MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1997 Regular Session

To: Penitentiary; Appropriations

By: Representatives Gadd, Woods, McBride

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47-5-1207, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CLASSIFY AS MINIMUM SECURITY TWO HUNDRED FIFTY BEDS IN THE PRIVATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY AUTHORIZED IN MARSHALL OR WILKINSON COUNTY; TO CLASSIFY AS MEDIUM SECURITY SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY BEDS IN THE PRIVATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY AUTHORIZED IN MARSHALL OR WILKINSON COUNTY; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 47-5-1207, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-5-1207. (1) The State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board shall select a suitable site or sites for a public or private facility not to exceed one thousand (1,000) beds in any of the following counties: Lauderdale, Quitman, Perry and Sharkey.

(2) The State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board may contract for the construction, lease, acquisition, improvement, operation and management of a private correctional facility in Marshall County or Wilkinson County for the private incarceration of not more than one thousand (1,000) state inmates at the facility. Two hundred fifty (250) beds in the private correctional facility shall be classified as minimum security and shall house minimum security inmates. Seven hundred fifty (750) beds in the private correctional facility shall be classified as medium security and shall house medium security inmates.

(3) The State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board may contract with any county industrial or economic development authority or district for the construction, lease, acquisition, improvement, operation and management of a private correctional facility to be sited or constructed under Laws, 1994 First Extraordinary Session, Chapter 26.

(4) The State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board may contract for the construction, lease, acquisition, improvement and operation of two (2) private restitution centers, one of which may be in Bolivar County. The capacity of each restitution center shall not exceed seventy-five (75) state inmates.

(5) (a) The State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board may contract for the special needs facility and services authorized in Senate Bill No. 2621, 1994 Regular Session.

(b) No later than September 15, 1994, the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review shall determine the state medical cost per inmate day to use as a basis for measuring the validity of ten percent (10%) savings of the contractor cost.

(6) Each private contractor and private facility housing state inmates must meet the requirements of Section 47-5-1301 through Section 47-5-1317.

(7) No additional emergency prisons shall be located in any city and/or county, except upon the submission to the State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board, of a resolution signed by a majority of the governing authorities of the city and/or county, wherein the proposed prison site is to be located, approving and/or requesting that a prison facility be located at the proposed site.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1997.