Many of the persons being arrested in municipalities within Sunflower County are now doing time outside of the county’s jail.
Moorhead Chief Bobby Walker said he is using Sheriff Ricky Banks’ facility in Greenwood for many of his arrestees. Ruleville sends a good many of their prisoners to Bolívar County, according to Sheriff James Haywood, and the City of Indianola is now sending more of their detainees to a jail facility other than the Sunflower County lockup.
Haywood said he knows that the Town of Sunflower takes some of their prisoners to Drew, but he hasn’t seen any Indianola prisoners in awhile.
Indianola Police Chief Edrick Hall said that his decision to use Leflore County was driven by his continued intent to insure the safety of the citizens and save the city money.
He said his department is short-staffed at the moment because he has lost quite a few officers. Sending the captured offenders to the Leflore County facility allows him to have a sufficient number of officers on patrol, plus, it deters overtime, he said.
Hall explained that if he houses an inmate in the county jail that person remains his department’s responsibility until he or she is bound over.
So, if the individual has to go to the hospital or doctor for medical treatment, then one of his officers has to go and sit with that person until medical personnel sees them, and that reduces the number of officers he has on patrol and it could mean paying overtime.
In addition, Hall said that if a juvenile commits a gun crime, he or she would no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the youth court but would become his department’s responsibility and would need to be housed at the county jail.
But he says Haywood has told him that the Sunflower County jail is not supposed to hold juveniles who have committed gun crimes. He said Haywood told him that he doesn’t have a problem with housing the youth, but he can’t.
“The Leflore County jail will,” Hall said.
So, he takes them over there. He said he is just trying to manage everything he can the best way that he can.
According to Haywood, the federal government told him that the youth have to be adjudicated first and certified as an adult before he or she can be housed in the county’s jail.
Haywood’s department had been under a federal mandate to improve conditions in the county facility, and that mandate just ended last year.
“We’ve got a good jail,” he said.
Another issue that prompted Hall to send more of his captives to Greenwood is the limited amount of space the county jail has for female inmates. He said in addition to having to transport the juveniles, he also had to take the women too. So, he started taking more of the men as well.
Hall said it was not a decision he made alone. He said he conferred with Mayor Steve Rosenthal and after careful consideration they were in agreement. Rosenthal said, “Just because it’s a better way to do it.”
He and Hall analyzed the cost factor, and he said it just made better sense to send the prisoners to Greenwood.
Rosenthal said the issue started back when Tommy Moffett was police chief and continued with Hall’s predecessor, Richard O’Bannon, that the county jail would take some prisoners but not others. He said if two were taken out to the jail, one had to be taken somewhere else.
According to him, the city pays an extra $10 per day to be able to drop the arrestees off in Greenwood and avoid the possibility of paying overtime for officers sitting at the doctors’ office in case a prisoner needs medical attention, because that’s part of the service the Greenwood department provides.
He said the Greenwood facility will take whatever prisoners they bring. It just made better sense he said.
“We will use local services if it is mutually beneficial,” Rosenthal added. Sunflower County charges $35 per day to house city inmates. Haywood said the city is losing money by taking people out of the county.
“We’ve got the best jail around,” Haywood said.
Moorhead’s Chief Walker is another who is sending those he takes into custody to the Leflore County jail. He said that he only uses the Sunflower County jail in the event of a known conflict between a person he arrests and one already incarcerated in Leflore County.
According to Walker, another concern of his relates to issued cash bonds for prisoners. He said there have been instances where those prisoners were allowed to bond out of the county jail for only 10 percent of that cash bond instead of the full amount, and he did not find out about it until the person was already out on the street.
Haywood insisted that the cash bonds are not being handled correctly.
“We correct those problems,” he said. Haywood also said it is an inconvenience to house prisoners outside of the county because it causes the public defenders to have to travel to visit the inmates.
He said it is just more conducive to house them in the county and contends that the cities are taking taxpayer money outside of the county.
Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ President Glenn Donald agrees with him.
“I think that’s wrong,” Donald said.
He said the city officials should not be taking resources from the Sunflower County sheriff especially when they will have to depend on county law enforcement for backup. He also said that the county has a nurse and a doctor on staff plus access to an emergency room.
Donald contends that the cities should have met with Haywood before making such a decision.
“Together we all stand,” he said.
He added that the county is not going to progress with that kind of division.
“Any problem can be worked out,” Donald insisted.
At the county’s March 5 meeting, Haywood mentioned to county officials that Hall was bypassing his facility in favor of the one in Leflore County. The board of supervisors elected to discuss the matter in closed executive session rather than in the open meeting.
Donald said later on March 7 that they were not sure of what Haywood was going to say, so, they opted for the closed session. Haywood said he thought the matter dealt with some legalities, which is why he called for the executive session.
