House Bill 1033 Summary

• Requires courts to conduct a hearing and find willful nonpayment before incarcerating someone for failure to pay fines, restitution, or court costs; presumes indigence for those at or below 125% of Federal Poverty Guidelines.

• Limits imprisonment for nonpayment of fines to one day per $100 of the fine, and ensures aggregate incarceration for nonpayment plus original sentence does not exceed the maximum authorized term.

• Allows otherwise ineligible inmates to be considered for parole if they have not been convicted of crimes of violence, drug trafficking, or as habitual offenders and have served at least 25% of their sentence.

• Modifies parole revocation sentences to base them on number of prior revocations rather than number of alleged technical violations, with capped sentences (90 days first revocation, 120 days second, 180 days third, and up to remainder of suspended sentence thereafter).

• Creates Mississippi Sentencing Disparity Task Force to study sentencing disparities; requires PEER to conduct one-time census of jail populations by offense type, demographics, and sentence length by November 30, 2017.