Safety
One of the primary functions of state and local government is the safety of citizens and the maintenance of law and order. Violent crime is one of the gravest threats to our families and a burden on our taxpayers. Punishment for crime should be fair, speedy, and certain.
Prisoners must be incarcerated at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers and our corrections system must demand that strong management keep costs down.

Citizens are becoming increasingly frustrated with, and are losing faith in, our judicial system. Violent criminals should be sentenced to long terms in the penitentiary and should serve the time on their sentences without endless debate over when they are eligible for parole. For those who show the grossest disregard for life and civilization and are convicted of capital murder and sentenced to capital punishment, the punishment must be completed within a realistic time of the crime committed and without the endless burden on the emotions of the victims and the pocketbooks of the taxpayers that these cases have become.

Mississippi Republicans applaud the development of church and community-based rehabilitation programs for non-violent offenders. We urge our state's policy makers to expand the ability of such citizen-run efforts to lessen the burden on our corrections system while serving to help people get their lives back in order.

We support the strict and careful regulation of the state's gaming industry, and strict enforcement of all gaming laws. Policy makers must resist the temptation to lessen the controls on gaming companies as the revenues from those companies increase.