Counties Meet to Brainstorm Ideas to Cover MDOC Cuts

HOUSTON, Miss. ( WCBI) — Cuts to a program by the Mississippi Department of Corrections, could cost counties and cities hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Monday Chickasaw, like many counties discussed the cuts and brainstormed solutions.

The Joint State County work program puts non-violent offenders to work, helping clean up cities and counties by picking up trash and doing yard work.

Replacing those workers could cost the county at least 200- thousand dollars.
It’s a cost the Board of Supervisors say they can not absorb, so they are trying to plea their case to Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher, hoping he will change his mind.

“We have been on the telephone since last week, with the governors office and the commissioner office. They have been mighty helpful. They’ve been mighty receptive. In listening to our needs, ” says Jerry Hall.

Chickasaw County has had a successful partnership with the program since 1992, even building a 750-thousand dollar facility to hold the offenders in the program.

If the MDOC moves forward with the cuts, they will take effect August 1st.