The prisoners in Sunflower County have got to be feeling special about now.
After over a month of discussion, they were still the talk of the town during Monday morning’s meeting of the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors.
The big news is all but one local municipality have started bringing their prisoners back to the Sunflower County Jail, according to Sheriff James Haywood. That city is Ruleville, which has been conducting business with the Bolivar County Jail for some time.
The issue arose several weeks ago when Haywood told the Supervisors that Indianola was no longer bringing its arrestees to the county jail. It was then determined that other municipalities, including Ruleville, Moorhead, Sunflower and Inverness were also housing their detainees outside of the county or at a facility other than the Sunflower County Jail.
Haywood told the county lawmakers that he thinks Ruleville is in the process of establishing an interlocal agreement with Bolivar County. Such an interlocal agreement appears to be allowed in Mississippi, as long as it is approved by the Attorney General, according to research done by the county and The Enterprise-Tocsin in recent weeks.
Monday’s agenda included an invitation for the Inverness and Ruleville city officials to come to the table and iron out their concerns and hash out whatever problems are preventing the police chiefs from housing their prisoners here in the county.
However, representatives from both cities were absent. Supervisor Riley Rice said he had personally spoken to several of the Ruleville aldermen on Saturday, presented them with a copy of the agreement the county has with each city and invited them to come.
Rice expressed his dismay over the officials not showing up.
“They don't want to sit down and talk,” Rice said. “How are you ever going to get anything done and you won't even come to the table, sit down and talk?”
Board President Glenn Donald suggested that Ruleville's unwillingness to come to the table may stem from an unsettled debt amassed by the city under a past law enforcement administration.
He said that the past due amount is roughly $21,000.
However, Donald said he doesn’t want that to hinder the two bodies from working together.
The county is willing to forget about the debt.
“Let's start fresh, come together and work together trying to go forward, so the county can go forward,” he said.
With reference to the money owed, Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams said, “That's so old now that it ain't even a part of it anymore, start fresh.”
McWilliams said afterward that the circumstance likely dates back 15 years or more and before any of the present officials were in office. He insists that no good records were kept during that time and much of the confusion surrounds when a prisoner became the responsibility of the county instead of the city.
He maintains that it would likely cost more to try to figure out the matter than the debt is worth. And since it would be too difficult to figure it out, ”Why fight about it?” he asked.
Supervisor Gloria Dickerson asked if Ruleville Chief Ernie Scarber had ever been approached about resolving the matter and Jail Administrator Eddie Bounds said that he had talked to Scarber on a previous occasion.
Bounds said when he approached Scarber about the money, at that time, he mentioned that Sunflower County was charging $7 per day more than the Bolivar County sheriff, and in addition, he was not getting notified by Haywood’s Department when a prisoner had bonded out.
Bounds said that Bolivar County was not supplying notices either.
However, Donald said he believes that Scarber may be likely just continuing a trend that was going on when he took office. He doesn't believe that the chief has a beef with the county.
Haywood and Bounds said that the families of the offenders, as well as the court appointed public defenders, are being inconvenienced by Ruleville’s actions.
McWilliams said the attorneys could eventually come and ask the board for travel expenses for having to go outside of the county.
Sheriff’s Department Payroll Clerk Brandi Howard said the attorneys are already complaining about having to schedule an appointment with the Bolívar County Jail when they need to see a prisoner, something they do not have to do here in the county.
Haywood referenced one particular situation where an inmate had to bond out twice because they bonded out in Bolivar County, but was indicted in Sunflower County and picked up on that indictment by county deputies and as a result, had to bond out again.
“So, that's just wasted money,” said Haywood.
Supervisor Dennis Holmes asked how a person could be bound over to the county if they haven’t seen a court appointed lawyer or had a preliminary hearing.
According to the circuit clerk’s office, with regards to felony arrests, a captive is given an initial appearance, which is where they are officially informed of the charges being levied against them. At that time, a bond is set, if it has not already been established and paperwork is filed with the clerk and a public defender is assigned, if they meet the criteria.
Any arrestee that is bound over or charged with a felony is by law remanded to the county jail.
So, Ruleville would have to bring those type prisoners to the county anyway, said Haywood. The procedure is different for misdemeanors.
At the request of Supervisor Rice, David Rushing and the Democratic Executive Committee have come out in support of the board in their quest to get all of the municipalities to bring their prisoners to the county facility.
Rushing said that the DEC agreed to support keeping all prisoners in the county and that they plan to send a delegation before the Ruleville Board of Aldermen to stress this point.
“Our position is we don't really care about what the reason is, who's doing this, who's not doing this,” Rushing said. “We just think it needs to be kept in Sunflower County and whatever the issues are, they need to be worked out.”
Dickerson then asked what was the next step and Donald said it is to get the Ruleville city board to talk with the county's board because any agreement would have to be developed between the boards and not between the sheriff's office and police chief.
McWilliams indicated that more research is needed on the whole matter and the board will call another meeting after that is complete.
