Video: Inmates Can Still Work in Counties if They Pick Up the Tab

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Mississippi (WCBI) — After much debate, counties can keep their inmate work programs going, but there’s a catch.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections, county, state and city leaders have been going back and forth on this issue for a few months, after Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher announced he would end the program starting August 1st, a change many argue would cost counties and cities hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now, it seems a compromise has been made, letting counties keep the workers, as long as they pick up the housing bill.

Clay County will have to shell out about $45,000 thousand dollars if they want to keep inmates like these working.

MDOC will no longer pay their housing cost.

Sheriff Eddie Scott says paying that cost seems worth it.

“It may be cheaper for us to keep the 5 or 6, with us paying for it, than it is for the county to actually go out and hire individuals to do some of the work they’ve been performing,” says Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott.

paying to bring in new workers could cost hundreds of thousand of dollars.

Monroe County is also weighing their odds, they house 30-40 inmates, but Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says the cost of keeping them may be hard for the county to absorb.

“it sounds right now that the program is actually going to be gone August the 1st, I don’t think the boards in favor of keeping them without a reimbursement,” says Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell.

Work continues for now, as both counties wait for County Supervisors to make the final decision, shell out the housing cost, or lose the free work.

Many counties have built special housing facilities for the inmates that we’re supposed to be paid off by the housing allowance given by the MDOC.

It is unclear at this point how those counties will handle that issue.

Now, If counties decide to cut the Inmate Work Program, they won’t be the only one’s losing out.

Many of the inmates will be disappointed as well.

The program allows non violent offenders to get away from the correctional facility, learn skills like yard work , mechanics and in many cases IT keeps them closer to their families.

“Here I’m close to home and graddaddy, he’s sick. You know he’s not able to travel long distances because, you know, oxygen. So If I get moved somewhere further away from home, it’s hard for me to see my family. Here I’m able to see them every week, my son, my mother and my grandparents,” says Kenny Brown.

It will cost 20 dollars a day to keep inmates like Brown working for the county .

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CLAY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – If counties decide to cut the Inmate Work Program, they won’t be the only one’s losing out. Many of the inmates will be disappointed as well.
The program allows non-violent offenders to get away from the correctional facility, learn skills like yard work , mechanics and in many cases it keeps them closer to their families.

” Here I’m close to home and graddaddy, he’s sick. You know he’s not able to travel long distances because, you know, oxygen. So If I get moved somewhere further away from home, it’s hard for me to see my family. Here I’m able to see them every week, my son, my mother and my grandparents. ”

It will cost twenty dollars a day to keep inmates like Brown working for the county. Counties have until August first to decide to keep or cut the program. That’s when the state will start making them pay for housing.