A new site proposed for a new Leflore County Jail appears to stand in the way of a city of Greenwood rail project, leaving the Board of Supervisors without a definite location for its meeting with jail architects next week.
The existing jail has been consistently overcrowded. In the last year, it held as many as 104 prisoners, more than double a federal court-ordered limit.
The board introduced the site Monday as Greenwood-Leflore County Industrial Park property at the intersection of Baldwin Road and Cypress Avenue. It has previously considered a site near the Leflore County Civic Center and various others inside the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Park. The new site would sandwich a jail between the Leflore County Community Work Center and Delta Correctional Facility.
"I'd go ahead with that location until we hear something different," District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe said. "That's a prime location."
But supervisors were uncertain of the route the relocation of the Columbus & Greenwood Railway would take.
According to a city transportation blueprint, the tracks would cut right through the land the board is eyeing for the jail. The city secured a $2 million federal grant for the rail relocation project last week and is expecting to receive another $2 million grant to round out the funding. The project would tear up C&G tracks through town and redirect them on the Canadian National/Illinois Central line and through the southern fringe of the Industrial Park.
Mayor Harry Smith said he is not sure if the jail site clashes with the rail project, but the tracks are projected to pass through that area . "According to my map, the track crosses Cypress pretty close to Baldwin Road," he said. "That would be right in the path. It looks like it would be a better location for something that's rail dependent, and a jail is not."
If the rail line and the suggested jail site do coincide, supervisors will be forced to look elsewhere.
That decision would linger as the board is scheduled to meet Monday to discuss plans for the new jail with McElroy & Associates, the Jackson architectural firm hired to design it. The meeting comes in response to a letter from McElroy asking to meet Friday.
"They basically want to know if we have nailed down a site," said Robert Moore, president of the board. "We really do need to nail down a plan. We need to make a selection quickly. The clock is ticking on this thing."
The clock was set June 17 when the state Attorney General's Office, along with prisoner-rights attorney Ron Welch, gave the board two years to build a jail or face removal of all state inmates. Attorney Willie Perkins has estimated that construction would take 18 to 24 months.
Welch said the county should be able to meet the time frame. "Two years is plenty of time," he said in a phone interview this morning. "That's got lots of flex time in it."
If the county breaks the conditions of the attorney general's agreement, it could be held in contempt of court or fined. Following the terms of that agreement benefits county taxpayers, Welch said. "As soon as it's done, the less liability the taxpayers are exposed to."
Welch has been authorized by the U.S. District Court to enforce a 1972 federal court order, which sets the jail's capacity at 48 inmates. He has offered to raise that limit to 65 if the county proves its commitment to building a jail.
Sheriff Ricky Banks has cut the population of the existing jail to 70, but he is anticipating about 100 grand jury indictments, which could flood the bunks and floors with inmates again.
Banks has reduced the bonds for some inmates who committed lesser offenses and transferred others to counties that had pending charges on them. "We've just been culling some of them," he said. "We've been setting bonds where they can make bonds any way possible rather than just leaving them in jail."
