Mayors, police officers, and town clerks gathered at City Hall in Calhoun City Tuesday morning with Sheriff Greg Pollan and Supervisor Homer Moore to continue discussions toward finding a solution to the required contract from the county on holding inmates from the municipalities at the county jail.
“Everyone is in a money crunch, so we all need to work together to find an answer,” Bruce Mayor Rudy Pope said to open the meeting. It was the second gathering of the mayors and the sheriff as they work toward a solution.
Ken Winter of Bruce, director of the Mississippi Chiefs of Police Association, moderated Tuesday’s meeting and told the group the increase in daily costs of housing an inmate at the county jail is not exclusive to Calhoun County and encouraged all the towns and county to work together.
Among Winter’s suggestions was the establishment of a unified bond policy covering the towns and county to help expedite the process of booking in those charged. He also suggested towns could set up their own booking stations in their police departments for misdemeanors to prevent them going through the jail system.
“If everybody comes together and works together you can cut tremendously the amount of money having to be paid,” Winter said.
Sheriff Greg Pollan explained the contract needed by the county is one that should have already existed and nothing in the contract is anything that hasn’t always been taking place.
He noted the only change in the proposed contract affecting the towns in relation to how things have always been done is the daily charge of housing an inmate increasing from $25 to $35. He also noted that rate hasn’t been increased in 20 years.
The board of supervisors approved that increase citing rising costs in housing inmates. Sheriff Pollan previously told supervisors it costs the county approximately $41 a day to house a prisoner. The increase in daily cost was approved by the county in an attempt to offset their losses. Towns are allowed to recoup $35 per day from those they arrest through their municipal court system.
Vardaman Mayor James Casey pointed out that if costs keep getting passed down from federal, to state, to county, to towns, then many small towns are no longer going to be able to afford to provide law enforcement.
Another suggestion by Bruce Judge Ben Suber and others was the potential to establish work programs in each town, similar to the county trash detail operated through the sheriff’s department. The down side would be added cost to the towns to have an officer to oversee that work force. Proposals were also mentioned of establishing a countywide group shared by the towns.
Derma Mayor Dock Gabbert suggested supervisors could have put another mil of tax on countywide to offset this. Mayor Casey and Mayor Pope said they agreed and were concerned about not getting the service from the county for the amount of taxes the town pays to the county.
Calhoun City Mayor Amye Hill asked about the number of recent changes in the law and Sheriff Pollan and Winter both discussed the increased costs to all as a result of the Supreme Court decision saying defendants at all levels, misdemanor or felony, can ask for and must be provided an attorney if they can’t afford one for themselves.
Previously, that was only applied in felony cases.
“There are a lot of issues here that can all be worked out if you continue to discuss this and try and solve it together,” Winter said.
The group, which included representatives from Bruce, Calhoun City, Derma, Vardaman and the county, met for nearly an hour and half and then the mayors of the towns stayed for a longer meeting.