Supervisors oppose move to reduce money for state inmates

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Feb. 16, 2004
Lauderdale County supervisors are expected to approve a resolution Tuesday urging the state Legislature to reject an effort that could reduce county reimbursements for housing state inmates.
Rick Barry, attorney for the board of supervisors, said he will bring the resolution before the board because a state House proposal could cut prisoner reimbursements from $20 a day to $15 a day.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said word of the proposal is spreading fast among counties throughout the state.
Sollie said a study last year by the Legislature's PEER Committee said the average cost for housing inmates in a 1,000-bed jail is $44.36 a day. The PEER Committee is the Legislature's government watchdog panel.
Sollie said his department is in the process of calculating the county's daily cost. Sollie said a rough estimate would be about $30 to $35 per day for each inmate in the Lauderdale County jail.
In 2003, 6,095 people were booked at the county jail. Lauderdale County billed the state more than $707,400 for housing and medical costs of 86 state inmates in the county work program.
Sollie said the inmates in the work program logged more than 155,000 hours in community service, which would have translated into more than $800,200 in labor costs if they received minimum wage of $5.15 per hour.
The bill is House Bill 405. You can obtain a copy of the bill by visiting the Legislature's Bill Status Web site at http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us.
Supervisors Meet
The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the supervisor's board room of the Raymond P. Davis courthouse annex at 410 21st Ave. For more information, call the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors at 482-9746.