The old jail in Noxubee County will soon have a new life

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The old jail in Noxubee County used to hold inmates, but now, it will be holding bodies for the coroner’s office.

For a little over 2 years, supervisors have brought different ideas to the table to see what the county could do to make use of the lifeless building.

Now, one of those ideas is a reality.

Within the last week, the board approved the old jail to serve as a holding facility for the coroner, but only part of the building will be used as a morgue.

R.L. Calhoun has served as Noxubee County’s Coroner for 18 years.

Now, for the first time in his career, his office will have a morgue.

This means he’ll no longer have to rely on local funeral homes to hold bodies until they can be sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsies.

He can also preserve the chain of evidence.

“Now, I have time to store my bodies. I have time to do my investigations thoroughly, me and law enforcement, as well. We can work together like we have been doing, but now, we can do it at our own pace. We don’t have to be inside of a funeral home and jeopardizing the case and have certain people coming in and out and seeing the bodies without our consent.”

Macon Police Chief Davine Beck agrees.

“We can also use it at a timely manner and we don’t have to be in a hurry on our investigations, in a stabbing death or a shooting death. We can just take our time, look over the body, investigate it, and go from there.”

Calhoun says he is grateful for the cooperation with the funeral homes, but he believes having his own place will cut down on confusion for the families of the deceased.

“I had to explain to families, you know, the bodies are only here for holding, you know, they don’t have to stay, but you know, as some of the families feel, they didn’t want to do it that way. They would rather have it the way that the board and I have come up with now, and I think that the citizens of this county are excited about it.”

The coroner says he really started pushing for the idea after six Gulf Coast funeral homes felt discriminated against by the Harrison County Coroner for not using them enough to store bodies.

“After we learned lately, you know, lawsuits are being filed against coroners for using funeral homes.”

Supervisors say the coroner will be able to hold two bodies at a time in the facility.

They believe costs to do that will be less than a thousand dollars a year.

“We’ve just got to buy air-conditioner and pay for the electricity in one room and that’s all we plan on doing,” says District 4 Supervisor, Eddie Coleman.

“We don’t want to do anything that will cost the taxpayers anymore increase in taxes. I’ve never been in favor of raising taxes because we pay too much taxes already,” says District 5 Supervisor, Bruce Brooks.

The coroner says renovation costs have not been set at this time.

He says he plans on everything being done by the fall.