Hinds County’s new jail nears completion as incarceration costs climb

By Mina Corpuz | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Hinds County is nearing completion on a new jail, a project spurred by problems with its current detention center and the need for more space. 

Beyond construction costs estimated at over $100 million, the county is paying millions more to transport nearly 200 detainees to a private Delta correctional facility and house them there. And hundreds of thousands of dollars more may go into fixing another persistent problem at the Hinds County Detention Center: staffing

Phase 1 of the new detention center is over 70% complete and expected to be done by the fall, said Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham. The 800,000-square-foot space in south Jackson will add 120 jail beds and facility-wide amenities such as a kitchen and laundry room. 

“I think we’ll be able to take better track of people based on the size of the buildings and the design of the buildings. Because (the current jail) was basically not built to be user friendly,” Graham said. 

“This building is being built to be user friendly.”     

He said the new facility will provide the needed space and functionality that has been lacking with the current one, which has been plagued by problems since it opened 32 years ago. For years, the jail in Raymond had operated under a federal consent decree to fix unconstitutional conditions. Among those issues were the risk of violence made worse by low staffing, crumbling facilities and an inability to adequately supervise detainees. 

County officials broke ground on the new jail in 2022. Chris Meyers, lead architect for the jail project and a principal at Jackson architecture firm CDFL, said the first phase is estimated to cost $75 million. 

The next phase will be nearly double the size, bringing the facility’s bed total to 600. If a third phase is approved, another 180 jail beds could be added. 

Meyers said the second phase is being drawn up and prepared for pricing, with the goal of having construction begin before the first phase is complete. 

Graham said the true price tag for the entire jail is difficult to estimate because of increased costs of material including steel, challenges with tariffs and supply chains, and the need for skilled workers for the construction project. 

“It’s not a facility that you can actually budget for, per se, because the world is a different place right now,” he said. 

Sheriff Tyree Jones said a new facility is expected to be more safe and secure for detainees and staff. Its location in Jackson will also help save on fuel costs and travel to and from the downtown courthouse. 

The sheriff’s office has struggled to hire and retain enough officers to work at the detention facility, according to federal court records. The most recent monitor report from last year stated the jail was short by nearly 175 positions, with less than a third of positions filled. 

 Once the new detention center is complete, Jones said he hopes to hire more staff. 

Why does the county need a new jail?

In October, the Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency at the detention center because of crowding at the facility that has a capacity of 425. 

Last week Graham said 475 people were held at the jail, including people arrested by over 20 law enforcement agencies in the Jackson Metro area. This includes police departments in the county and several state agencies. 

Notably, that includes those arrested by Capitol Police, which has concurrent jurisdiction through much of Jackson. The state police force was empowered to patrol and make arrests in the Capitol Complex Improvement District that encompasses downtown, areas around Jackson State University, Belhaven, Fondren and up to Northside Drive.

Hinds County charges other counties and the state $32.50 a day per detainee. At the end of 30 days, it goes up to $37 plus medical expenses, which Graham said helps defray some of the detention costs. 

To make space, the county has been taking steps to reduce the jail population, Graham said. 

Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said some nonviolent offenders can be redirected from the Raymond jail by remaining in the community with ankle or wristband monitoring. Pretrial diversion offers another option. 

Owens estimates that over half of the people who remain there are accused of violent offenses and may not be eligible for bond. 

Owens, who previously worked on litigation around conditions of confinement in jails, said his office wants a constitutionally compliant jail and its role is to make sure people have their cases brought to resolution. 

But he said areas beyond the control or jurisdiction of the prosecutor’s office include who is arrested, when officers complete an investigation and turn over the information, how cases are assigned to circuit court judges and when cases are handled on the judge’s docket. Also, the district attorney’s office can’t control the wait time of getting evidence back from the State Crime Lab, Owens said. 

Specifically with the jail, knowing who is there and how long they have been there is a challenge, he said. Owens said he is focused on whether detainees are being indicted in a timely manner. Indictment is the formal charging of a defendant by a grand jury and the start of prosecution. 

“We need to know who’s coming in (to the jail) to make sure they’re not slipping through the cracks,” he said. Different county offices use different information systems that can make it difficult for them to share information. 

“Our systems are not always talking,” Owens said. 

Hinds Public Defender Gail Wright Lowery did not respond for comment. But in a February essay advocating for more funding for her office, she wrote “the crisis in Hinds County has reached a breaking point” through a number of issues, including staff shortages, high caseloads and unnecessary jail detention. 

She wrote that a robust public defense system can help prevent people from sitting in jail waiting for their day in court. 

Why are hundreds of Hinds detainees in a private Delta facility?

Federal court monitors who previously reviewed conditions at the Hinds facility had cited one housing unit as dangerous and having poor living conditions, according to court records. 

County officials responded by closing the unit and signing a contract with private prison operator CoreCivic to house up to 250 people at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, 145 miles from the Raymond jail The facility contracts with other counties to house pretrial detainees as well as with states to hold those who have already been convicted. 

The sheriff’s department transports each person from the Delta prison to court appearances in Hinds County, which can be hundreds of miles roundtrip and take most of the day. 

Sheriff Jones said the trips require a lot of labor and fuel costs, and he recognizes that they can be exhausting for the office’s transportation staff. 

There are also financial costs to keep people at Tallahatchie Correctional. 

CoreCivic is charging Hinds County $75 a day per detainee, Graham said, which he estimated is over $300,000 a month. He said the rate went up from $65. 

With a contract covering up to 250 detainees, the county is estimated to have spent at least $15 million since September 2023. 

Graham said the board of supervisors voted earlier this year to reduce the number of people at Tallahatchie Correctional from 200 to 150. Once the number of detainees hits 150, the county plans to reduce in increments of 50 until no Hinds detainees remain there, Graham said.  

A picture of the cost to bring detainees to and from the Delta for court appearances is unclear. Mississippi Today requested budgeting records about transports from the sheriff’s department and county, but the county has failed to respond to the request for several weeks, in violation of the state’s Public Records Act. 

The county is facing a lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center for failing to turn over public records regarding deaths in the Raymond jail, which it alleges is a violation of the records act. 

Why is a federal receiver running the current jail?

As a result of a lawsuit and subsequent court order, the Raymond facility is under the direction of a federal court-appointed receiver.

Graham said the receiver, Wendell France Jr., has been evaluating the processes, systems and developing policies and procedures since taking full operational control of the jail in October. 

“He is the person that is in charge. He is responsible for the facility,” Graham said. “I think he has found out that we all have the same problems regardless of who is in charge, the problems still remain the same based upon the fact that you have a population problem that’s exacerbating everything else”

Those problems, which the county has also faced, include crowding and the hiring and retaining of staff, Graham said. 

France was not given an end date to serve as receiver. Knowing whether he completed his work and remedied constitutional violations at the jail is up to U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves. That could also include whether the receiver’s work would continue at the new jail, Graham said.

“The issues are the same,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is to break the cycle.” 

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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