MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2001 Regular Session

To: Corrections; Appropriations

By: Senator(s) Smith (By Request)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47-5-1207, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE THE PRIVATE PRISON IN MARSHALL COUNTY TO HOUSE ADDITIONAL STATE INMATES; 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. In addition to the one thousand (1,000) state inmates, the Department of Corrections may contract for an additional five hundred (500) state inmates to be housed at the facility in Marshall County.

(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, Ch. 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 Sections 47-5-1101 through 47-5-1123.

(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 47-5-1211 through Section 47-5-1227.

(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, 2001.