Amy
03-23-2004, 01:41 PM
GREENWOOD, Miss. - Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America and the state of Mississippi have signed a contract to reopen the Delta Correctional Facility in Leflore County.
The facility will open on April with space for 950 inmates and 180-200 employees.
The state shut down the facility in 2002 in an effort to downsize Mississippi's prison system. The Mississippi Department of Corrections removed the last of the prison's inmates in September.
"I am eager to bring valued jobs and economic growth back to the Delta," Gov. Haley Barbour said in a statement Tuesday.
CCA has a one-year contract to run the facility with two optional one-year extensions. CCA previously ran the facility from 1996 to its closing in 2002.
With the transfer of inmates from the state penitentiary in Parchman, Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Tuesday four housing units will be closed. He said the units were built in the 1970s and were in disrepair.
Epps said there would be no layoffs at Parchman.
CCA has also reached agreement with the Leflore County Board of Supervisors to run the new county jail that will be located at the Delta prison site.
The jail will be operational as soon as possible, but no later than June 1, a month earlier than the federal court-ordered, July 1 deadline.
Board president Robert Moore said the renovation cost now will not exceed $300,000. The jail will house 220 inmates. Earlier costs were estimated at more than $4 million.
The facility will still house a sheriff's office, courtrooms, receiving areas and discharge areas.
"CCA assured the board that they will pick up every current jail employee who applies and meets the qualifications," Moore said.
The facility will open on April with space for 950 inmates and 180-200 employees.
The state shut down the facility in 2002 in an effort to downsize Mississippi's prison system. The Mississippi Department of Corrections removed the last of the prison's inmates in September.
"I am eager to bring valued jobs and economic growth back to the Delta," Gov. Haley Barbour said in a statement Tuesday.
CCA has a one-year contract to run the facility with two optional one-year extensions. CCA previously ran the facility from 1996 to its closing in 2002.
With the transfer of inmates from the state penitentiary in Parchman, Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Tuesday four housing units will be closed. He said the units were built in the 1970s and were in disrepair.
Epps said there would be no layoffs at Parchman.
CCA has also reached agreement with the Leflore County Board of Supervisors to run the new county jail that will be located at the Delta prison site.
The jail will be operational as soon as possible, but no later than June 1, a month earlier than the federal court-ordered, July 1 deadline.
Board president Robert Moore said the renovation cost now will not exceed $300,000. The jail will house 220 inmates. Earlier costs were estimated at more than $4 million.
The facility will still house a sheriff's office, courtrooms, receiving areas and discharge areas.
"CCA assured the board that they will pick up every current jail employee who applies and meets the qualifications," Moore said.