A new five-year contract ensures the Marion County Regional Jail will continue to receive state prisoners and guarantees the county gets paid for a certain amount of inmates each month.
Sheriff Berkley Hall called it a “big win” in light of the Mississippi Department of Corrections looking at shutting down some of
the regional facilities.
He brought the contract to the Board of Supervisors Monday and spoke about the specifics after the meeting.
“The name has changed from the Marion-Walthall Correctional Facility because the old contract was for 20 years,” Hall said. “Walthall County had 20 guaranteed beds. But that contract is expired and the bond is paid off on the men’s facility, effective this past February. We’ve been working and waiting on this new contract (with MDOC) since then.”
The 300-bed facility opened in 1999, according to Hall.
“We house only men on that side,” he said. “We have no more state women, period, at the Women’s Facility. What MDOC is doing is granting five-year contracts with most regional facilities. There were five that had their bonds paid off and were renegotiating contracts. What they do is they look at your overall capacity. To keep our facility and not be overcrowded, we deal with a number of 280. What this contract does is guarantee us 90 percent of that, or 252 prisoners. If it’s 240, we still bill for 252. For the next five years, that’s the minimum. Right now, we’re about maxed. As of Friday we were in the 270s.”
The facility being filled is good for the county financially and for the employees, according to Hall. The jail had previously had to eliminate positions.
“We are streamlined as much as we can be,” Hall said. “There’s no doubt about it that this saved some jobs. You’re also looking at the bond savings. It’s very self-supporting, something that doesn’t cost the taxpayers any money. We still have the bond on the women’s facility, but we’re working on trying to get some kind of program in that facility.”
Hall said the board and its attorney, Joe Shepard, read over the contract before approving it.
“There were a few small issues and we sent it back to the state,” he said. “We used to have a deal where we were paid so much money up to 200 inmates and everything above that was a different amount. Now this pays that price straight across the board, which actually works out to be about the same revenue as before. We get $23.92 per inmate per day across the board. We are now guaranteed 252. They pay the medical and all that, we’re just responsible for getting them there. It’s a big win. We went to Jackson recently and they were looking at shutting some of the regionals down. This saved the regionals.”
It comes out to more than $180,000 per month paid by the state to the county for holding state prisoners.
Hall said the facility is also going for reaccreditation.
“We are accredited by the American Correctional Association,” he said. “The MDOC wants that. Knock on wood, we pass it with flying colors every year. They come in and check food, they look at housekeeping, and they inspect everything and talk to the staff. They talk to the prisoners. … It’s a pretty big deal. We’ve been ACA certified for several years.”
Hall said that as of Friday, the entire system locally had 421 people in custody.
“We have 270 state men, 113 county men, 24 county women and 14 in the joint county program,” he said. “Joint-county inmates are the ones you see working doing things like mowing the grass or fixing the courthouse. We also have prisoners from other counties, including 21 from Jones County. We help other facilities alleviate overcrowding, and we’re paid to do it. If we were able to open up the women’s facility, we could house up to 650. We’re trying to get something.”
