Jackson Free Press

Hinds County officials say it's time for the county to start charging the city of Jackson more to house prisoners in the Raymond Detention Center. It's also time for the county to start formal discussions on building a new jail, they said at this morning's supervisors meeting.

This morning, District 4 Supervisor Tony Greer said the county spends roughly $45 per day to house prisoners at the Raymond facility, where more than 90 percent of detainees are picked up in the city of Jackson, adding up to $9.1 million per year, Greer said.

Greer wanted to direct the county's legal department to start the process of renegotiating the 20-year-old agreement between the county and Jackson for housing inmates at Raymond.

"It's only fair," Greer said. "The agreement we have is antiquated."

District 5 Supervisor Kenneth Stokes agreed the county and Jackson have a "bad contract," but he believes it is unfair to make Jackson to pay more and not ask other municipalities in the county to also up their rates. In June 2012, Stokes unsuccessfully attempted to pass a nonbinding resolution to shutter the jail, which he believed could insulate the county from any lawsuits stemming from incidents there.

It's unclear why Stokes is reversing positions.

"We need to pick our fights and this might be a fight we don't need," Stokes said this morning.

District 3 Supervisor Peggy Hobson Calhoun, who seconded Greer's motion to start formal renegotiations of the agreement with Jackson, agreed that asking Jackson to share in the burden of housing its detainees is a matter of fairness.

Greer and Stokes agreed that a new jail should be constructed closer to Jackson, to cut back on the cost of transporting prisoners to Raymond. A 2012 disturbance at the jail shut down one of the jail's housing pods, requiring massive reconstruction; more recently, another incident closed another of the housing pods although officials have said the damage is less extensive.

The county is also under a court order to make fixes, but supervisors have complained that the county can't afford to make all the needed repairs.

"The public is sick and tired of hearing the board of supervisors bellyache over the cost of running the jail," Greer, who added that the county should also consider privatization of the jail, said.