Belt-tightening at the state Department of Corrections will go beyond additional layoffs and will include auctioning aging cars, combining offices and installing new security systems, commissioner Chris Epps said.

"We are looking at everything to save money," Epps said. "Everything is on the table."

The department plans to auction at least 100 old MDOC cars to save about $50,000.



Senate Corrections Committee Chairman Bunky Huggins, R-Greenwood, said he urged Epps to auction cars after the agency several months ago spent more than $500,000 to purchase 80 vehicles.

Every Parchman administrator received a new vehicle, complained Clarksdale resident Joanna Poole, 40, a 14-year Parchman prison guard who was among 100 employees dismissed last week. "That's unnecessary money being spent." But Epps disagreed, saying only people who needed new cars got them. The agency's fleet included more than 100 vehicles with 200,000 miles each. Three vehicles each had more than 300,000 miles logged.

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