MUSGROVE GIVES POSTS TO EX-POLICE CHIEF, DEA AGENT

JACKSON, Miss. - Gov. Ronnie Musgrove turned to a former Jackson police
chief to head the state's 18,000-inmate prison system and to a ranking
federal law enforcement official to coordinate the state's battle on drugs.

Musgrove on Monday announced the appointment of former Jackson police chief
Robert Johnson to head the state Department of Corrections and retired
federal Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Don Strange to head
the state Bureau of Narcotics.

The announcements fill out the high-profile appointments, but Musgrove is
still assembling a staff and has yet to address dozens of appointments he
must make to boards and commissions.

Both appointees face significant challenges. Johnson, 51, currently the
Lansing, Mich., chief of police, inherits a prison system straining to
contain an ever-growing inmate population.

In fact, Johnson himself described the system as at the "crisis stage" and
said "obviously Mississippi is facing an overcrowding issue." He said he
would examine the state's current requirement that all felons - violent or
not - serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

Johnson left Jackson on strained terms. After winning praise from a variety
of outside observers, he was unceremoniously replaced in 1997 when a new
mayor was installed here.

Don Strange, a 52-year-old Mississippi native who spent most of his career
with the DEA outside of Mississippi, returns to a division of the
Department of Public Safety that appears torn with internal strife and low
morale.

Strange, who last served as chief of intelligence for the DEA and was based
in Washington, said he would immediately begin talking to the state's
narcotics agents and law enforcement officials while focusing on managing
the bureau.

He promised to "restore the status of the Bureau of Narcotics to one of the
premier law enforcement agencies."