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Faced with trauma and drug addiction, she fought her way to sobriety and a new life. It wasn’t enough to avoid prison.

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Georgia Sloan lived half her life in trauma and abuse when she started using drugs.

Her mother was addicted. Her father was murdered when she was a child, and her stepfather was abusive. Drug overdoses took away her husband and brother, and while she was in jail her infant daughter died in an accident.

Then at age 31 she stopped, setting her on a course for a new life. She got into treatment through Crossroads Ministries and started working at bath products company Musee in Madison County, passing weekly drug tests.

In December, the 34-year-old was called back to court on an old drug charge, and Sloan hoped the judge overseeing her 2021 drug sale case would see that she was a changed woman.

The answer was no. Lowndes Circuit Court Judge James “Jim” Kitchens opted for the maximum eight-year sentence with four years to serve and four years suspended.

At the Dec. 4 hearing, he doubted whether nearly three years of sobriety and employment showed Sloan had changed.

“I don’t see [a] contrite heart in you at all about this,” Kitchens said, according to a transcript of the sentencing. “You’ve convinced the ladies here that you’re a great employee. And I’m proud of that. That’s a good thing. But now, I’ve got to sentence you.”

When reached by Mississippi Today, Kitchens would not comment and told the reporter to request a transcript of the hearing.

A driving force behind committing to sobriety and rehabilitation was her older daughter, whom Child Protective Services threatened to take from her and has lived with Sloan’s mother and aunt. Sloan was preparing for her child to come live with her at the beginning of the year. 

“I did everything asked of me,” Sloan said in a Feb. 7 phone interview from jail.

As of Monday, she was at the Mississippi Correctional Institute for Women at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl. Sloan was at the Lowndes County Detention Center in Columbus for about two months before her transfer.

Circuit Judge James “Jim” Kitchens of the 16th District.

At least six times during the hearing, Kitchens said by choosing to sell drugs, Sloan was “(making) other people addicts,” according to the court transcript.

The judge asked if she knew a man, unrelated to her case, who used what he suspected to be heroin but was likely fentanyl, killing him. Kitchens said he has attended funerals of people he’s ordered from drug court who died from Fentanyl overdoses.

“That’s the problem,” Kitchens said. “There has to be some ability to have empathy for people who were not addicted.”

Sloan says she is committed to maintaining her sobriety in prison and jail. She doesn’t think prison is the place to be for someone with addiction – especially in an environment where there are known to be drugs.

“I felt like this was not rehabilitation at all,” Sloan said about the sentence, saying she would have preferred placement in a work program so she could serve the community in some way.

Lynn Conner, court administrator for Kitchens, wrote in a Feb. 13 email that Sloan was referred to drug court, but the drug court’s coordinator denied the referral.

At the hearing, Sloan asked if she was eligible for drug court and the judge said she was not because of former drug sale convictions.

Sloan hopes to make the best of her time in prison. She wants to enroll in a business course and she is excited to share her story, which could help others stop using drugs and find Christ.

With four years to serve, she expects to be eligible for parole within a year.

Nearly a quarter of the 77,000 women in state prisons are incarcerated for drug convictions, according to the Prison Policy Institute, which along with property offenses make up more than half of all the offenses for which women are incarcerated.

Trauma and abuse are among the underlying causes of substance use, according to research cited by the Prison Policy Institute, and many women engage in criminal behavior as a way to support their drug use.

Sloan’s addiction began at age 14 when she was prescribed opioid pain medications after breaking her back, according to court records.

Within a few years she began to buy drugs from off the street. Over the next decade, she was sentenced to probation or prison for several drug possession and sale charges.

Leisha Pickering, founder of Musee, inside a production area at the Canton facility, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. Musee products are handmade by women formerly incarcerated and/or are recovering from substance abuse. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Leisha Pickering, Sloan’s boss at Musee, accompanied Sloan to her court hearing in Columbus, and along with Crossroads’s executive director, Wendy DeMoney, testified on Sloan’s behalf. They thought the judge would allow her to avoid incarceration through drug court or house arrest.

At the hearing, according to the court transcript, Kitchens drew a parallel from the Bible, about how every seven years there is a jubilee year, and how every seven years since 2007 Sloan was in trouble with drugs.

