EDITORIAL/Adequately fund the jail

EDITORIAL/Adequately fund the jail

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Sheriff Eric Clark has called for a renewed city-county partnership to expand and improve the county jail, and it’s time for that partnership to happen.

Constructed three decades ago, the jail is run down, out of date and dangerous.

“My job is to house these inmates,” Clark told city officials appearing at a regular meeting of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen last week. 

“If you can help me with some expansion and we can get you guys back on we are going to be a lot stronger together.

“This is nothing against the supervisors. I am not here plotting against them. My thing is that we are going to have to start working together. I need some support for this.”

The city chose to house prisoners in Winston County in 2020 after the new Sheriff tried to re-negotiate 30-year-old pricing.

Mayor Young said last week if some plans were developed, he would willing and ready to “move forward.” 

Ward 2 Alderman Jim Fulton backed a joint study to fix the jail.

“It sounds like we need to form a panel,” he said. “It needs to be city and county representatives to come up with a plan.

The jail was designed as a 66-bed facility and they steadily house between 70 and 100 prisoners. They were at 108 last Monday, Clark said. 

“We have mats for the inmates. We sleep on the floor. We sleep wherever we can. There are not many things in that jail that work besides the running water and toilets and the TVs.”

As for the folks who keep the jail running and maintain law and order, about 45 people — 20 jail employees and about that many SO employees — share a single toilet in the hallway.

A jail is a county function and the city should be paying a fair rate to house prisoners and not subsidizing Winston County. 

Re-establishing a partnership to share and maintain the county jail will make the city and county a lot stronger, Clark told the mayor and board and he could not be more accurate.

In the 1990s, the city had agreed to pay $10,000 a month, but that figure had dropped to about $8,000 by the time Clark took office.

Adequately funding the jail is essential and a joint study sounds like a great idea.

City residents pay county taxes and, at the end of the day, it’s a county responsibility to maintain a good jail.

When Clark took office, he reviewed all of his department’s contracts, including the 1990s one with the city to house prisoners.

Clark did the right thing and proposed a new contract that brought costs in line, but the city went shopping for a discount and is subsidizing Winston County. 

The jail has a $1.4 million budget. “That’s just to keep the doors open and there have been no improvements,” Clark said.

Neshoba County should plan strategically with the city of Philadelphia with regard to the jail. Maintaining law and order is a priority.

Adequately funding the jail is essential so let’s renew this city-county partnership.






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