By Holbrook Mohr, The Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. - At least 128 maximum-security inmates housed at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman will begin moving this week to the Tallahatchie Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, the same private prison where inmates from Colorado were involved in an uprising in July.
The facility is run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private provider of correction services in the country.
The contract is effective immediately and runs through June 30, 2006. It includes three, one-year renewal options.
Gov. Haley Barbour said that by “moving these 128 inmates to the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, the Mississippi Department of Corrections estimates a savings of approximately $600,000 over this eight-month period.”
MDOC spokeswoman Suzanne Singletary said the cost of housing the prisoners in the private facility will be approximately $49.50 per inmate, per day - down from the MDOC cost of $69.50 per inmate, per day for maximum security.
“State law stipulates that private prisons must offer a cost savings of at least 10 percent to MDOC for at least the same level and quality of services,” Singletary said.
State Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps applauded the move.
“The Mississippi Department of Corrections is committed to housing inmates securely at the least possible cost to taxpayers,” he said.
A budget crunch has forced MDOC officials to look for ways to save money. At least 120 corrections officers at Parchman have been fired since June. Epps has said the cuts are part of a reorganization plan. Some of those guards have taken jobs at the Tutwiler facility.
About 35 inmates from Colorado broke out of holding pens in the 1,100-bed prison on July 21 and burned mattresses, clothing and a portable toilet.
Officials said no one was seriously injured and guards had the inmates under control within an hour.
CCA spokeswoman Louise Chickering said at the time that local police, sheriff’s deputies and additional corrections officers arrived as a show of force but the security fence around the prison was never in danger of being breached.
The prisoners who rioted were part of a group of 120 inmates brought to Mississippi to ease Colorado’s overcrowded penal system of unruly prisoners, Chickering said.
“They are on lock down status,” she said. “They are segregated maximum security inmates.”
Chickering said the Mississippi inmates will be separated from the out-of-state prisoners.
There are also 680 inmates from Hawaii at the prison but Chickering said they are not disciplinary problems.
“We have housed inmates from Hawaii for over 10 years on the inland,” Chickering said. “The cost of corrections in Hawaii is much higher.”
CCA manages over 1,900 Mississippi inmates in the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville and the Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood. Previously, state prisoners had not been housed at the Tutwiler facility.
CCA has been plagued by problems this year, including the Mississippi uprising, others in Colorado and Oklahoma, and the beating death of a female inmate at the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville.
Chickering said CCA officials have taken steps to ensure control over the Tutwiler facility and the transfer of prisoners.
“There will be a very steady schedule for bringing them in,” she said. “We will have even higher levels of security, just as a precaution.”