Jackson Free Press

Hinds County Supervisors surprised some onlookers at the Aug. 7 supervisors' meeting by producing more money for the Raymond Detention Center. Supervisors voted 4-to-1 to approve $481,000 to expand the recreation yards at Raymond, with only Doug Anderson voting no. Supervisors hope the expansion will meet national standards on recreational space and allow a higher inmate count, possibly bringing in 132 extra beds.

"It's not realistic to assume that we'll have 132 more people in there in three weeks, but I think it's realistic to assume that we'll eventually have new beds," said District 1 Supervisor Charles Barbour. "We'll have to submit bid requests and so on, but our goal is to move as rapidly as possible without moving off to the dark end of the clothes line."

County supervisors point out that money is tight in the county budget. The board only recently voted in favor of spending nearly a quarter of a million to beautify the Highway 80 corridor, and then only after public outcry against their earlier decision not to. Money for the detention center expansion came from a two-year-old bond, worth almost $4 million, for new road construction. Only a fraction of the bond money went to road construction, so supervisors voted to expand jail space.

More money will be needed to make the project successful. The last time supervisors voted to expand the recreational facilities, they also had to finance more staff, bedclothes, uniforms, food and other supplies, which could add another $1 million in costs, according to Sheriff Malcolm McMillin.

"I've seen this vote to double up beds in the jail before, and I hired personnel to man those extra cells when it last happened a few years ago. But then they changed their minds after I hired those people, and I went over-budget. I'm grateful for the decision, but I'll wait to see what happens next," McMillin said.

Barbour said he understood the sheriff's skepticism. "We put money aside a few years ago for the same thing, and the bids came in a little bit high on the building and the board chose … not to do that at that time. McMillin wound up going over-budget because he listened to us, and the board reneged on him. I guess the sheriff isn't going to get struck by lightning twice. I understand the sheriff's conservative attitude toward this," he said.

"Who knows?" Barbour continued. "Maybe we can save money by doing some of it in-house with inmate labor. We may not use a private company to do everything. … but we'll do it as cost effectively as possible."

Prisoners' rights attorney Ron Welch, who forced supervisors to address the overcrowding issue with the double-bunk proposal about three years ago, said he was fine with expanding the jail, providing more serious flaws were first corrected. Welch pointed out that the jail is dangerously overcrowded, phenomenally understaffed and that 50 to 100 locks at the jail don't even work.

"We're at maximum inmate population (of 594 people) just about every day and … the jail is running at little more that a quarter of its staff, which means prisoners aren't being watched. The reality is that the capacity needs to go down. If you've got capacity at 594 and about 100 locks don't work, you need to have capacity reset at 494," Welch said, adding that he was "duty-bound to go back to the court and reduce the capacity if they don't fix those locks within a reasonable time."

Welch also argued that the county needed to focus more on moving detainees through the system.

One-time money for increasing recreational space is a lot easier to come by than annual money to finance the salaries of prosecutors, investigators and other facilitators who could work with new judges to speed cases along, however.

Barbour said expanding the jail was the "fourth leg that helps the stool stand," and jail expansion advocates like SafeCity Chairman Mark McCreery, who attended the Aug. 7 meeting, praised the decision, arguing that increasing holding facilities allows authorities to better do their jobs.

Welch warned, however, that he would not rubberstamp the decision without improvement. "I'm sorry about disappointing the SafeCity people. I'm supporting this, but good gosh, not with eyes closed and hands over my ears and mouth," Welch said.