Earlier this month, the Mississippi House passed House Bill 1020. The bill would expand the police force as well as create a new court system within the CCID — or Capitol Complex Improvement District — of the capital city of Jackson, where judges and prosecutors would be appointed by state officials, instead of elected, as they are in every other county in Mississippi. 83-percent of residents in Jackson, Mississippi are Black, and those state officials who would be appointing Jackson’s judges and prosecutors are both white. 

We speak with Rep. Ed Blackmon, Mississippi state representative representing the 57th District about the bill.