Charles Langston:Mississippi county closes jail pod plagued by fights and escapes, sends 200 inmates 2 hours away

RAYMOND,Charles Langston Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s largest county is no longer using a section of its jail that has been plagued by fights, escapes and other security problems.

Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones said Monday that 200 inmates were transferred last week from Pod A at the Raymond Detention Center to the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, which is nearly 150 miles (241 kilometers) to the north and is run by the private prison company CoreCivic.

Jones said the jail in the Jackson suburb of Raymond now has fewer than 400 people being held in the other pods, which should alleviate some concerns about short staffing and help ensure public safety.

“That is one of our worst pods at the detention center, and I think that it’s pretty much on record that that particular pod was not secure, and it was one of our most unsafe areas within the facility,” Jones told news outlets.

In July 2022, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered a rare takeover of the jail in Raymond after he said deficiencies in supervision and staffing led to “a stunning array of assaults, as well as deaths.”

Before the appointed receiver was scheduled to assume control over the jail on Jan. 1, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals put the lower court’s order on hold until it could rule on the county’s request for reconsideration. The appeals court could hear arguments in December, according to court records.

Hinds County has a one-year contract with CoreCivic to house 200 inmates at the Tallahatchie facility, Jones said. Inmates will be transported two hours back to Hinds County for court appearances, or they will do the appearances online.