Several Delta legislators have come together and have presented a multi-step plan to address issues at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Senator Sarita Simmons, Representative Otis Anthony, Representative Tracey Rosebud and Representative Abe Hudson announced in a press release this week that they “have spent many hours working with others to stabilize and improve conditions at Parchman.”
“Our first act was to visit Parchman and meet with Warden Marshall and his staff to conduct an assessment of the safety of the staff, offenders and surrounding communities. This visit gave us first hand knowledge and a close up look at the inhumane living conditions at Parchman especially at Unit 29. It is noted that we agree and applaud Governor (Tate) Reeves’ decision to close Unit 29,” the release said.
Immediately after Governor Reeves announced the closure of Unit 29, the group met with him to garner support for the following measures:
1. Close Unit 29 but keep Parchman open.
2. Reassign the employees at Unit 29 to other units at Parchman so that there will be no job loss.
3. Repurpose Parchman’s mission by increasing the number of maximum unit cells, training and re-entry programs and enhancing medical services at the Parchman hospital to provide medical services for. offenders.
4. Increase staff salaries and implement a preferential salary scale for employees who work at the maximum security units at Parchman.
5. Create a staff recruiting program that focuses on hiring more male security staff.
6. Assess and evaluate the offender’s classification system to ensure that offenders are assigned properly.
7. Assign more offenders to regional jails and increase the offenders per-diem.
8. Reimplement the highway beautification program that will assign offenders to jails for the purpose of picking up trash on the highways.
“We were very pleased with our meeting with Governor Reeves who committed to working with us to keep Parchman open, and keep employees at Parchman by reassigning them to other units at Parchman,” the release said.