The judge questioned Sloan for a 2016 case he handled in which he sentenced her to eight years in prison and to complete a drug and alcohol treatment program.

Several months into that sentence, Sloan wrote a letter to Kitchens, asking him to reconsider her sentence and release her from jail to mourn her younger daughter, who died from an accident as an infant.

“This is no place to grieve the loss of a child,” Sloan wrote in an Aug. 17, 2017, letter included in court records. “… Let me prove to you and myself that I can turn my life around.”

Sloan was paroled in November 2018, according to court records.

After her release, Sloan said she spiraled and her addiction reached the point where someone had to intervene in order for her to get help. Kitchens asked why she needed to “commit a new felony” rather than get help for her drug addiction, as other people he has sent to rehab have done, according to the court transcript.

Pickering recognizes that there are women like Sloan in the criminal justice system who struggle with addiction and trauma.

Musee’s goal is to employ groups of people, such as formerly incarcerated women, to give them a way to work in their community, create something with their own hands and find their own value.

To meet that goal, the company partnered with Crossroads and has employed over 200 women who are participating in the nonprofit’s programming, Pickering said.

Sloan said her mother and former Parole Board chairman Steve Pickett helped her get to Crossroads, which was the best decision she made because it led her to sobriety and work at Musee. The company took a chance on her – something nobody had ever done.

“That’s all I needed in my life,” Sloan said. “I never had that feeling that I could be someone or be something.”

While going to Crossroads, Sloan started cleaning at Musee’s office and warehouse and within two years was promoted twice. Her most recent role was working at the front desk and directly with clients, and Pickering said she was up for another promotion.

Musee’s staff was devastated by Sloan’s incarceration and has felt her absence. They continue to add money to an account for her to make and receive phone calls, and they can check in with her.

In a few weeks Sloan will be processed at the prison and able to have visitors, and her supporters plan to see her.

“We just don’t want to see her fall,” Pickering said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-26 07:00:00

April 26, 1964

Aaron Henry testifies before the Credentials Committee at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Civil rights activists started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the state’s all-white regular delegation to the Democratic National Convention. 

The regulars had already adopted this resolution: “We oppose, condemn and deplore the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … We believe in separation of the races in all phases of our society. It is our belief that the separation of the races is necessary for the peace and tranquility of all the people of Mississippi, and the continuing good relationship which has existed over the years.” 

In reality, Black Mississippians had been victims of intimidation, harassment and violence for daring to try and vote as well as laws passed to disenfranchise them. As a result, by 1964, only 6% of Black Mississippians were permitted to vote. A year earlier, activists had run a mock election in which thousands of Black Mississippians showed they would vote if given an opportunity. 

In August 1964, the Freedom Party decided to challenge the all-white delegation, saying they had been illegally elected in a segregated process and had no intention of supporting President Lyndon B. Johnson in the November election. 

The prediction proved true, with white Mississippi Democrats overwhelmingly supporting Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act. While the activists fell short of replacing the regulars, their courageous stand led to changes in both parties.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday

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mississippitoday.org – @alxrzr – 2025-04-25 16:04:00

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.

A truck sits in high water after the owner parked, then boated to his residence on Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg as a rising Mississippi River causes backwater flooding, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”

The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.

A rising Mississippi River causing backwater flooding near Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.
Old tires aligned a backyard as a deterrent to rising water north of Vicksburg along U.S. 61, Friday, April 25, 2025.
As the Mississippi River rises, backwater flooding creeps towards a home located on Falk Steel Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”

The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Flood waters along Kings Point Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.

“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”

NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.

The boat launch area is closed and shored up on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The boat launch area (right) is closed and under water on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
City of Vicksburg workers shore up the bank along Levee Street as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The old pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Mississippi Today

With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:07:00

Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed. 

They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them. 

Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother. 

“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.” 

Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023. 

Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board. 

The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition. 

A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities. 

Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board. 

In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties. 

The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more. 

From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths. 

“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said. 

Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.

A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents. 

Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed. 

In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.

Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records. 

Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson. 

Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.  

He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media. 

Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary. 

Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents. 

At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.

“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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