2015/05/04 – Hinds County could lose more than $3 million a year if the Mississippi Department of Corrections removes state inmates from the county work center, officials say.

Hinds County could lose more than $3 million a year if the Mississippi Department of Corrections removes state inmates from the county work center, officials say.

Last week, MDOC announced plans to end the Joint State County Work Programs beginning Aug. 1.

MDOC said it will be able to redirect $3.2 million to other budgetary needs as a result of moving inmates from the programs in 30 counties.

“One of my most significant duties is to be a good steward of taxpayers’ money,” MDOC Commissioner Marshall Fisher said. “As such, eliminating the JSCWP will be a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars, with public safety of the utmost concern.”

Inmates in the programs will be moved to the agency’s 17 community work centers, where the inmates still will be available to perform work for counties. Chief Deputy Chris Picou said the closes community work center to Hinds County will be in Madison County.

“I do not support it,” Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis said of plans to remove the inmates from the Hinds County inmate work program.

Lewis said about 30 sheriffs plan to meet with Fisher soon over MDOC’s plan to move the inmates. The Mississippi Sheriffs Association and the Mississippi Association of Supervisors are opposed to the state removing inmates from the joint state-county work centers.

MDOC spokeswoman Grace Fisher said Marshall Fisher will meet with the leadership of the Sheriffs Association and the Supervisors Association.

Supervisors’ President Peggy Hobson Calhoun said she has also requested a meeting with Fisher.

Hinds County District 1 Supervisor Robert Graham said he has been told the county will lose approximately $3 million a year if the state inmates are moved from the county. The state pays the county $20 per day per inmate.

Another impact will be a loss of $4 million in labor if the cost of the work the inmates performed would be take in account, Picou said.

Counties use nonviolent state inmates for labor such as garbage collection, beautification projects, renovation of shelters for senior citizens and many other projects.

Hinds County Supervisor Robert Graham said the county entered into an agreement with MDOC to house about 200 inmates at the work center. The work center now houses 48 state inmates.

In 2009, Hinds County completed its joint state-county work center using a $30 million bond. Then-Sheriff Malcolm McMillin said the county were guaranteed 200 inmates by MDOC.

MDOC said the agreement was always depending on whether the state had the money to pay.

MDOC had asked for a budget increase of $11 million. But the Legislature for the coming year cut MDOC’s budget by $12 million, from $357 million to $345 million. This leaves the agency’s budget $23 million short of its projects costs for the coming year.

Lawmakers said sentencing, parole and other criminal justice reforms passed in 2014 should reduce inmate population and costs. They also approved removing MDOC employees’ civil service protection for a year, allowing the commissioner more latitude to hire, fire and shift employees around. The reforms and restructuring, lawmakers said, should allow the agency – which has often run large deficits – to operate with less.

But House Appropriations Chairman Herb Frierson recently questioned the MDOC budget cut.

“I think the $23 million is just too much,” Frierson said. “I just don’t think they can absorb that in a single year.”

Source: The Clarion-Ledger 

Jimmie E. Gates