Municipality leaders are feeling locked out when it comes to receiving inmate support from the county. Several department heads and city leaders from throughout Sunflower County assembled at Monday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting to express their concern and hear what the county leaders had to say.
Apparently, the cities have also been reaping the benefit of a state edict that provides inmate workers to the county, but lately they have been getting fewer, if any, inmates to assist them with work in their communities.
Board President Glenn Donald said he invited the city representatives to the session to explain the circumstances to them directly and hopefully deter any hearsay.
It seems that some believe certain municipalities are getting inmate help, while others are being left out.
By state statute, the county can be allotted up to 35 Parchman inmates to assist with county roadwork, when and if they are available.
The city representatives, however, feel as though they have not been reaping the full benefit of that arrangement.
Donald said although the decree allows for 35 inmates, the county can only receive inmates who are available and eligible for the work program and most times that number is far less.
“We can’t make them send us 35, if there are only six eligible,” Donald said.
President Donald also explained that at times, such as when the prison facility is on lockdown, the county does not receive any workers.
He further stated that of the 35 they are slated to receive, they only receive about 13 on average.
He then outlined how the inmates are dispersed throughout the county with three men going to each of the county’s road barns.
That would leave maybe four men to be alternated across the county’s seven or eight municipalities.
“We have to rotate them because we don’t have them, nobody’s intentionally not giving you anybody,” Donald said.
He also explained that although it may seem as if certain cities are being favored above others that is not the case.
Donald suggested that what was actually county inmates working on county projects near the towns may have been erroneously thought to be state penitentiary inmates because they were similarly clad.
The county leader’s claim of not having enough inmates available was further substantiated by Sheriff James Haywood who shared that according to his conversation with Parchman officials, over the past couple of months, the eligible state inmates were sent to Warren and Issaquena counties to aid in the flood relief efforts.
Haywood said he was told that some of the prisoners assigned to those areas should be returning to Sunflower County soon and he added that other counties within the state are also suffering from a lack of assistance from state facilities in their area.
As a possible solution, he suggested that since most municipalities have offenders who need to work off fines, it would be a good idea to get with the municipal judges to set up a program whereby those who owe a debt to the towns could reduce that amount by working it off.
Just like now, the offenders would be housed at the county jail, the municipalities would pay a daily housing fee and the inmates, who are not a threat to the public, would go out and work off their fines.
“All we’re doing is trying to find a way until we can get those 35 inmates back,” Donald said.
Haywood addressed the guidelines for working with the inmates and cautioned the city reps.
“If you’re getting inmates make sure they are supervised, don’t leave them alone,” said Haywood.
He also cautioned that no one should be allowed to visit with the inmates or pass them anything.
Donald said that Pelicia Hall, prison commissioner, is working on a program where non-violent inmates are actually assigned to a particular city for a particular time, will work during the day, be housed at the county jails overnight and have their original sentence reduced as a result.
More discussion on safety precautions and possible alternatives ensued with Donald concluding that he would acquire the paperwork on the commissioner’s proposed plan, bring it to the other members of the board and Haywood and then they would meet again to determine what actions to take.
Donald reemphasized that the sheriff would have to sign off on any plan involving the housing of inmates because he is the one who is responsible for the jail and that the inmates from Parchman are assigned to the county for road work.
