Ellington

The beleaguered Hinds County Detention Center at Raymond could come under new management—a private corrections firm.

At this week's regular Board of Supervisors meeting, supervisors agreed to explore the possibility of privatizing some or all of the jail's operations.

District 3 Supervisor Peggy Hobson-Calhoun proposed soliciting cost estimates for a number of options that included: building a new county jail, selling the jail, adding capacity by building an additional housing pod, renovating the existing jail (that officials say is in a state of disrepair), and maintaining and running the facility's day-to-day operations. The deal would not include the joint county-state Hinds County Restitution Center on South Gallatin Street in Jackson, Hobson-Calhoun said.

Hinds County Sheriff Chief Deputy Chris Picou called the RFP part of a needs assessment for the jail, which he said is plagued with problems that would be costly to bring up to standard.

"We're not saying we're going to do this, or we're going to do that. We are looking at all options that we have, and we'll bring the people to the table," Picou told the Jackson Free Press in a Dec. 3 telephone interview.

First-term Sheriff Tyrone Lewis campaigned last year to save taxpayers money wherever possible, Picou said.

Board President and District 1 Supervisor Robert Graham said he liked the idea of privatizing management of the facility. District 4 Supervisor Phil Fisher said that although he opposes building a new jail, he favored taking a system-wide look at the county's jail system.

A handful of large firms have the capacity to build and manage a jail. One of them is Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America--the nation's largest private corrections-management firm--which has an ongoing initiative that seems tailor-made for what Hinds officials are seeking.

Earlier this year, CCA sent a letter to 48 state officials offering to buy state prisons and local jail facilities and run them.

CCA, along with the nation's second- and third-largest private prison companies--Boca Raton-based GEO Group Ltd. and Centerville, Utah-based Management & Training Corp., respectively--have all done business in Mississippi, and drawn criticism from prisoner-rights watchdogs.

In March, lawyers reached a settlement in a case where a group of boys and young men alleged abuse at the GEO-owned Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Leake County.

In May at the Adams County Correctional Center--a federal prison that CCA operates in Natchez--inmates briefly seized control of part of the facility, held more than 20 staff members hostage, and beat a young correctional officer to death.

Picou said he couldn't comment on the track record of private jail operators. He did offer reassurance that Lewis would still be in control.