Video: Repeat Offenders Becoming a Problem in North Mississippi – Part I

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — You may feel like you hear the same names in the news over and over, and you could be right.

Last week Judge Kitchens in Lowndes County says about 75% of his cases were repeat offenders.

“We had gotten to a point where the number of cases were actually going down, but when you have to incarcerate people to keep to communities safe,it cost money,” says Lowndes County Judge James Kitchens.

He says the lack of funding mixed with new legislation that cut down offenders jail time has made recidivism more of an issue.

“When I first started doing this defendants served about 85% of the sentence that they got,” says Judge Kitchens.

Now he says they serve closer to 25% creating a revolving door affect for many.

“And a lot of them get right back into crime. Often times they’ll commit the same type of crime over again,” says Judge Kitchens.

He says part of that problem is the smaller punishments.

“When they see somebody that got 5 years for stealing a car or something and that person’s out in less than a year, there’s no deterrent to them,” says Judge Kitchens.

Judge Kitchens says it can be hard to walk the line between fair punishments and punishments that keep crime of the streets.

A lot of his job is trying to predict criminals patterns, but it’s not always that easy. Take the case of Dewayne Perry…

“He had a prior conviction in the early 2000’s for house burglary. He got out on that and was on what we called post release, sold drugs, sold marijuana more than 30 grams, and got a prison sentence for that. He is released from prison on what they call ERS,” says Judge Kitchens.

ERS means early release supervision, many get it for good behavior.

“While he’s out on ERS for the sale of marijuana charge he kicks in the door ,on July the 5th 2013, of an elderly couple in Oktibbeha County, 91 year old man and his 87 year old wife, and he rapes them both,” says Judge Kitchens.

Or what about Terrance Grayer, who did not serve his full term for a cocaine conviction.

“While he’s out, he threatens his girlfriend, and he commits and aggravated domestic assault against her, I think twice as I recall,” says Judge Kitchens.

The parole board revokes him for 120 days then releases him.

” While he’s out he goes to her house and kills James Chandler, a 30 year old man, this is over in Starkville, kills the young man , and kidnaps his girlfriend, takes her to Tennessee, and kills himself,” says Judge Kitchens.

Of course, these cases are two of the extreme but Judge Kitchen says they could be avoided if repeat offenders were forced to serve more of their sentence.