A shakedown Thursday at the Marion-Walthall County Regional Correctional Facility in Columbia unearthed everything from bags of tobacco to pink Nike shoes to tattoo ink.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections said in a news release that it seized the contraband during an unannounced raid.
Officers found cellphone chargers, sunglasses, shoes, hair dryers and a straightener, and an electronic game. The seized items also included an MP3 player, bags of tobacco, packs of T-shirts, two packs of marijuana, a pack of spice, earbuds, umbrellas, a laser light, scissors and a small bottle of tattoo ink.
“I am pleased that we did not find a lot of contraband when we searched the regional facility with 200-plus inmates and the housing areas for 31 male and female inmates in the Joint State County Work Program,” Commissioner Pelicia E. Hall said in a statement. “These items are among those we are accustomed to finding, but show that we need to continue to work on preventing security breaches at the facilities.”
Marion-Walthall can hold up to 280 inmates; it held 224 on Thursday.
Hall revealed the latest shakedown during an appearance on Super Talk Mississippi with radio host Paul Gallo. She told Gallo the facilities don’t know when officers with the Mississippi Department of Corrections are coming. “We show up like thieves in the night,” she said in response to a question about notification.
A few of the 36 facilities remain to be searched since Hall began the shakedowns in early March under Operation Zero Tolerance.
