing their ideas with the public on Tuesday evening, the incumbent posted a Facebook photo of himself with his son at a restaurant in Starkville. It is unclear if national security was among the topics Palazzo discussed with his college-aged son over dinner Tuesday evening.
Palazzo, the 10-year incumbent congressman representing Mississippi’s 4th District, will be on the June 7 primary ballot for the Republican nomination to Congress. Six GOP challengers — including several well-known Gulf Coast figures — have lined up to unseat him, in large part because of an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that Palazzo illegally misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds for personal use.
Palazzo appears to be testing the limits of incumbency — and lack of voter engagement in a sleepy election cycle — as a means to get reelected. One month from Election Day, it’s difficult to see signs he’s actually running.
Palazzo has skipped both candidate forums this cycle, and his opponents and attendees alike are taking advantage of it. Multiple candidates sharply critiqued his absence on stage Tuesday evening, and members of the audience jeered when it was announced he would not be attending.
The congressman notoriously holds few public events since he was first elected to Congress in 2010. During his first term in Congress, some constituents in south Mississippi began referring to him as “No-Show Palazzo.” That nickname has been regularly tossed around by his opponents on the campaign trail this year.
The congressman hasn’t always shown his face in Washington in recent months, either. He was one of several congressional Republicans to file a 2020 lawsuit against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to stop proxy voting — the process by which members have other congressmen cast votes for them when they are absent.
“By signing on to this lawsuit, I am committing to refrain from lending my vote via proxy or placing a vote via proxy on behalf of another member,” Palazzo said in a 2020 press release. “When South Mississippians sent me to Washington, they placed their confidence and trust in me, not a proxy vote.”
But since he issued that press release, Palazzo has voted by proxy at least 66 times, according to the conservative public policy organization Ripon Society. By comparison, neither of Mississippi’s other two Republican congressmen, Reps. Trent Kelly and Michael Guest, has voted by proxy once in the same timeframe.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell and Hancock County businessman Clay Wagner, two of Palazzo’s GOP primary challengers, have raised more money in 2022 than Palazzo. Ezell and Wagner have started running television ads in the Biloxi and Hattiesburg television markets, while Palazzo is not yet on air.
Ezell, Wagner, and the other GOP primary candidates state Sen. Brice Wiggins, Kidron Peterson, Raymond Brooks and Carl Boyanton have attended both candidate forums.
“Congressman Palazzo is not only campaigning but is also busy doing the job he was elected to do,” said Justin Brassell, Palazzo’s campaign manager. “He was in Tupelo (on Tuesday) at General Atomics and stopped in Starkville on the way home. He was making other official visits around the district (on Wednesday).”
Brassell continued: “He’s happy to campaign on his conservative voting record and work on the Appropriations Committee that helps maintain Mississippi’s key role in homeland security and our national defense. When Republicans win a majority this fall, he will be in a key senior leadership position on Appropriations to continue that important work for our state.”
But the reelection his campaign manager predicts is very much in question thanks in large part to a months-long investigation into Palazzo’s questionable campaign spending.
Mississippi Today previously reported that Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his former spouse nearly $200,000 through companies they own — including thousands to cover the mortgage, maintenance and upgrades to a riverfront home Palazzo owned and wanted to sell. A Mississippi Today report also questioned thousands in Palazzo campaign spending on swanky restaurants, sporting events, resort hotels, golfing and gifts.
A congressional ethics report made public in March 2021 claimed that Palazzo misspent campaign and congressional funds, and says it found evidence he used his office to help his brother and used staff for personal errands and services.
The report says it found “substantial” evidence that Palazzo used his position and office to help his brother, Kyle Palazzo. The actions in question included Rep. Palazzo potentially using his official office and resources to contact the assistant secretary of the Navy to help his brother’s efforts to re-enlist, and paying his brother nearly $24,000 over 10 months as a “political coordinator.”
The report also said the Office of Congressional Ethics found evidence that Palazzo used congressional staffers for personal errands, such as two staffers spending an entire workday looking for iron-on clothing labels for Palazzo’s children’s clothes before they departed for summer camp.
The House Ethics Committee investigation of Palazzo is ongoing. The committee could dismiss the allegations, offer its own rebuke of Palazzo, or pass the matter off for criminal investigation to the U.S. Department of Justice.
JACKSON, Miss. – Today State Auditor Shad White announced Henry Gruno has been convicted of embezzlement in Newton County Circuit Court. The case was prosecuted by District Attorney Steven Kilgore’s office in Judge Caleb May’s courtroom. The guilty plea and sentencing were recorded last month.
