MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2019 Regular Session
To: Corrections; Appropriations
By: Senator(s) Jackson (32nd)
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47-5-943, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS TO CONTRACT WITH THE WALNUT GROVE CORRECTIONAL AUTHORITY FOR THE HOUSING OF STATE OFFENDERS IN THE WALNUT GROVE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 47-5-943, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
47-5-943. The Mississippi
Department of Corrections * * *may shall contract with the Walnut Grove Correctional
Authority or the governing authorities of the Municipality of Walnut Grove,
Leake County, Mississippi, to provide for the * * * housing, care and control of not more
than one thousand five hundred (1,500) offenders who are in the custody
of the Department of Corrections at a maximum security facility in Walnut
Grove. A county or circuit judge shall not order any offender to be
housed in the correctional facility authorized in Sections 47-5-943 through 47-5-953.
Commitment of offenders shall not be to this facility, but shall be to the
jurisdiction of the department. The commissioner shall assign * * * offenders to an appropriate
facility consistent with public safety. Any facility owned or leased by the
Walnut Grove Correctional Authority or the Municipality of Walnut Grove 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. The contract must comply with Sections 47-5-1211 through 47-5-1227.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.