MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1998 Regular Session

To: Juvenile Justice; Penitentiary

By: Representative Malone

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS TO CONTRACT WITH THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF LEAKE COUNTY FOR INCARCERATION OF STATE JUVENILE OFFENDERS AT A COUNTY-OWNED OR LEASED CORRECTIONAL FACILITY; TO PROVIDE THAT THE MAXIMUM AGE OF AN OFFENDER HOUSED IN THE FACILITY WILL BE SEVENTEEN YEARS AND SIX MONTHS; TO PROVIDE THAT THE REGIMENTED INMATE DISCIPLINE PROGRAM SHALL BE IMPLEMENTED AT THE FACILITY; TO PROVIDE THAT ANY JUVENILE HOUSED IN THE FACILITY SHALL BE PROVIDED CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA AND A PROGRAM FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION; TO PROVIDE THAT THE SHERIFF SHALL BE THE CHIEF CORRECTIONS OFFICER FOR THE FACILITY; TO PROVIDE A SALARY FOR THE SHERIFF; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

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

SECTION 1. The Mississippi Department of Corrections may contract with the board of supervisors of Leake County to provide for housing, care and control of not more than two hundred fifty (250) juvenile offenders who are in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The maximum age of any offender housed in this facility shall be seventeen (17) years and six (6) months. Any facility owned or leased by Leake County for this purpose shall be designed, constructed, operated and maintained in accordance with American Correctional Association standards, and shall comply with all constitutional standards of the United States and the State of Mississippi and with all court orders that may now or hereinafter be applicable to the facility.

SECTION 2. The Department of Corrections may contract for the purposes set out in Section 1 of this act for a period of not more than twenty (20) years. The contract may provide that the Department of Corrections pay a fee of up to Twenty-four Dollars and Ninety Cents ($24.90) per day for each juvenile offender that is housed in the facility. The Department of Corrections may include in the contract, as an inflation factor, a three percent (3%) annual increase in the contract price. The state shall retain responsibility for medical care for state offenders to the extent that is required by law.

SECTION 3. The regimented inmate discipline program, as established by the Department of Corrections, shall be implemented at the facility authorized in Section 1 of this act. For the first ninety (90) days of a juvenile offender's incarceration in the facility, he shall be assigned to a course in the regimented inmate discipline program.

SECTION 4. The correctional facility authorized in Section 1 of this act shall provide any juvenile offender housed in the facility with continuing education that leads to the presentation of a high school diploma or General Education Development (GED) equivalent. The facility also shall provide a program of vocational education, which is to be included in the continuing education program for a high school diploma or GED equivalent.

SECTION 5. Concurrent with the execution of a contract for housing of state offenders as authorized by this act, the sheriff of Leake County is designated as the Chief Corrections Officer for the facility housing state juvenile offenders, and in that capacity, shall assume responsibility for management of the juvenile corrections facility and for the provision of the care and control of the state juvenile offenders housed in the facility. The sheriff shall be subject to the direction of the department for management of the correctional facility. In addition to the compensation provided by Section 25-3-25, the sheriff shall receive Fifteen Thousand Six Hundred Dollars ($15,600.00) as compensation for the duties specified in House Bill No. _____, 1998 Regular Session.

SECTION 6. This act shall be full and complete authority for the exercise of all powers and authority granted herein and no requirements or restrictions of law which would otherwise be applicable to acts of the county or sheriff or the Department of Corrections shall be applicable except as expressly provided in this act. The sheriff is expressly authorized to employ counsel to represent the facility to be paid a salary within the range allowed for a legal assistant to a district attorney with the employment to continue for a period of time not to exceed the duration of the indebtedness incurred for construction of the facility. Leake County shall pay this cost and other costs incurred in the operation of the facility from the proceeds of the funds derived from the financing of the project and the housing of state juvenile offenders.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.