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| 100 in state corrections system to lose jobs |
| By Clarion Ledger |
| Published: 06/28/2004 |
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Corrections officers and teachers are among 100 Mississippi Department of Corrections employees being dismissed June 30 to save $3.5 million, Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said last Wednesday. Epps is slashing costs as part of Gov. Haley Barbour's "Operation Streamline'' budget plan and is targeting $34 million in savings in the budget year beginning July 1. Barbour has said he wants to wipe out the state's $709 million budget deficit in two years. Of the employees dismissed, 73 are at the State Penitentiary at Parchman and 17 are at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County, Epps said. Most were notified this week by certified letters. Officials expect 10 employees at the agency's Jackson headquarters to be let go next week. As many as 100 more employees will be dismissed throughout MDOC in the weeks ahead, said House Corrections Committee Chairman Bennett Malone, D-Carthage. Of those cut at 4,900-inmate Parchman, 57 are correctional officers. "It will not jeopardize public safety one bit,'' Epps said. In a number of cases, security staffers "didn't come to work," he said. "They got rid of themselves.'' Also dismissed were eight teachers with an Adult Basic Education program at Parchman. Two audits found the program to be ineffective. The 143 inmates in the program will be reassigned to other prisons, Epps said. As of July 1, the agency will have 3,380 employees. MDOC's budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is $266 million, down from $285 million this year. The agency oversees 21,318 prisoners and supervises another 25,000 people outside prison walls. Epps said he looked at employees' performance, work attendance, hiring date, plus other job factors and consulted with the attorney general's office before deciding whom to fire. His agency is informing those fired about such things as retirement benefits. Salaries for prison guards losing their jobs ranged from $26,785 to $31,007. |
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