New Jail Could Be ‘On Hold’Despite Earlier Commitment

By David Howell
Editor

WATER VALLEY – Finding a new building to house the health department and building a new county jail have long been identified as two priorities county officials need to address.

    For almost five years, Mississippi Health Department’s District Health Officer, Dr. Alfio Rausa, has regularly attended board meetings prodding supervisors to find a new location for the health department office.

    For the last three years supervisors have faced a federal court order that requires the county to move forward with the construction of a new jail or no longer house state inmates. Although state inmates are only a small percentage of the prisoners housed at the county jail, the lack of cell space has also been a driving factor in the jail construction discussion.

    Numerous options have been considered to build a replacement for the 1964 model, 24-person jail. Initially supervisors worked to land state funding to construct a regional jail that would jointly house state and county prisoners. In 2008, Yalobusha was one of more than a dozen counties in the state competing to land a regional jail that would have pumped state dollars into the sheriff’s budget to offset the expense of building and operating a new jail.

    After the economy went south, this option was off the table and it was back to the drawing board for the jail.

The County’s Saving Account

    The driving force in the two projects is a  $2.4 million surplus supervisors have saved to help fund these needs.

    “We have been guarding it like a guard dog,” District One Supervisor Tommy Vaughn told his peers before the board voted unanimously to spend $275,000 of the reserve money earlier this month to purchase the building that previously housed Odom Rural Health Clinic in Water Valley. The building was vacated with the new doctors’ clinic constructed by the hospital, and was ideally suited for the health department, according to Dr. Rausa.

    “I don’t think there is another county our size that has the reserve that we got,” Surrette agreed. “We have been pretty prudent with it.”

New Jail?

    With the health department’s needs taken care of and almost $2.1 million remaining in reserve, supervisors still have the jail issue to address. Building a new jail was a familiar topic during county meetings last summer and into the fall, culminating with a pitch by Sheriff Lance Humphreys in July to build a scaled down version of the regional jail formerly sought by the county.

    In the presentation, Humphreys told supervisors that a new dome-type facility could be constructed for around $2.5 million. He also said the jail could be built and operated without an increase in taxes – if supervisors agreed to use $1 million in the surplus fund as a down payment for the jail.

    One of the driving factors in the plan was a pledge from Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) Commissioner Chris Epps, who agreed to house 25 state inmates at the new facility. In that agreement, the county would be paid $20 per day, per prisoner, providing more than $180,000 annually.

    Following Humphreys’ July presentation, supervisors voted 4-1 in September to move forward with construction of a new jail. Surrette cast the lone vote against the jail.

    Following the vote, planning continued with multiple visits from Ferguson and Associates, the probable architectural firm for the project. Several acres donated by Carothers Construction were identified as the site location.

    Supervisors even authorized Humphreys to move his department from the old jail on Calhoun Street in Water Valley to the office building also donated by Carothers. The move would allow Humphreys to have more office space for his department, but would be complicated as Humphreys would have to juggle his manpower between the jail, which remains at the Calhoun Street location, and the new department on County Road 436.

   The complication was expected to be temporary, as the new jail would be constructed at the new location, adjacent to the new sheriff’s department.

The Problems

    Supervisors hit their first snag, a minor legal problem, early after Board Attorney John Crow advised supervisors that there could be a problem if the jail is not constructed within the city limits of either county seat in Yalobusha County.

    During a November meeting, supervisors passed a resolution asking Representative Tommy Reynolds to introduce local and private legislation giving the county authority to build the jail outside of Water Valley.

    On Jan. 11, Reynolds introduced House Bill 463, which would authorize the county to build a jail anywhere in the county. A similar bill, House Bill 696, has also been introduced by Dr. Sidney Bondurant. Both bills have been referred to local and private legislation.

    Also complicating the matter is a second, bigger issue that was taking shape at the same time supervisors were ironing out details of the potential new jail.

    In November, Gov. Haley Barbour reported that the state was headed to a revenue deficit comparable to the Great Depression. Following a budget cut in September, and a second at the first of the year, Barbour has already trimmed more than $200 million from the state budget in the current fiscal year with more cuts that could effect county funding expected.

The Latest

“People are asking when are they going to start on the jail?” Vaughn said in a recessed meeting held Jan. 19, when the jail topic most recently surfaced.

“What I tell them when they ask me is, we are going forward, but we are going forward cautiously. We are going to have to wait and see what comes out of this (state) legislative session and how hard we are going to get hit,” Vaughn continued.

The cuts could also hit MDOC hard, Vaughn told supervisors, referencing an update Barbour gave during Monday night’s State of State Address.                     District Five Supervisor Frank “Bubba” Tillman also brought the issue up earlier this month after supervisors voted to purchase the health department building.

    “At one time we thought we might be dealing with a jail,” Tillman told supervisors during the “first Monday” meeting held Jan. 4.

    “And we still may,” Vaughn said at the Jan. 4 meeting.

    “And we still may,” Tillman agreed.  “The way we were dealing with it at that time, we were going to spend a million dollars,” Tillman reminded supervisors, referring to the September decision by the board.

    “I feel like that jail is going to be put on hold for a little while,” Tillman added.