Due to the cuts in the number of inmates sent by the Mississippi Department of Corrections, the jail is losing about $50,000 per month.
The number of inmates has dropped from 280 to 224, and Carroll County Sheriff Jerry Carver said the jail is currently short $270,000.
"You're talking about five mills if you're talking $270,000," Board President Honey Ashmore said. "I don't intend on raising taxes."
Ashmore even went on a limb and said the county would be better off leasing the jail and getting out of the business.
With the rapid decline of inmates, the county is also banking on the Attala Board of Supervisors to make a decision on the whether some of their inmates could land at the Vaiden facility. Talks of the Attala County Jail closing have led to a proposition of up to two dozen county inmates and 12 state inmates being housed at CMRCF.
"This would be the only way we could see the top is if Attala comes aboard," Herbert said.
Currently eight inmates are from Carroll County, 18 inmates are from Montgomery County and five are from Winona. One inmate is from Kilmichael.
Supervisors will likely look to Montgomery County on paying more to house the inmates.
"If we can get a little bit more out of Montgomery County and then obtain the inmates from Attala County, we could be alright," Carver said.
"We need to budget the facility for only 200 inmates and anything over that number will benefit the county," Ashmore said.
The neighboring Montgomery County pays $7,300 a year to house their inmates.
In Monday's Montgomery County Board of Supervisors meeting, Chancery Court Clerk Tee Golding told the board the county will be charged an additional $5 per day to house inmates.
"Because the state cut some inmates, costs are going up for both counties," Golding said. "It will now cost us $25 a day for inmates. It was originally $20 a day.
Golding said when the facility initially set the cost per day for inmates, officials planned to reassess the cost every five years. Golding said it has been more than a decade, and costs haven't been reevaluated.
Supervisor Kenny Ware said when the Vaiden facility was built, Montgomery County was to have a one-third interest in the facility, but so far, he feels Montgomery County has been left out of directing the future of the facility.
"I'm not going to fuss too much about $5," Ware said. "We used to get 10 inmates free a month. Now we get no inmates free."
The board voted to allow Board President Keith McGee to sign the new agreement with Carroll County to house inmates at the correctional facility.
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