Challenge

Mississippi was facing an incarceration crisis. The state had the second highest imprisonment rate in the nation, with overpopulation and crowding of prisons becoming a matter of life and death.

RTI worked with FWD.us and local partners to undertake a two-pronged advocacy and awareness campaign targeting key legislators, Mississippi’s governor and lieutenant governor, and media and opinion leaders in the state capital of Jackson.

Our Approach

Our goal was to educate these audiences and ensure bills aimed at reducing prison populations in Mississippi by expanding parole and ending habitual sentencing moved through the Mississippi House and Senate and were not vetoed by the governor.

We developed and executed a multi-channel media campaign designed to directly reach decision-makers, while simultaneously activating thousands of Mississipians to put grassroots pressure on state leaders.

The campaign included:

• Geofenced preroll and social video ads around the state capitol in Jackson and the state parole board
• Search ads targeted to people searching criminal justice related terms, to make them aware of Mississippi’s aggressive and archaic minimum sentencing laws and the urgent need for legislative action
• Print and digital ads in the Mississippi Sun Herald and Clarion Ledger 
• A direct buy with Y’all Politics, an influential and widely read Mississippi political website, targeted to Jackson and Biloxi
• Radio ads targeted at political radio listeners in Jackson
• Billboards around Jackson encouraging Governor Reeves to sign SB 2793 and end habitual sentencing in Mississippi
• A patch-through call campaign connecting pro-reform Mississippians with the offices of the governor, legislators, and parole board, asking them to support these bills

Outcome

• Our campaign drove over 10,000 calls to the governor, legislators, and the parole board at a $10 cost per call
• In a live radio interview, Gov. Reeves was asked a question posed by one of our billboards present in the state
• Most importantly, the Mississippi House voted to pass SB 2795 to expand parole eligibility and ensure more people have a meaningful opportunity for release — thereby reducing Mississippi’s dangerously high prison population. On April 22, Gov. Reeves signed the bill into law.