> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Mississippi Learned the Hard Way About Criminal Justice Data. The Courts Must Catch Up - URL: https://mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io/mississippi-learned-the-hard-way-about-criminal-justice-data-the-courts-must-catch-up/ - Published: 2026-09-28T14:35:57.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-29T12:15:07.000Z - Author: Michael D. Morrison - Tags: accountability, court accountability, Court System, Criminal Justice, data-analysis, failure to appear, Government Accountability,, institutional-accountability, Legal Process, Mike Morrison Bail Bonding, Mississippi, prosecution, Public Policy, Public Safety ***Mississippi Changed Criminal Justice Policy Without the Data. Don't Repeat That Mistake.*** The Vera Institute of Justice is again telling the public that “tough-on-crime” policies have failed and that the country needs a different approach to public safety. Vera is a national criminal-justice research and advocacy organization that works with policymakers on sentencing, incarceration, supervision, pretrial practices, and other parts of the justice system. Its current campaign continues many of the same reform ideas that were being promoted nationally during the Obama years. Mississippi has already lived through a major version of that reform movement. In 2014, HB 585 significantly changed sentencing and corrections policy. The law altered probation and parole practices, expanded alternatives to incarceration, created graduated sanctions for supervision violations, established technical-violation centers, and changed how offenders moved through the corrections system. Vera later included Mississippi’s reforms in its own national review of the 2014–2015 criminal-justice reform movement. Some of those changes produced measurable results. Mississippi’s Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force reported that new commitments to prison declined by more than 19 percent between 2014 and 2019\. But the same report showed probation and parole revocations increasing from 36.2 percent of prison admissions before HB 585 to 43.3 percent by 2019\. Parole revocations remained a continuing problem. Fewer prison commitments did not mean accountability problems disappeared. That is one of the central mistakes Mississippi made. We changed major parts of the criminal-justice system without having strong enough statewide reporting to measure everything happening outside the prison gates. For years, NIBRS participation was weak and inconsistent. That made it difficult to know the full extent of crime while major sentencing and supervision policies were being changed. That problem has improved substantially. By 2026, Mississippi reported 230 NIBRS-certified law-enforcement agencies. That is real progress. Mississippi now has a much stronger crime-reporting system than it had during the early years after HB 585\. The problem is that it took years to get there. Jackson is a good example of why confidence in crime data has to be earned. The city has reported major declines in homicides in recent years, but Jackson also has a documented history of inaccurate or incomplete crime reporting. WLBT reported problems with city crime statistics, long gaps in regular public reporting, and 24 homicide victims in 2023 whose cases had not previously been disclosed to the station. WLBT has maintained its own homicide tracker because dependable information was not always easy to obtain from city leadership. Jackson becoming NIBRS compliant in 2025 was an important step forward. But confidence in crime numbers does not return overnight. It has to be rebuilt through consistent reporting, transparency, independent verification, and time. The same accountability now needs to be required inside Mississippi’s court system. The Administrative Office of Courts should require every court in this state to report uniform monthly statistics showing how many defendants were ordered to appear, how many appeared, how many failed to appear, how many bench warrants were issued, how many warrants were served, how many remain outstanding, how many bonds were forfeited, how many defendants were rearrested while another case remained pending, and how many cases were disposed of after the defendant failed to appear. A vital point is the difference between **case completion and court compliance**. If a defendant is ordered to appear and does not come to court, that is a failure to appear. If the case is later closed because the defendant is found **guilty in absentia**, the original failure to appear should not disappear from the statistics. A closed case does not mean the defendant complied with the court’s order. If the system records only the final disposition, the numbers can create a false impression of compliance. That is exactly why the AOC should require statewide monthly reporting that preserves the FTA as a separate event from the final case disposition. Mississippi should also be able to see this data court by court and county by county. How many FTAs occurred? How many warrants followed? How many were served? How many stayed outstanding? How many defendants were rearrested? How many were later found guilty in absentia? How many bond forfeitures were entered? Those numbers should not be buried inside disconnected local systems. HB 585 itself recognized the need for oversight by creating the Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force. That was the correct concept. If the state changes sentencing, supervision, or pretrial practices, somebody has to measure what happens afterward. That is where Vera’s current message should be judged against Mississippi’s own experience. Mississippi has already changed sentencing. We have already changed supervision. We have already reduced prison admissions. We also spent years with weak crime reporting and incomplete visibility into what was happening across the system. Now the state has improved NIBRS reporting. The courts need to catch up. **Mississippi changed its system before while parts of the dashboard were missing. It must not repeat that mistake.** [https://www.reddit.com/u/MSBailAgentsAssoc/s/a1Ua8Lvaa2](https://www.reddit.com/u/MSBailAgentsAssoc/s/a1Ua8Lvaa2?ref=mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io) ### About the Author Mike Morrison is the 2026 PBUS National Bail Agent of the Year, President of the Mississippi Bail Agents Association, and a nationally recognized bail educator, speaker, and criminal justice commentator. With more than 35 years of hands-on experience as a licensed Professional Bail Agent and owner of Mike Morrison Bail Bonding Company in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, he brings a practical, real-world perspective to discussions involving American legal history, institutional accountability, constitutional rights, public safety, technology, and public policy. Morrison is recognized as a bail trainer by the Mississippi Judicial College and is a sought-after guest speaker for judicial, prosecutorial, and industry conferences across the country. He has presented before state judges, justice court clerks, prosecutors, attorneys general staff, and bail professionals nationwide. He also leads professional education and ethics programs for bail agents through the Master Class Bail Agent Series and other national training initiatives. He has published nearly 200 articles examining the institutions, policies, and decisions that affect working Americans. His writing is grounded in decades spent inside courtrooms, jails, communities, and the criminal justice system, and his commentary has surpassed **1.75 million views** across social media in 2026. Independent, plain-spoken, and focused on accountability, Morrison writes and speaks about the intersection of government, liberty, public safety, professional responsibility, and the real-world consequences of public policy in Mississippi and across the nation. © 2026 Mike Morrison. All rights reserved.