BJA FY2024 MS DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program

The Mississippi Forensics Laboratory System, an International Organization for Standardization 17025:2017 American National Standards Institute National Accreditation Board accredited system, consists of a central full-service laboratory in Pearl and three regional labs located in Batesville, Meridian, and the Gulf Coast. The mission of the laboratory is to provide a full range of forensic services to law enforcement agencies in the state of Mississippi by performing testing activities that meet the stringent requirements of the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission 17025:2017 and satisfy the needs of the customer.

The Mississippi Forensics Laboratory (MSFL) faces the challenge of improving the timeliness of forensic services while struggling to retain our qualified analysts. Also, entry level salaries are below regional averages which continues to make it difficult to recruit qualified applicants and fill open positions. State of Mississippi legislation passed in 2023, and effective this year, requires all statewide sexual assault kits be submitted to the MSFL and the cases must be completed within 60 days of receipt. The DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program is vital to the success of Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in Mississippi.

Approximately 500 convicted offender and arrestee samples are received per month to process, review, and entered into CODIS. This volume of work requires all the resources available to the CODIS unit and outsourcing remains the most efficient mechanism to provide timely database analysis. There are currently three grant funded technical staff making a positive contribution in the analysis of sexual assault kits and database processing of which two of these staff are also performing DNA casework analysis. One analyst is in a DNA analysis training program and providing support in the CODIS unit. The primary objective is to increase efficiency of sexual assault kit processing and improve capacity thereby reducing the turnaround time and backlog of unworked cases.

To meet the goal, the MFLS will continue to fund four forensic scientist positions, one information technology position and two additional new forensic scientist positions. The program provides funding to employ personnel to analyze forensic cases and process database samples, outsource DNA convicted offender/arrestee database samples for CODIS entry and thereby reduces the backlog of forensic and database DNA samples.