The state prison crisis has proven beneficial to the Marion County Regional Correction Facility, sending more inmates here that bring state dollars with them.
Warden Derek Mingo and Sheriff Berkley Hall met with the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 6 and offered some positive news about how things are going.
Overall the jail is still in the red, but Hall said the extra income coming in from the state prisoners has the facility in a place to not only to eventually get into the black but also to become self-sufficient.
“Even in the month of December we saw a significant increase in revenue with the extra inmates we have been getting. We are in better shape than what we have been seeing,” Hall said.
Since December, the Mississippi Department of Corrections has been moving inmates out of the State Penitentiary at Parchman after riots, homicides, hangings and other problems.
Mingo said in December there were a total of 75 extra inmates in Marion County and in January more than 115 extra inmates. The state pays the county $20 per inmate per day for the extra inmates.
Hall said once he gets February’s numbers, which will not be until after the first of March, he will better know about how successful the extra inmates have been but noted he is optimistic. The preliminary numbers for December showed a definite turn for the better, he said.
Hall said they have hired four more guards, which has reduced overtime hours paid.
The women’s side of the facility has a negative balance of $347,475. MDOC several years ago decided to shut the women’s side down, causing the county to absorb the debt. With extra state inmates staying on the women’s side, this will help repay the indebtedness.
According to the cash balances as of the end of January, the jail is still over $1 million in the red; the majority of the negative balance was carried over from previous years. County CPA Charlie Prince made the recommendation the warden provide an in-depth analysis on the costs of having an extra inmate a day.
“When you look at it, 20 bucks a day when you take it down to one person, 20 bucks a day for 30 days is $600 a month. Now I don’t know if we can keep that person for $600 a month. I don’t know if we can clothe him and feed him and guard him and those kinds of things,” Prince said.
“When you look at it you are projecting about another $78,000 a month in revenue but if it is going to take $81,000 to get it, we don’t want it,” Prince said.
Mingo told Prince he is working on that.
Overall Prince said the county is staying on target budget-wise. However, Prince reminded the board that even though the county is staying on budget because supervisors voted in 2019 not to increase taxes this fiscal year, the county will have to go into the cash balance about $500,000 to make everything work.
“We are depending on other governments to funds us, and things in government can change pretty quick,” Prince said.
