Mississippi Senate adopts omnibus bill to limit camping, aggressive panhandling and authorize encampment removal

The Mississippi Senate on the floor passed a committee substitute that creates new criminal offenses and civil tools aimed at public encampments, aggressive panhandling and certain forms of loitering.

Senator Fillinghain, the bill—hampion, told colleagues the measure is "our best effort to try, in an omnibus sort of way, to try to deal with some of the issues" raised by municipalities, law enforcement and mental-health providers after statewide hearings. He described the bill as a combination of prohibitions, permitting and a transfer pathway into services for some people arrested under the law.

The measure makes it a misdemeanor to camp on public property or within 1,000 feet of defined critical infrastructure without moving after a 48-hour written or posted notice from law enforcement. A subsequent conviction raises the penalties to higher fines and possible county jail time. The bill also authorizes prosecutors to treat an encampment as a public nuisance and seek injunctive relief or removal.

Under the bill, solicitors of…