Jackson Police Chief James Davis advocated for a misdemeanor jail during a town hall meeting about crime in Belhaven in November 2021.
“We need a jail,” Davis said at the meeting. “If we had a jail, we’d see a reduction in crime.”
It’s coming up on a year since that town hall meeting called after several car jackings occurred in Belhaven, and the city still has yet to open such a facility.
Credell Calhoun, who serves as president of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, said the county is waiting on an agreement with the city of Jackson before the facility that is located on the third floor of the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office at President and Tombigbee Street can be used.
“We’re trying to get it in the city’s name,” he said. “Our attorneys are working with the city.”
The facility is behind the Hinds County Courthouse and less than a block away from the Jackson Police Department.
Forty cells that will house males and 20 that will house females are ready to use. “It’s ready to go,” Calhoun said.
The number of cells should be adequate, he said, since the maximum time someone can be held there is 72 hours.
Calhoun said he understands staffing issues have been worked out.
The holding facility was initially announced to go into use in August but that has been pushed to October.
Ashby Foote, who represents Ward 1 and serves as president of the Jackson City Council, questioned earlier why it has taken months to get the facility ready for use.
“When we open the holding facility, I’ll believe it,” Foote said. “I feel like we’re getting the run-around.”
Plans for the holding facility have been in the works for eight months and not enough progress has been made, Foote said.
The facility must be repaired so it meets federal guidelines, employees must be hired to operate it and the city and county must sign a memorandum of understanding about the operation.
“We need to have the will to make this happen,” Foote said. “Too often we get tied up in the paralysis of analysis. We’ve got to do better. It shouldn’t take more than eight months to open a holding facility that has been a holding facility in the past.”
Davis has pushed for the department to have a misdemeanor holding facility, which he has said will communicate that even minor crimes will not be tolerated in the city of Jackson. JPD has lacked a misdemeanor holding facility since March 2020 and because of that has had to field release at least 3,000 individuals.
JPD would usually take those arrested for misdemeanors to its own holding facility or to the Raymond Detention Center, depending on the charge.
Under the county’s jail consent, the Raymond Detention Center cannot house many misdemeanor offenders, except those arrested for DUI and domestic violence charges.
Calhoun likens placing someone in the holding facility to putting a child in time-out. “If they get a time out maybe it will help lower the crime rate,” he said.
