Jackson Free Press

Community stakeholders sent a letter to lawmakers on the Health Budget Review Committee asking them to take several steps in working to reform the state's mental healthcare system and focus more community-based mental healthcare.

The letter is reproduced in full below:

Dear Members of the Legislative Mental Health Tax and Budget Review Committee:

We, the undersigned stakeholders, appreciate the concern you have shown by your close examination of the state's mental health budget. But we fear that you and the legislature are ignoring a much more fundamental and dire issue, and what is actually the real problem: Our State's mental health system is antiquated and costly, both in dollars but even more in human lives.

Because our system overly relies on expensive institutional care in state hospitals and other long term care facilities, Mississippi has not developed to scale the types of services in the community that we know will most help people. As a result, many people are torn away from their families and communities. That is unfair to them and violates their basic civil rights. It also deprives us of benefiting from their presence and their contributions. And perhaps most importantly in your examination of the mental health budget, this over reliance on institutional care is why Mississippi is being sued by the Justice Department. In fact, the DOJ has actively promoted community-based services as a means of preventing the needless isolated institutionalization of people with mental illness.

With early and effective intervention, almost all adults and children with mental illnesses can and want to be part of their families, meaningfully contribute to their communities, and work and/or go to school, outside of institutions. It is alarming to us that your budget discussions have started with the assumption that mental health care is best delivered through institutions. That assumption is not true. It is also harmful. You as legislators are in a unique position to transform our mental health system and bring it into the 21st century.

These are some steps that we strongly urge you to take:

• Meet directly with your constituents with mental illness and their families and ask them about their experiences with the mental health system and what would help them live productive lives. We encourage you to hold public hearings throughout the state.

• Visit the Community Mental Health Centers and mental health nonprofits in your district and find out what support they need to deliver these kinds of services. Find out how effectively the money you appropriated is being spent and what support mental health centers need to maximize the impact of the funds.

• Reach out to your counterparts in other states that have transitioned to an effective community-based system to learn how they did it. New Hampshire, Delaware and Georgia are recent examples.

• Partner with the consumer and family organizations that represent people with mental illness. They can and are willing to provide you data, help you gather feedback and …

The late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba didn't just inspire his voters, he also took risks for others without expecting to be repaid in return. As others remembered him, the immigrant community never got to say goodbye to the late Lumumba, who won a Freedom from Fear award in 2011 for an anti-racial profiling ordinance he wrote as a city councilman. But that doesn't mean we're not concerned about ways in which we can keep his legacy alive in our own way. The anti-racial profiling ordinance championed by Mayor Chokwe Lumumba during his time as a city councilman intended to keep the police from inquiring a person's immigration status whenever they were in contact with Jackson police.

Though this ordinance was a step in the right direction, the ordinance wasn't always implemented leading to instances of racial profiling against a local Jackson family recently, which sets a terrible precedent for how Latinos and the various immigrant communities are treated across the state of Mississippi. The time is now to take larger risks for immigrant communities, even if they aren't always able to vote due to their lack of immigration status. Undocumented and documented immigrants alike contribute to Jackson and Mississippi's economy, culture and life on a daily basis, and deserve better recognition and services from the city they call home, build businesses in, and pay taxes to.

Several mayoral candidates are currently sitting in the Jackson City Council, and others are in powerful positions in which they can have a positive impact in immigrant communities. To all Jackson mayoral candidates: you do not have to win this election in order to include us in your future vision or plans for Jackson, and the time to start including us is now. It is especially important to find ways to include those who are undocumented, and youth who are not eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) because they are basically paying taxes without any representation from anyone in the state or federal level, and the City of Jackson has the power to represent those who are not given a voice through regular electoral processes.. Here are some suggestions for what Jackson's mayoral candidates can and must do for immigrant communities whether they win these elections or not:

1. Open city and local job opportunities to undocumented people. Jackson is having a conference on co-operatives and these are endeavors immigrant communities can be a part of. Beneficiaries of the DACA program can now legally work for the city of Jackson, and it's important to encourage them to apply for open positions in the city. Those who are undocumented are legally able to open businesses and participate in work co-operatives using a Tax ID assigned by the IRS or registering an LLC, and it is imperative that the city of Jackson keeps track of this knowledge in order to open more economic doors of opportunity to undocumented people and the city of Jackson itself.

