Jackson Free Press

Precinct 4 COPS meetings have proved a reliable format for city figures to meet with concerned residents and discuss problems facing the community, particularly infrastructure and crime issues. The Aug. 4 meeting was no different. Visiting the audience that day, along with Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes and Public Works Director Thelman Boyd, was Jackson Mayor Frank Melton, who leaned into the crowd with informal aplomb and pronounced his top three priorities as mayor.

"Top on my list are quality-of-life issues; No. 2 definitely deals with crime, and No. 3 deals with economic development," Melton said, throwing off a grocery list of accomplishments and goals. Melton lauded his executive order, making it mandatory "for every child to be in somebody's classroom starting Monday."

Saying he was "going after the father first," Melton said he was pursuing parents who didn't keep kids in school by "taking them to youth court and charging them with educational neglect and seeing if we can go from there."

He added that he would enlist the aid of the police department, fire department and "everybody in government" in dealing with truancy issues, saying they are authorized to "pick them up, take them directly to youth court. They don't have to fill out any forms if it's a school-age child on the streets."

Hinds County Attorney Malcolm Harrison said government officials may deliver a child to court, but law enforcement still must file any formal truancy charges.

"That child can either be brought to youth court or that child's school. You can do that without papers, but that's not necessarily a charge of truancy. If there is a charge of truancy filed in youth court, it will have to be by truancy officers in the police department," Harrison said.

Melton also accused municipal court judges of "not holding environmental court" and neglecting duties.

"We have 81,000 outstanding warrants, valued at $40 million, just sitting there. I'm going to find a holding facility—somewhere on the outskirts of Jackson—that doesn't interfere with the value of the neighborhood and give these people a choice, either pay or stay," the mayor proclaimed.

Melton said that ultimately the city is going to piggyback with the county and put some additional bed space in Raymond, but that until construction is done he's "looking for a temporary holding facility in Jackson that will hold up to 150 people."

Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin says he and Melton have spoken about jail space but added that neither have yet spoken "in depth" on the matter. McMillin told the Jackson Free Press he was more concerned with properly funding the court system to get detainees through the system more quickly.

McMillin said: "Last year we had a jail full of pretrial, unindicted detainees and this year we have a jail full of indicted detainees. All we've done is changed the status of the jail. The system is still not moving the way it ought to. We don't have enough judges and prosecutors to keep up with the workload, but along with additional judges comes additional prosecutors and public defenders," which he said all translates inevitably into additional costs that ultimately bring an end to most hard-on-crime stances.

"It's fine to be for law and order and Mom's apple pie and flags and all that, but when you say 'here's what it costs,' that's where they all jump ship on you," McMillin said.

On building and staffing a city jail, Council President Marshand Crisler confessed that the council was still scratching their heads on how the city was supposed to bankroll the project, which could run up operating costs into the millions.

"Our budgets are already suffering," Crisler said recently. "Maybe we should ask (Melton) to go to some of those friends he has in the state (for money)."

When asked how he intended to deal with the council's reluctance, Melton replied: "It's not an issue of money. It's an issue of priority."

"We have a crime problem. It is not a perception. It is a reality, and it is a matter of priorities. When it comes to priorities, rather than have 1,200 city cars, a third of which are being illegally driven, I'd rather use that money to fund a facility. I'd also like to go out and collect that $40 million in fines from people who have disturbed the peace and dignity of the city of Jackson. And I'm not talking about building a Holiday Inn. We want to meet the minimum standards that (prisoners' rights attorney) Ron Welch would approve, and have a place to hold somebody for 48 hours before we can ship them off somewhere else."

Melton said he would also turn to U.S. marshals for assistance.

"When I served at MBN (Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics), I could use any jail in Mississippi. With the felonies, I'm having a U.S. marshall pick them up, and they can use any jail in the U.S. If we pick up this fellow, and we don't have any room in Raymond, we might put him in Arizona," Melton said.

U.S. Marshal Supervisory Deputy Richard Griffin, while highly commending the Jackson Police Department's collaboration with the U.S. marshal's department on countless task force operations, told the Jackson Free Press that he was unaware of nationwide jail access by U.S. marshals.

"The marshal service is assisting the Jackson Police Department in the apprehension of some of their felony cases, but when they're arrested, they're treated just like any other JPD or Hinds County arrest. We would turn them over to the JPD, and they would in turn put them into the Hinds County Detention Center," Griffin said.

"If we find, through our task force, somebody in Chicago that's wanted by the JPD, he's arrested in Chicago by the marshals, but he's turned over to the local authorities there. Then we'll go through extradition proceedings, but as far as us having the ability to arrest anybody anywhere and put them in any facility, that's just not the case."

U.S. Marshals may temporarily hold detainees at a local facility in Madison County if no space is available in Raymond, but only until that detainee can be transferred to Jackson, Griffin added.

In terms of jails, Melton acknowledged at the meeting, however, that "we can't build our way out of the problem."

"We have to do two things. We need to deal with the bad guys, and we have to have strong prevention, which starts with education, and we have to ask God that hopefully in our lifetime the two will come together," he said. "The least expensive route is prevention. The most expensive route is incarceration."