This legislative session Empower Mississippi is focused on two things: Saving the ESA program and reforming the criminal justice system to get more people out of unproductive incarceration and into productive work.

Through the #SaveOurESA campaign, Empower Mississippi identified a number of families who will attend the National School Choice Celebration held at the State Capitol in January. These families will walk the halls of the Capitol asking legislators to vote to save the ESA program, which is at risk of expiring in June 2020 if policymakers do not take action this session.

Empower Mississippi also launched Broken, a campaign highlighting the broken pieces of Mississippi’s criminal justice system and how they can be fixed. Mississippi has the third highest incarceration rate in the world. The need for criminal justice reform in Mississippi is critical with recent riots, prisoner deaths, and poor prison conditions at the forefront of the news. Empower is sharing much needed solutions through two videos that educate key audiences in the state about the system’s problems and opportunities to address them.