Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 47 - PRISONS AND PRISONERS; PROBATION AND PAROLE (§§ 47-1-1 — 47-7-101) › Chapter 5 - CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM (§§ 47-5-1 — 47-5-1517) › PRISON OVERCROWDING EMERGENCY POWERS ACT (§§ 47-5-701 — 47-5-731) › Section 47-5-703 - [Repealed Effective 7/1/2025] Definitions

For the purposes of Sections
47-5-701
through
47-5-729
the following words shall have the meaning ascribed herein unless the context shall otherwise require:
(a)
"Inmate" means every person who at the time of the declaration of a prison system overcrowding state of emergency, or at any time during the continuation of a state of emergency, is incarcerated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections as a result of a commitment to the department, including persons committed to the department and incarcerated in local or county jails or other facilities authorized to house state inmates.
(b)
"Operating capacity" means the total number of state inmates which can be safely and reasonably housed in facilities operated by the Department of Corrections and in local or county jails or other facilities authorized to house state inmates as certified by the department, subject to applicable federal and state laws and rules and regulations.
(c)
"Parole eligibility date" means the date on which an inmate becomes eligible for release by parole under the provisions of Section
47-7-3
, Mississippi Code of 1972. For the purposes of Sections
47-5-701
through
47-5-729
, an inmate with a sentence of one (1) year shall be deemed to have a parole eligibility date which shall be the last day of his sentence.
(d)
"Prison" means any correctional facility operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
(e)
"Prison system" means the prisons operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections and those local or county jails or other facilities authorized to house state inmates.
(f)
"Prison system population" means the total number of state inmates housed in the prisons operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections and in those local or county jails or other facilities authorized to house state inmates.
(g)
"Qualified inmate" means inmates who are not incarcerated for convictions of murder, kidnapping, arson, armed robbery, rape, sexual offenses or any offense involving the use of a deadly weapon and who are within that number of days of their parole eligibility date at the time of the declaration of the state of emergency as is specified to be conditionally advanced under the declaration of the state of emergency. An inmate sentenced as an habitual offender shall not be considered a "qualified inmate."
(h)
"State of emergency" means a prison system overcrowding state of emergency as provided in Section
47-5-711
.
Laws, 1985, ch. 499, § 2; reenacted, Laws, 1986, ch. 413, § 128; reenacted, Laws, 1987, ch. 335, § 2; reenacted and amended, Laws, 1988, ch. 504, § 45; reenacted, Laws, 1990, ch. 315, § 2; reenacted, Laws, 1993, ch. 419, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 1999, ch. 537, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 2001, ch. 411, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 2002, ch. 615, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 2005, ch. 519, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 2006, ch. 395, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 2008, ch. 322, § 2; reenacted without change, Laws, 2012, ch. 322, § 2, eff. 4/5/2012.
Reenacted without change by Laws, 2022, ch. 310, HB 515,§ 2, eff. 7/1/2022.
Reenacted without change by Laws, 2018, ch. 406, HB 877,§ 2, eff. 7/1/2018.
Reenacted without change by Laws, 2014, ch. 316, SB 2649, 2, eff. 3/12/2014.