Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann updated members of JXN United, which is composed of representatives from numerous homeowners’ associations, about efforts to make Jackson a safer place to live.
He praised the efforts of the Capitol Police force, which has grown from providing security for state-owned buildings to working with the Jackson Police Department to fight crime in the Capitol Complex Improvement District, which takes in downtown Jackson as well as the Belhaven and Fondren neighborhoods.
Hosemann said lawmakers set aside funding for additional temporary circuit court judges, prosecutors in the District Attorney’s Office and additional public defenders, which is among efforts to clear up a backlog of cases.
A resident of Jackson, Hosemann said the city of Jackson needs a misdemeanor holding facility, which would be a place where offenders could be held for up to 72 hours. The facility would provide a place for offenders to cool off and could keep crime from escalating, he said.
Plans for a misdemeanor holding facility, which will be located on the third floor of the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office at President and Tombigbee Street, behind the Hinds County Courthouse and less than a block away from the Jackson Police Department, have been in the works for 10 months but the facility is not yet ready to be used.
JPD Chief James 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.
Hosemann touched on the city of Jackson’s water crisis and said Jackson has received more bad publicity than it could buy because of it, The state’s work to restore the city’s failing water system has resulted in getting the system back in operation but is not a long-term solution, he said.
While Hosemann did not name Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba by name, he said, “We can’t stay with the current leadership. That has to change.”
Hosemann said he will push for public schools to operate almost year-round with nine weeks on and two or three weeks off. Several school systems across the state already have adopted such calendars, he said.
Hosemann said he is an advocate for demolishing the Department of Public Safety Headquarters on East Woodrow Wilson Avenue after the department moves to a new building that is under construction in Rankin County and revamping that property into a mixed-use development.
