Mississippi Constitution Art. 10, § 224

The Legislature may authorize the employment under state supervision and the proper officers and employees of the state, of convicts on public roads or other public works, or by any levee board on any public levees, under such provisions and restrictions as it may from time to time see proper to impose; but said convicts shall not be let or hired to any contractors under said board, nor shall the working of the convicts on public roads, or public works, or by any levee board ever interfere with the preparation for or the cultivation of any crop which it may be intended shall be cultivated by the said convicts, nor interfere with the good management of the state farm, nor put the state to any expense.