2. Develop and …

Up this time in the beer fridge it's Schlafly APA from St. Louis Brewery; this is a smooth drinking, hoppy pale ale that's worth a taste:

Voting 2-1 this morning, the Mississippi Public Service Commission agreed to let Mississippi Power Co. continue building a lignite coal plant in Kemper County -- at least for the time being

All, I just learned that, on Tuesday, newish Clarion-Ledger Executive Editor Brian Tolley, brought in from Louisiana or somewhere, asked the staff to help "folks who are writing ads for our new subscription model ..." (presumably the dumb charge-for-web stories idea). Apparently those "folks" are probably far from Jackson in some corporatey cubicle, and Tolley doesn't know enough about Jackson to tell them the following, as reported by Gannett Blog ( http://bit.ly/MEDdRU). Tolley's verbatim list:

1. What is your town famous for?
2. What are the local sayings unique to your community?
3. Is there a famous landmark not for tourists, but for locals?
4. Who are the personalities known by everyone in town?
5. Who are your local heroes -- and why?
6. Who are your local villains?
7. What events only happen in your community? (charity events, yearly runs/walks not associated with national programs)

My suggestion is that we help him out. Post below and answer the questions for him. We might even run them in the paper sometime soon.

Enjoy. Meanwhile here's your moment of Zen.

http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2012/jun/28/3144/

Jackson residents are invited to take part in a second telephone town-hall meeting with Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson.

The Hinds County Republican Party said it will also hold a primary election for two seats on the Board of Supervisors.

The county GOP primary will take place Sept. 24 with a runoff on Oct. 8 if necessary. Candidates must qualify by submitting a qualifying form and $15 fee by Friday, July 26 in either the Jackson or Raymond courthouses. The general election is Nov. 5 to replace Doug Anderson, who died earlier this year, and Phil Fisher, who stepped dow to be mayor of Clinton. Anderson represented District 2 and Fisher represented District 4.

Republicans decided to hold a primary only after county Democrats announced plans for primary yesterday, said Hinds County Republican Party Chairman Pete Perry in a statement. Perry said special elections are typically nonpartisan.

On July 1, supervisors temporarily filled the open seats. Al Hunter, owner of contracting firm First Construction Inc., who lives in Edwards, took over for Anderson. Dr. Robert Walker, Vicksburg's first black mayor and now a Byram resident, replaced Fisher.

Walker's appointment also gives all five board seats to African Americans, which has drawn criticism from whites and Republicans because Hinds County's white minority is currently with representation on the board.

The District 4 seat is considered safe for Republicans.

Tons of new music is due out tomorrow...

If you're looking for work or you're ready for a change, it's time to polish your resume.

(Yes, I'm going to get all the mileage I can out of this Public Enemy-esque headline.)

A group called Mississippians for Affordable Energy picketed Tuesday night in Meridian to protest Mississippi Power Co.'s Kemper County coal-fired power plant.

Local TV station, WTOK reported: "The picketers say they were there in protest of the financial burdens on ratepayers as Mississippi Power constructs the lignite plant, as well as a fundraising dinner that was in progress tonight for Central District Public Service Commissioner Lynn Posey."

The news station noted that the protestors set up outside of Weidmann's, a fancy joint in downtown Meridian.

Posey, a Republican, has consistently voted in favor of Mississippi Power and Kemper. And even though Posey won't be up for re-election again for another couple years, it's possible that he is banking that the growing unpopularity and price tag of Kemper -- almost $5 billion -- won't sit well with central-district voters in 2015.

Meridian is approximately 30 miles south of where Kemper construction is taking place.

Where to get some vinyl records this weekend and new releases...

Francis P. Smith Jr., pastor of Total Praise and Worship on Cedar Lane in south Jackson, has qualified for the race to be the next mayor of Jackson, information from the city clerk's office shows.

Smith competed as an Independent in the June 2013 general election for mayor, which late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba won in a landslide.

In an interview leading up to that contest, Smith told the Jackson Free Press: "I'm running for mayor, simply, to bring Jackson out of the slum, out of the abyss, out of the pits of hell."

Smith served as the Housing and Rehabilitation Manager for the city from 2002 through 2011 under Harvey Johnson Jr.'s administration and, later, the Frank Melton administration.

The JFP reported last year:

In that position, Smith supervised the Housing and Rehabilitation staff as they enforced city codes, executed community improvement projects, assured recipients spent Community Development Block Grants funds properly, and assisted elderly and disabled citizens with housing needs, such as roofing, electrical, plumbing and foundational repairs.

Smith is just the third candidate to officially qualify for the April 8 nonpartisan contest to replace Lumumba, who died late last month.

This week's regional pick and new releases...

Bennie Thompson, the only African American and only Democrat representing Mississippi in Congress, is locking horns with Gov. Phil Bryant over the guv's staunch objection to Medicaid expansion.

Buzzfeed reported yesterday that Thompson called into a telecast of the New Nation of Islam to discuss a number of topics, and made several eyebrow-raising remarks.

