The 2010 Legislative has come to a close, and once again the ACLU of Mississippi has good and bad news to report. We fought hard to support legislation that would protect constitutional liberties, and we fought just as hard to kill the bad ones that would undermine them.
Bills that passed after hard work by ACLU staff and supporters included the following:
H 160 - Expungement. This bill called for the expungement of some criminal records. The final bill was watered down to apply only to five crimes, and the ex-offender can petition the court to expunge his or her record no earlier than five years after he or she has completed all terms and conditions of the sentence. If the record is expunged, the person can then vote, more easily get a job and fully re-enter society.
S-2015 - Anti-Bullying. Our work for a strong new law to protect students from being bullied was countered by the School Board Association, and consequently the bill was watered down. The new law does, however, require school districts to have policies protecting victims of bullying before the end of 2010. The ACLU and our allies for safer schools will have to work with State Department of Education officials over the summer to see that reasonable instructions go to the districts as they develop their policies.
H-1049 - Mental Health Crisis Intervention. This bill provides a single point of entry into the mental health system for those persons who run afoul of the law. It enables training for police and procedures to get people into treatment rather than jail.
H-1525 -Mental Health Commitment. This bill makes the process for mental health commitment uniform across all counties and judicial districts, ensuring that persons receive equal treatment under the law.
S-2969 -Youth Courts. Passage of this law makes it more difficult for young people to be transferred to adult courts to be tried as adults.
S-2984 - Oakley Commitment. Commitment to Oakley Training School is now limited to those age 14 and older.
S-2950 -Juvenile Detention Monitoring Unit. This bill helps protect the rights of children who are detained.
H-1135 -- Police and jailers prohibited. This bill prohibits police and jailers to use prisoners for sexual favors.
H-113 - Public Records. Reduces the time limit that a government agency has to reply to a public records request. The number of days was 14, and is now reduced to 7. This new law will make easier a person's ability to obtain or review public records.
Bills That Died
Of the Bills that died, the one that we felt most badly about was H-539 that would make it clear that it is legal to videotape police during their work activities. We did achieve a victory, of sorts, when the House passed this bill by a vote of 80 to 39. However, it died in the Senate Judiciary a Committee.
The right to video police is already protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, however H-539 would have helped clarify this right for police and other law enforcement agencies.
Many bad bills died during this session, including all bills that targeted a woman's right to choose and abortion. All religious intrusion bills died, ad did all the anti-immigrant bills. Voter I.D. died, but a Constitutional amendment has been placed on the ballot for November, 2011.
*Legislative wrap-up provided by Rims Barber, ACLU-MS lobbyist.
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