House Bill 1597 Summary

• Establishes mandatory minimum one-year prison sentence for felony convictions involving unlawful taking of $10,000 or more in public funds, with no eligibility for probation or parole during that year.

• Makes minor nonsubstantive amendments to bribery statute (MS Code 97-11-53) by renumbering subsections from numeric to alphanumeric format.

• Brings forward multiple Mississippi Code sections related to embezzlement, fraud, extortion, and larceny for possible amendment without making substantive changes in this bill.

• Amends petit larceny and embezzlement statutes to allow imprisonment only if court finds substantial and compelling reasons offender cannot be safely supervised in community, is not amenable to community-based treatment, or poses significant risk to public safety.

• Takes effect July 1, 2024.