MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1998 Regular Session

To: Corrections; Judiciary

By: Senator(s) Huggins

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47-5-1111, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE PRIVATE CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS OF THE SPECIAL NEEDS FACILITY TO USE NECESSARY FORCE TO RECAPTURE ESCAPEES; TO AMEND SECTION 47-5-1215, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE PRIVATE CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS TO USE NECESSARY FORCE TO RECAPTURE ESCAPEES; TO PROVIDE THAT PRIVATE JAILERS MAY AID IN THE CAPTURE OF ESCAPEES; TO PROVIDE THAT CERTAIN COUNTY JAILS MAY HOUSE LOW-RISK OFFENDERS FROM OTHER STATES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

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

SECTION 1. Section 47-5-1111, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-5-1111. (1) A contractor's employees serving as "correctional officers" shall be allowed to use force only while on the grounds of a facility, while transporting inmates, and while pursuing escapees from a facility.

(2) A contractor shall be authorized to use only such non-deadly force as the circumstances require in the following situations: to prevent the commission of a felony or misdemeanor, including escape; to defend oneself or others against physical assault; to prevent serious damage to property; to enforce institutional regulations and orders; and to prevent or quell a riot.

(3) A contractor's employees, while performing their officially assigned duties relating to the custody, control, transportation, recapture or arrest of any escaped offender assigned to a contract prison, shall be authorized to use force and firearms as necessary to pursue and recapture escapees.

(4) Private correctional officers who have been appropriately certified as determined by the contracting agency and trained pursuant to the provisions of subsection (5) shall have the right to carry and use firearms and shall exercise such authority and use deadly force only as a last resort, and then only to prevent an act that could result in death or serious bodily injury to oneself or to another person.

(5) Private correctional officers shall be trained in the use of force and the use of firearms, in accordance with ACA Standards and shall be trained, at the contractor's expense, at the facilities that train public prison and jail personnel for at least the minimum number of hours that public personnel are currently trained.

SECTION 2. Section 47-5-1215, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-5-1215. (1) A contractor's employees serving as "correctional officers" shall be allowed to use force only while on the grounds of a facility, while transporting inmates, and while pursuing escapees from a facility.

(2) Private correctional officers shall be authorized to use only such non-deadly force as the circumstances require in the following situations: to prevent the commission of a felony or misdemeanor, including escape; to defend oneself or others against physical assault; to prevent serious damage to property; to enforce institutional regulations and orders; and to prevent or quell a riot.

(3) A contractor's employees, while performing their officially assigned duties relating to the custody, control, transportation, recapture or arrest of any escaped offender assigned to a contract prison, shall be authorized to use force and firearms as necessary to pursue and recapture escapees.

(4) Private correctional officers who have been appropriately certified as determined by the contracting agency and trained pursuant to the provisions of subsection (5) shall have the right to carry and use firearms and shall exercise such authority and may use deadly force to prevent an act that could result in death or serious bodily injury to oneself or to another person.

(5) Private correctional officers shall be trained in the use of force and the use of firearms, in accordance with ACA Standards and shall be trained, at the private contractor's expense, for at least the minimum number of hours that public personnel are currently trained.

SECTION 3. (1) All private guards and jailers at private or public facilities shall have the same authority, power and jurisdiction as contractor's employees under the Special Needs Prison Program of 1994, if they meet the minimum training requirements for state employees performing similar duties at public correctional and detention facilities.

(2) Any inmate or person confined in a facility as provided for under subsection (1) of this section who escapes or attempts to escape from any such facility, and any person who aids or assists in such escape or attempted escape, shall be subject to the penalties as prescribed in Sections 97-9-25 through 97-9-49. Any guard or jailer at any such facility shall be authorized to pursue and assist in the capture of any such escapee.

SECTION 4. (1) Any correctional facility located in Tallahatchie County may house out-of-state offenders classified as medium or minimum security offenders.

(2) The Board of Supervisors of Lowndes County may contract with any contiguous county in a contiguous state for housing not more than three hundred (300) medium or minimum security offenders in the county jail. Any such offender released from the Lowndes County jail shall be returned to the county and state from which the offender was sent.

(3) The jail facility in Grenada County authorized and operated pursuant to Chapter 999, Local and Private Laws of 1997, may enter into a contract with the United States or any other state or political subdivision thereof to house not more than forty-eight (48) medium or minimum security offenders who do not have histories of escape. Upon release, any such offender shall be returned to the jurisdiction from which the offender was sent.

SECTION 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.