Jackson Free Press

When someone offered Melissa Cooper $700 for some of her prescription pain medication in 2010, she jumped at the opportunity.

"I'm a poor person. I'm in a wheelchair. That's no excuse. I accept that," Cooper said of the transaction and her subsequent arrest and conviction for sale of a controlled substance.

Cooper's guilty plea resulted in a 30-year enhanced sentence because the deal went down close to a church or school (she can't remember which). Former Gov. Haley Barbour freed Cooper on his last day in office, granting her a conditional suspension of her sentence for medical reasons.

As a result of the felony conviction on her record, Cooper said she does not qualify for most federal housing or food programs—but she is required to pay the Mississippi Department of Corrections $55 per month in supervision fees.

"They don't care how I get it or where I get it from," Cooper said. Cooper gave her testimony last Thursday as part of the Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union's presentation to the Senate Drug Policy Committee on the effects of blanket sentencing laws for drug-related crimes.

Nsombi Lambright, the ACLU's executive director, pointed to North Carolina as a potential model for Mississippi. That state established a sentencing commission and implemented a point-based grid that judges use to ensure that the punishment fits the crime.

"Going to prison is easy. Coming out is hard," said Karen Quay, who coordinates the city's Fresh Start program, which is designed to prevent recidivism.

Nothing to Worry About
The people whose lives would be affected by proposed legislation seemed to be making themselves more visible this week at the Capitol.

Representatives from the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, the Catholic Charities' Office of Parish Social Ministry and Mississippians for Biblical Hospitality attended the Judiciary B House committee hearing Friday. The subject was the innocent-sounding Mississippi Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act that seeks to stifle the influx of undocumented immigrants in the state.

The bill requires law enforcement officials to determine the immigration status whenever they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a person is an "alien and is unlawfully present" in the United States," but prohibits an official from considering race, color or national origin in enforcing the act's provisions. The act also protects police officers who enforce the law from being sued. The Judiciary B chairman, Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, modified the bill from its original form, removing a requirement that immigrants keep their papers on them at all times.

"People who are here lawfully have nothing to worry about," under House Bill 488, Gipson said.

Bill Chandler, MIRA's executive director, disagrees. He said Gipson's fixes only protect the state from lawsuits. He compared the push, which is similar to efforts already passed in Arizona and Mississippi's neighbor, Alabama, to the racial-intimidation tactics that drove hordes of African Americans out of the South during the Great Migration.

"You see the concern on the faces of white racists who fear a majority-color state," Chandler said.

The bill passed out of the Judiciary B Committee and moved on to the Education Committee. Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill to permit the establishment of charter schools in the state.