Video: Many Regional Jails Are Wondering What’s Next

CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Now that a new commissioner is in place for Mississippi Department of Corrections, many regional jails are wondering what’s next.

One of those jails is the Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility.

The Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility is one of 15 regional facilities that houses state inmates and they want to see that number grow.

Over the last couple of years, more than 60 state inmates have been cut from the jail.

There’s been many changes at the Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility over the last couple of years, and Chickasaw County Sheriff James Meyers says he’s hoping the new Mississippi Department of Corrections Director will deliver some solutions.

“Right now, we really haven’t. I mean, I know she’s probably getting her feet on the ground, you know, taking a new position, but right now, we’re hoping that the philosophy will change, as far as these regional jails, and put us back up to our numbers.”

The facility can house 350 state inmates, but they currently only house 285.

At one time, it was housing 340 state inmates at almost $30 dollars a day, until cuts took away over 60 inmates and almost a million dollars.

“Our contract calls for 240. We get $29.74 dollars per inmate there, but now, any inmate over the contract we don’t get but $20 dollars a day so we’re having to house an inmate and a half to make up the difference, so we’re just loosing money and we’ve got to come to some kind of a happy medium.”

Sheriff Meyers says he hopes that happy medium can be reached by the state allowing them to house over 300 state inmates on a daily basis.

“We have to have that money here, you know, I mean the jail, we hope that it would be self supporting and we don’t want to put anymore burden on the taxpayers, but we opened this jail in good faith with the state of Mississippi, and all we’re asking them is, you know, we were at 340 inmates, and you know, we can house them cheaper than they can, and we’re just asking for them in good faith to let us get our numbers back up.”

Chickasaw County Supervisor Russell Brooks says the state inmate shortage not only hurt’s the jail’s budget, but also the county’s.

“We have to do some tough cuts, you know, and those cuts from different departments, and there’s some things that we want to do for the county, and it’s hard to do those things now, because you’ve got to cut in other areas to make up for this shortfall from the regional jail.”

Brooks says they need help to make up for all of the shortages and it’s got to come from one place.

“That kind of loss, that is hard to recoup that loss, and we’re going to have to have some help from Jackson to make up for this loss. Jackson is going to have to come in to give us more inmates to make up for this loss.”