Supervisors approve agreement with Leake County to house county inmates
Attala County will close the troubled, dilapidated county jail due to budget restraints and new policies from the Mississippi Department of Corrections, the AC Board of Supervisors said Tuesday.
“The cost of constructing and operating a new jail would cause a significant tax increase on the citizens of the county,” Supervisors president Tim Pinkard said. “Attala County is the only county, we believe, in the state that borders four county regional correctional facilities. These facilities have had their inmate populations reduced by MDOC and have housing space available; therefore, we have negotiated a competitive price for Leake County to house Attala County inmates.”
The Attala County Jail, constructed in the 1957, is one of the oldest operating jails in the state. The facility has 24 beds, but new state policies forced the county to increase its state inmate population to 16. This mandate required the county to ship out much of its inmates to other counties at a rate of $25 per prisoner.
“MDOC has now implemented a new policy that eliminated any payment to the county for housing state prisoners in the joint county work program,” Pinkard added. “In the past, the county received $20 per day for each inmate and now the county receives no money for these inmates. Also, MDOC is keeping to a minimum any state inmates in the county jail, which severely impacts our revenue stream to operate a county jail.”
The Board of Supervisors took bids for construction of a new jail twice in 2014, but all bids were rejected due to costs above the original estimate. A new jail is expected to cost approximately $5 million. The county currently owns land on West Jefferson Street that it hopes will be the location of a future jail.
“Constructing a new jail was in the planning stages several years ago and we actually engaged an architect who drew plans and solicited bids for construction,” Pinkard said. “Unfortunately, the two times the project was bid, the bids came in significantly over budget projections. Accordingly, we could not afford to build the jail at the bid costs received and we released our architect from further work on the project.”
The bulk of funds set aside for a new jail were spent in 2014 for the county to keep the former Montfort Jones Memorial Hospital open until it could be leased to another healthcare organization. The county issued $5 million in bonds to service the hospital operation debts.
“These were funds that were planned to be used for the construction and operation of a new county jail,” Pinkard added. “However, saving 140 plus healthcare jobs and securing healthcare for the community became a top priority.”
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Corrections will have 10 days to remove state inmates from the county jail. Supervisors have also agreed to allow Sheriff Tim Nail to hire two new officers that will be able to help transport county prisoners to Leake County.
Leake County Correctional Facility is a regional jail in Carthage that has a capacity of 460 adult males and females. According to the agreement, Attala County will house a minimum of 10 inmates and a maximum of 50.
The City of Kosciusko was expected to approve a similar agreement with Leake County; however, the finalization of that agreement was not available by press time.
“The county would like all citizens to know that this decision and its ramifications have not been made lightly and that it is our sincere belief that this is the best decision at this time on behalf of the county and is in the best interest of the taxpayers of Attala County,” Pinkard added.
In other action the board of supervisors:
• approved a grant agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration;
• approved moving forward with a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment at the county owned Brinkman building;
• appointed Terry Jones to the library board;
• appointed Frankie Farmer to the housing authority.
The next scheduled meeting of the Attala County Board of Supervisors will be Sept. 19 at the Chancery Court building.