Gruno worked as the director of the Mississippi Veterans Affairs (MSVA) cemetery in Newton County prior to his arrest in March 2021. He used MSVA funds to make over $14,000 in personal purchases of fuel and other items like barbecue supplies, toys, and luggage. A $29,818.76 demand letter was issued to him upon his arrest last year.
Judge May sentenced Gruno to serve two years in prison and five years on probation for this crime. The judge also ordered him to repay over $30,000 in restitution and fees.
“This crime is especially disheartening because the money this person stole was meant to maintain the final resting place for many of our Veterans,” said Auditor White. “As the grandson of two Veterans, I’m proud my office was able to be a part of holding this person accountable.”
Suspected fraud can be reported to the Auditor’s office online any time by clicking the red button at www.osa.ms.gov or via telephone during normal business hours at 1-(800)-321-1275.
If Gov. Tate Reeves’ recent vetoes of 10 projects throughout the state totaling about $27 million stand, the power of Mississippi’s executive branch of government could again be expanded.
In 2020, the Mississippi Supreme Court expanded the governor’s authority when it upheld two partial vetoes by the governor despite multiple Supreme Court cases dating back to the 1890s that seemed to greatly limit that authority.
The partial vetoes of House Bill 1353 made by Reeves last week could enhance again the governor’s authority.
As Reeves pointed out in his veto message, Section 73 of the Mississippi Constitution states plainly that “the governor may veto parts of any appropriations bill, and approve parts of the same, and the portion approved shall be law.”
Before the 2020 landmark Supreme Court ruling, the high court had said the governor could not veto what are known as conditions and purposes of appropriations bills, but instead had to veto the entire section allocating a sum of money to an agency.
The 2020 ruling allowed the governor to veto those purposes and conditions. Those purposes and conditions in the 2020 vetoes were $2 million for a hospital in Tate County and $6 million for a program to try to combat health care disparities in the state.
This year it appears the governor is again vetoing purposes and conditions of appropriations bills as the Supreme Court in 2020 interpreted the Constitution to allow. But the bill the governor partially vetoed last week — HB1353 — by legislative parlance is not an appropriations bill. It is a general bill, and nowhere in the Constitution is the governor given the authority to partially veto general bills.
“We take the position these vetoes are improper and not permitted under the law. That is something we are going to be looking at,” House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, said on WJTV’s Mississippi Insight news program.
Gunn continued: “… I am not aware of any provision under the law that allows the governor to veto partially a general bill. He has to veto all of it or none of it … That may be more than people want to understand but there are differences in the types of bills we have up here.”
The Constitution provides a definition of an appropriations bill. Gunn and others said the bill Reeves partially vetoed does not meet the definition of an appropriations bill. Throughout the legislative process, House Bill 1353 was voted on as if it was a general bill, meaning it had a lower threshold of votes needed to pass.
On the other hand, another Reeves partial veto — $50 million for improvements to the University of Mississippi Medical Center — was in an appropriations bill. The bill is the appropriations bill for the University Medical Center.
But whether the Supreme Court justices, whom some observers say displayed a surprising lack of understanding of the legislative process in their 2020 decision, will understand the distinction between general and appropriations bills or even care about the distinction is questionable.
After all, to a “lay person,” HB1353 looks like an appropriations bill. It contains a list of projects throughout the state that received a legislative appropriation.
But Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who filed and won a lawsuit in the early 1990s challenging the partial veto authority of then-Gov. Kirk Fordice, said the money for the projects was appropriated in another bill that was passed and signed into law earlier by Reeves.
The money was appropriated, from the legislative standpoint, in the appropriations bill for the Department of Finance and Administration into various accounts.
The bill Reeves vetoed simply transfers the already appropriated funds from DFA to the various projects.
“We’re just transferring money from one account to another, or from one purpose to another,” Bryan said. “That is not an appropriation. That is a transfer. I understand that to be what they are arguing and will not be subject to the line item.”
Besides strengthening the governor’s authority, the 2020 ruling also reversed previous rulings that said legislators had “standing” to file a lawsuit challenging the partial veto.
The Supreme Court ruled the lawsuit had to be filed by someone or some entity that had been impacted by the partial veto. For instance, the governmental entities and other involved in the development of the recreational area at LeFleur’s Bluff State Park would have the authority to challenge the governor’s veto of $13 million for that project.
Bryan said the worst part of the 2020 ruling was stripping legislators of the authority to challenge the vetoes.
Bryan said it made sense, both legally and practically, for the Supreme Court to settle the dispute between legislators and the executive over partial vetoes.
“We have a Supreme Court that is liable to do anything completely incompetent,” Bryan said.
