NEWS

14 counties agree to keep using inmate labor

Jerry Mitchell
Clarion Ledger

Seeking to save $3.2 million, the Mississippi Department of Corrections on Saturday is shutting down the Joint State County Work Program — the most controversial act so far by Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher.

Under the new program, 14 Mississippi counties have agreed to continue using state inmates in a work program without reimbursement while 16 other counties have turned down the offer.

In the past, MDOC paid $20 per day per offender as part of the Joint State County Work Program.

Under the new arrangement, each county is required to provide alcohol and drug treatment and GED programs to all inmates in the program. MDOC will pay for all the medical care.

“That’s something we’ve been doing in the past, providing for their GED,” said Lauderdale County Sheriff Billie Sollie. “It’s not a major change, other than we won’t receive $20 per day. Times are hard for federal, state and local governments.”

Counties that have signed up for the new program include Carroll, Chickasaw, Clay, Jefferson, Lauderdale, Lincoln, Monroe, Montgomery, Pearl River, Scott, Simpson, Stone, Tate and Union.

Fisher said ending the old program would enable corrections officials to redirect that $3.2 million to other budgetary needs.

“We are no longer operating as status quo,” he said. “Detractors should anticipate a different way of doing business at MDOC.”

More changes are expected, he said. “We are in the initial throes of a sea change. If the current trend of having fewer inmates incarcerated and more on community supervision continues, we must rethink how we are using taxpayer’s money.”

Hinds County, which still owes millions on its Joint State-County Work Center, is not participating. County officials had talked about bringing a lawsuit but decided against it because of a lack of a contract.

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing, past president of Mississippi Sheriffs Association, hopes there is another way to address the matter, perhaps when the Legislature returns in January.

His jail keeps up to 10 state inmates.

“The benefits and work they provide offsets the cost of their being here,” Rushing said.

Contact Jerry Mitchell, at (601) 961-7064 or jmitchell@jackson. gannett.com. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.