unsanitary, dangerous conditions. After nine prisoners died in one month at Parchman, Reeves acknowledged that Parchman's conditions were "terrible"; he ordered the closure of part of the complex, as well as other reforms. Several hundred inmates were moved from Parchman's infamous "Unit 29" to the privately operated Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility. Early voting In November 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Reeves said he would veto any bill that expanded mail-in voting or no-excuse early voting. Mississippi has among the most restrictive laws in the U.S. for pre-Election Day voting. Education Reeves used his 2020 budget proposal to appeal to the conservative base. Echoing Trump, he proposed allocating $3 million to a "Patriotic Education Fund" and said that "across the country, young children have suffered from indoctrination in far-left socialist teachings." Reeves's budget proposal recommended bonuses for schoolteachers in high-performing or improving schools, but largely ignored his 2019 campaign pledge to boost teacher pay in each year of his four-year term. He has proposed teacher raises in the 2022 budget. Medical cannabis In 2020, Mississippi voters approved (by 70%) a medical marijuana initiative; the state supreme court subsequently invalidated the initiative, holding that it was improperly placed on the ballot. Reeves opposed the initiative, but said he would honor "the will of the voters" who had overwhelmingly voted in favor of medical marijuana. On February 2, 2022, he signed the bill into law, making Mississippi the 37th state to legalize medical cannabis. Race and Confederate iconography In April 2021, Reeves said, "There is not systemic racism in America." Earlier that month, he had declared April "Confederate Heritage Month" in Mississippi. In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, debate arose about whether to change the flag of Mississippi, which featured Confederate insignia in the top left. Reeves initially said that the flag should only be changed by a voter-approved referendum, but later reversed himself, saying that if the Mississippi legislature passed a bill to retire the flag without a referendum, he would sign it. On June 28, 2020, the legislature voted to change the flag, 91 to 23 in the House and 37 to 14 in the Senate. Reeves signed the legislation two days later, removing the last state flag to display the Confederate symbol. Taxation and budget As governor, Reeves pushed legislation to eliminate the state's personal income tax. The rating agency Fitch raised concerns in November 2021 that his