The Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman is on the chopping block for the second time in as many legislative sessions.
According to a report by Magnolia Tribune this week, State Sen. Juan Barnett, who chairs the Senate Corrections Committee, is targeting a massive drawdown in Parchman’s operations over the next few years.
This likely will not go down without a fight from the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors, who last year penned a stern letter of opposition to the Legislature when Barnett filed a similar bill then.
The prison is not only one of the county’s largest employers, located just a few miles north of Drew, but it also holds a lot of historic significance for the region.
As noted in Magnolia Tribune, “Parchman became famous during the Civil Rights era when young protesters were sentenced to the facility. A few years ago, inmates staged an uprising to protest their living conditions.”
Barnett’s plan is to “close about 75% of Parchman, keeping the infirmary, rehabilitative services and death row. Most of the inmates would be reassigned to the nearby Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, currently operated by Brentwood, Tennesse-based CivicCore,” according to Magnolia Tribune.
Barnett’s reasons for wanting to shutter the over 100-year-old prison are interesting, if not laughable.
“Senator Barnett said the prison is unsafe for staff and inmates after years of underfunding and neglect,” Magnolia Tribune reported.
But who is responsible for that neglect?
The Legislature, as noted by former Gov. Phil Bryant prior to departing office in 2019, spent years balking at providing adequate funding for Parchman and other prisons across the state.
Instead of proposing an adequate funding solution to Parchman’s problems, Barnett proposes to overcrowd a neighboring prison instead.
If the Heidelberg native were to do a Google Maps search, he would be able to see that the privately-operated prison that would be taking on the bulk of Parchman’s prisoners is less than a 30-minute drive away.
Tutwiler’s facility would not only likely face overcrowding, but also likely suffers from the same regional labor pool problems that have plagued northern Sunflower County for years.
When Gov. Tate Reeves took office in 2020, he appointed Burl Cain as head of the state Department of Corrections.
Cain has done an admirable job of cutting down on murders, contraband and other internal issues inside of the jails, while also attempting to change the spiritual culture of the state’s prison system.
Parchman is not perfect, and it never will be, but Cain’s partnerships with institutions like Mississippi Delta Community College, have given many prisoners a second chance at earning their high school diplomas and even college degrees.
In 2021, he partnered with Ruth Graham, daughter of famed evangelist Billy Graham on a prison ministry program.
MDOC’s prisoners have broken ground on multiple chapels over the past four years.
The state’s budget to operate Parchman has risen from $37 million in fiscal year 2024 to possibly $42.5 million over the next 12 months.
It is likely that some of those increases are related to inflation and rising costs for standard operations.
The state could fund a significant new construction and rehabilitation project at Parchman, as well as provide enough money to raise pay for staff to improve recruiting.
Or it can rob Peter to pay Paul by shifting inmates from one facility to another.
If the Legislature takes the first option, it could have two well-balanced and well-manned prison facilities in the Delta.
If state lawmakers choose the latter, it will likely result in moving hundreds of inmates out of a neglected prison and creating all new problems for another just a few miles down the road.
