A recent graduation and job fair for correctional officers could be a sign that Hinds County is making progress in addressing problems with its jail system.
Even so, Sheriff Victor Mason said the jail problems will never be completely alleviated until a new jail is built and all three of the county’s detention facilities are fully staffed.
The county runs adult detention centers in downtown Jackson and Raymond, and a juvenile facility in south Jackson.
“We can keep duct-taping and pasting and gluing, but that’s the only answer,” he said. “I can’t put it any other way.”
A new jail would cost as much as $40 million, expenses the board of supervisors don’t want to take on at the time.
In 2016, the county entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring its jail system into compliance with the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CIPRA).
Among reforms, the county is supposed to make physical improvements to the Raymond and downtown Jackson holding facilities, increase staff and training for staffing, improve mental health and youth services and increase access to medical care, treatments and health screenings.
Late last summer, federal inspectors determined that the county had made some progress but was still out of compliance with staffing and building issues.
Since then, Mason said his department has been working to address several issues, including repairing broken doors at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond, and bringing on additional staffers.
At the time, the department had just 231 correctional officers, 44 fewer than the 275 mandated by DOJ. To boost ranks at the Raymond facility, inspectors recommended closing the jail in downtown Jackson.
Mason, though, said the downtown facility likely won’t be closed. Instead, the department is working to increase staffing.
“(Closing downtown) is just a recommendation,” he said. “Just because they recommend it doesn’t mean you have to do it.”
On February 1, Mason attended a graduation ceremony for six new correctional officers. And in late January, the sheriff’s department hosted a job fair, where between 25 and 27 applications for employment had been submitted.
Today, the department has 232 correctional staffers, not including last week’s graduates.
The sheriff expects to review the new applications over the next two to three weeks and have another recruit class in March.
To be a corrections officer, applicants must be at least 21 years old, have a high school diploma or equivalency, and be of good character. Applicants also must pass a background check and complete 40 hours of training, which is mostly classroom instruction, he said.
“There is a little physical training – they have to get pepper-sprayed and tasered,” he said.
Filling the spots has proven difficult for the county, for various reasons. Mason said some corrections officers leave because they want to become police officers, deputies or state troopers.
“They want to go to the academy or do something different,” he said. “That’s what a lot of them will tell you. They don’t like being cooped up. You can find the same thing in a federal facility. Four walls gets old after a while.”
Others, like District One Supervisor Robert Graham, a former officer with the Jackson Police Department, said low pay and tough working conditions also contribute.
Detention center personnel make $2,600 a month, or $31,200 a year.
“It’s hard to find good people,” Mason said. “There’s a shortage everywhere, even with MDOC.”
MDOC is the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The agency had to place the South Mississippi Correctional Facility on lockdown because of shortages, according to a recent report in the Clarion-Ledger.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s department has also made some structural improvements.
According to the summary of the summer 2018 visit, “major maintenance issues in all three jails continue to remain uncorrected. At the Raymond Detention Center, two main corridor doors (Pods B and C), internal corridor doors in the pods and the control rooms doors in Pods A and B have not been functional for many months.”
“We repaired doors in one pod and we are working in one pod now,” Mason said. “The doors are one of the biggest demands they had. They have always been a problem. It didn’t start with me.”
The feds brought suit against the county in 2016, following riots in Raymond. The violence occurred under former Sheriff Tyrone Lewis.
Federal inspectors visited the jail system again in January. The report from that visit had not been completed at press time.
