Local and state law enforcement officers seized several items of contraband at the Carroll-Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility on June 28.
According to Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker, correctional officers from the jail were joined by Carroll County deputies and 150 Mississippi Highway Patrol and Mississippi Department of Corrections officers to conduct a shakedown of the facility.
Seized were seven cell phones, two one-dollar bills, four cell phone chargers, and two pair of unauthorized tennis shoes. All housing areas in the jail were searched beginning at 3 a.m.
Walker said he requested the shakedown on June 26 and was pleased with the quick and aggressive response of the state agencies involved.
“It’s the first shakedown of its kind utilizing both state agencies at the regional facility,” Walker said. “I was pleased to be told that the shakedown yielded the least amount of contraband that those officers had seen at a facility that size.”
Currently, the Carroll Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility houses 270 state inmates and 40 county inmates.
According to a release by the Mississippi Department of Corrections, local sheriffs of regional correctional facilities can request MDOC’s assistance to search state inmates.
"We should never let up with our shakedowns, whether they are on a small or large scale," Commissioner Hall said. "Citizens often ask what we are doing about inmates on a cell phone or posting on Facebook. We are seizing the illegal phones along with other illegal items when we get the complaints, especially during these shakedowns."
Shakedowns also have occurred this month at Delta Correctional Facility in Leflore County, which serves as a Technical Violation Center (TVC), and Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. As a result of the shakedown at CMCF, 15 inmates were cited for rule violations after items, including shanks, money transaction numbers, tattoo guns, and cellphone chargers, were found in their locker boxes.
"This is a very small amount of contraband for the 1,900 inmates of all custody levels who were searched," CMCF Superintendent Ron King said. "The entire facility was not searched."