Thompson never says Bryant's name on the tape, but points out that in turning down Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, "he also turned down $426 million in federal funds."

"It's not just that this man (Bryant) turned it down, he also turned resources down that could go to help his citizens who are already documented as having some of the worst health conditions known to man," Thompson said, adding "just because a black man created it."

In what Buzzfeed characterized as "shocking" comments, Thompson called U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an "Uncle Tom" and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell is a "racist."

Mississippi may be in the midst of the nation's slimiest political contest, the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Now, a new study purports that Mississippi is indeed the crookedest state in the union. Researchers at Indiana University and University of Hong Kong "studied more than 25,000 convictions of public officials for violation of federal corruption laws between 1976 and 2008 as well as patterns in state spending to develop a corruption index that estimates the most and least corrupt states in the union."

The full article is not publicly available, but based on the study's methods, Mississippi tops of the corruption list—surpassing even Illinois where two of the last three governors served time in federal prison on corruption charges—whose Top 10 is full of other southern state:

1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
3. Tennessee
4. Illinois
5. Pennsylvania
6. Alabama
7. Alaska
8. South Dakota
9. Kentucky
10. Florida

It should be noted that by some other measures, Mississippi has one of the nation's lowest "corruption risks," thanks to a strong state auditor and insurance commissioner, both of whom are elected in Mississippi, unlike in some other states.

The International Gumbo Festival returns to downtown Jackson.

Bidding on 360 parcels of tax-forfeited property will begin tomorrow, city and state officials said today.

The Mississippi Secretary of State holds properties when owners fail to pay ad valorem property taxes, which provides funding to city and county governments as well as local schools. Of the approximately $75 million in forfeited land the SOS holds, almost $15 million of it lies with in Hinds County, according to a Jackson city press release.

“Our goal is to get this property back on the tax rolls to benefit the capital city and the State of Mississippi,” said Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann through a news release. “By partnering with the City of Jackson, we are taking an aggressive step to return these dilapidated and abandoned properties to productive use.”

The available properties will be advertised for public bidding beginning, Thursday, Aug. 27 on the Secretary of State's website: http://www.sos.ms.gov/PublicLands/Jackson.

Shortly after taking office last year, Mayor Tony Yarber's administration tackled problem properties.

"Our Community Improvement Division has made great strides over the past year ridding areas of dilapidated structures that mar our neighborhoods. Now, this auction will give citizens the opportunity to purchase property and play a vital role in Jackson's revitalization," Yarber said in the press release.

Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, held a press conference this morning with House and Senate Democrats calling on the legislative leadership to suspend the rules and bring back Senate Bill 2147, Horhn's bill that would create a commission to re-design the Mississippi state flag.

Horhn and other lawmakers called on the people of the state to reach out to the legislative leadership and said it's time for a change of heart.

"What we need is a heart transplant and a change of heart in this state," Horhn said.

Several lawmakers said they want the state flag to change by 2017 for the state's bicentennial as well as the 71st Annual Meeting of the Southern Legislative Conference, which will be held in Mississippi. At the press conference, Sen. Sollie Norwood, D-Jackson, said that some of their colleagues are not interested in coming to Mississippi if the current state flag is still flying.

"We've already been advised by some of our colleagues in other states that they're not interested in coming to Mississippi because Mississippi still flies a Confederate flag," Norwood said. "I think it would be a tragedy if we lose the opportunity for our colleagues to come to our state and celebrate with us as we've gone to their states and (celebrated) with them because of our refusal to take down this flag."

In a segment highlighting how easy it is to buy up old medical debt and learn about the patients who have it, John Oliver on his show "Last Week Tonight" put together a shell company to do just that.

Forest Thigpen, president of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, issued the following statement regarding the lawsuit filed on July 11 by the Southern Poverty Law Center that alleges the state's charter school law violates the state's constitution by enabling ad valorem taxes to cross district lines, leaving the district they were meant to support:

Charter schools are public schools, and since they charge no tuition, any rational person would conclude that they are "free" schools as referenced by the state constitution.

Parents are responsible for their children's education. It is immoral for the government to force parents to send their children to schools that do not meet their academic and related needs, especially when other public options are available, including charter schools.

Parents who have enough money to move to a better district or to send their children to private schools already have options. Charter schools, as demonstrated by the student population at the two schools that opened this year, primarily serve families who cannot afford either of those options.

Improving educational outcomes is one of the most important ways to lift children out of poverty, and charter schools offer that hope to parents who want a better future for their children. By pursuing this lawsuit, it appears as though the Southern Poverty Law Center wants to perpetuate, not alleviate, southern poverty.