VIDEO: Lee County Jail Conditions

TUPELO, Miss.(WCBI)—The city of Tupelo responded today to comments Monday from the county.

Legislation to help Lee County build a new jail hasn’t passed in Jackson.

Sheriff Jim Johnson says the county can build a new jail and not hold Tupelo inmates if it wants to.

Tupelo mayor Jason Shelton commented on this Tuesday to us for the first time. He says if that happens the city can build a jail of its own.

” We’ve had a need for a new facility for quite some time,”said Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson.

Serving jail time isn’t suppose to be pleasant, but  Johnson says conditions are almost unbearable inside the facility.

“There’s no cameras for any body to be sitting in a video booth, there’s none of that in here and you can’t put it in here because of the construction. We’ve got plumbing issues that absolutely can not be fixed. In this tower the restroom for my employees is beneath that tower under ground where they put a bathroom below ground level. We’ve literally had sewage 2 and 3 feet deep in an employee work area where my employees can’t even go to the bathroom,”said Johnson.

Johnson says the sheriff’s department and Tupelo leaders met about five years ago to discuss a jail that would house law enforcement for both agencies.

Mayor Jason Shelton says because the old police department had mold inside, the city opted to quickly build a new facility. However, he wants to keep a great working relationship with the sheriff’s department.

“We need a new jail here and my hope of course it that the jail remains in the city of Tupelo that’s been the law for over 100 years so hopefully it will stay here,”said Shelton.

Johnson has tossed out several ideas, including a regional jail. That fell through. Then Johnson and the board of Supervisors pushed legislation to move the jail outside of the city limits. Now that bill is on hold in the state Senate, which the long time sheriff is blaming on Tupelo leaders.

Johnson says the county now wants to build it’s own facility.However, now that the county is under contract with Tupelo it must build a jail within a mile of the city limits. If the contract stays in place.

“This bill we’ve got will allow lee county and that’s all it effects, it will allow Lee County to build a jail anywhere it would like. We can still hold your prisoners we can still charge you. It runs the same way it does now with the other municipalities,”said Johnson.

Both sides stand firm on where they believe the jail should be built.

“If the city had to go back operating a jail that’s something that we can do that hasn’t been done in about 25 years here in lee county or for any municipality… I don’t anticipate that but if that was forced upon us then we would deal with it,”said Shelton.

“All we have to do is don’t enter into another contract with The City of Tupelo and then it becomes our choice on where we want to build it and then it’s our choice on whether we want to hold their prisoners or not. if we don’t well it really benefits us. So if we don’t hold them I got rid of some of my problem and I can build the jail where ever I want,”said Johnson.

That bill is still in the Senate in Jackson.