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| Mississippi's prisons close to topping capacity |
| By The Associated Press |
| Published: 04/29/2003 |
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Inmates have been slotted into nearly every nook and cranny of Mississippi's prisons, and more keep coming, putting the state's prison population dangerously close to capacity, state and federal surveys show. The consequences, some say, could include prisoner endangerment, tax hikes and hefty fines levied on the state if prisons start spilling over with inmates. But the Mississippi Department of Corrections says it has a handle on the situation and there is no immediate danger of exceeding capacity. Mississippi was about 1,000 inmates shy this month of its total prison capacity of 21,171. As of April 6, the State Penitentiary at Parchman, which has a capacity of 5,711, had 5,648 inmates. The state's prison population is still growing, according to a survey released this month by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. With 728 inmates for every 100,000 residents in the state, Mississippi had the second highest incarceration rate in the country in 2002, the survey said. Louisiana led the nation with 799 inmates per 100,000 residents. Mississippi's prison growth rate was 6.4 percent between June 2001 and June 2002, the time period covered by the survey. MDOC documents show that population has continued to rise since then, from 19,206 by the end of June last year to 20,143 on April 6. 'We're headed on a collision course,' said Ron Welch, an attorney representing all MDOC prisoners in a class action federal lawsuit filed in the 1970s. MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps has attributed the rise to the truth-in-sentencing law of 1995, which required felony offenders to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. Welch said an ideal prison population would be 90 percent of capacity to allow movement of prisoners if a fight breaks out or if there are discipline problems. MDOC spokesman Ken Jones said flexibility is not easy but the department has managed. MDOC has no money to build prisons, Jones said. Capacity has actually shrunk. Delta Correctional Facility, a 1,000-bed private prison, was closed last year, and the prisoners there had to be relocated. MDOC is looking into the possibility of adding beds in existing facilities, Jones said. An order by federal magistrate Jerry Davis to apply new standards in determining prison capacity could give MDOC some breathing room, Jones said. The standard now is one prisoner per 50 square feet of living space. The new standard would be one prisoner per 35 square feet of 'unencumbered space,' Welch said. If a prison's capacity is exceeded even one time in a month, the governing authority faces a fine of $100,000, Welch said. If the extra inmates number more than 100, the fine increases another $100,000. MDOC also faces a budget deficit of about $60 million next year. |
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