Pubdate: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 Source: Commercial Appeal (TN) Copyright: 2000 The Commercial Appeal Contact: Box 334, Memphis, TN 38101 Fax: (901)529-6445 Website: http://www.gomemphis.com/ Author: Reed Branson 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D