U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst announced Project EJECT, or Empower Jackson Expel Crime together, on Dec. 7, 2017, with then-Jackson Police Chief to his right and Christopher Freeze, special agent in charge of the FBI in Jackson, to his left.
Project Eject was founded and based on the concept that if you’re a convicted felon, caught in commission of a crime, with a weapon, there’s a five-year automatic sentence to federal prison.
Durning the press conference on Dec. 7, 2017, then-Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance expressed how he hoped sending criminals to federal prison would lure others away from a life of crime.
Despite then-Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance speaking at the Project Eject press conference on Dec 7, 2017, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba (pictured) stated that Project Eject has never been in effect under his administration at a city council meeting on Feb 27, 2018.
Jacksonian Calandra Davis expressed her dissatisfaction with Project Eject in Jackson over the last year at a city council meeting on Feb 27, 2018.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.