Staff Writer
Arthur Smith, warden at Carroll-Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility, came before the Carroll County Board of Supervisors with something on his mind.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections will eventually succumb to millions of dollars in cuts in the next fiscal year.
"This will be a big hurt to our budget," Smith told the supervisor Monday. "We are looking at about $680,000 in cuts."
Smith told supervisors the MDOC is also discontinuing the Joint County State Work Program. In the program there is currently 16 inmates, eight from both Carroll County and Montgomery County.
Their work saves taxpayers money and the state pays the county $20 a day for each inmate.
The MDOC commissioner Christopher Epps said counties will no longer be paid to house those inmates after March 15th as part of budget cuts.
In addition to the cuts at the jail, Smith said the number of state inmates will be reduced from 280 to 224, something that will drastically hurt the CMRCF in the long run.
"They would pay us $20 a day, and now we have to pay it as well as medical cost," Smith said. "Now, it will all come out of the county."
Beat One Supervisor Terry Herbert estimated the cuts would cost the CMRCF $58,000, not counting medical expenses.
Smith said he and Carroll County Sheriff Jerry Carver would ask Montgomery County officials for their share of the money to keep eight of the inmates. Carroll County intends to find the resources to keep the other eight men, according to the warden.
Smith said the cost to house a state inmate is $29.74 per day.
Smith, who was not on Monday's agenda, said he wanted to come to the board because of the urgency.
"We will be in the hole," Smith said. "And we are going to have to do something."
Carroll County Circuit Clerk Durward Stanton asked Smith about the possibility of the cuts resulting in staff reduction.
"It's not looking good," Smith said. "We only have four employees at the facility that do not live in Carroll or Montgomery County."
The CMRCF employs 43 people.
"This will be every regional facility in the state," Smith said.
Earlier this week, Carver and Beat Three Supervisor Marvin Coward traveled to Jackson to meet with MDOC officials, to possibly clarify the cuts.
"It doesn't look like we are going to do much today," Coward said. "We're just meeting with them, and we don't want to get ahead of ourselves."
In a statement on MDOC website, Epps said MDOC was cut from $360 million to $317 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
Sen. Lydia Chassaniol (R-Winona) said many of the state agencies will feel the crunch of the tough economy.
"Corrections are an important part of our economy," Chassaniol said. "This is a terrible disadvantage that has us all concerned. We are asking every agency head to make cuts, and we are feeling it at the county and state level."
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