Jail Bond Causes Stir

Controversy is intensifying over a Jackson County plan to seek voter approval on Nov. 4 to issue $22 million of general obligation bonds for a new jail. In order to pass, the referendum requires 60% voter approval.

The Board of Supervisors want the GOs to fund a 540-bed adult detention center that would replace a smaller facility built in 1979.

However, Mississippi law requires that the county’s detention center be located in the county seat, which is Pascagoula, and the Legislature has twice refused to approve locating it elsewhere in the county.

The proposal is for the new and bigger jail to be built near the existing facility, but opponents disagree about its location, which is in a prominent area of the city.

The original jail was designed to hold 79 prisoners and was remodeled twice to boost the total to 279. Now the facility holds 440 inmates and supervisors claim it is a liability to the county.

“While location clearly has been an issue, this bond referendum only deals with financing, not location. Regardless of the vote’s outcome, the county must replace the current jail,” District 1 supervisor Manly Barton said in a recent release.

“The jail in its present state is the biggest potential liability facing the county,” Barton said. “It’s an issue that affects every resident. One way or another we have to deal with this issue. We believe a bond will save the taxpayers money in the long run.”

If the bond passes, construction is expected to take more than two years.

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