Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall says that the planned April 1 reopening of Greenwood’s Delta Correctional Facility is on schedule.
Speaking to the Greenwood Voters League Wednesday, Hall outlined plans for the facility that has been mothballed for the past six years.
In response to a legislative mandate created by a 2014 law designed to reform Mississippi’s criminal justice system, Hall and MDOC are creating a 300-bed unit at Delta Correctional for offenders currently serving time at the state’s technical violation centers and restitution centers.
Delta Correctional, formerly a private prison that was shuttered in 2012, will consolidate existing programs in Simpson, Washington and Leflore counties all under one roof.
Hall, the first woman corrections commissioner in state history, told an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Elks Hall that the challenges of her job are multiple and complex.
First, she is charged with lowering the inmate population in Mississippi, one of the more heavily incarcerated states in the nation.
“We have to control what has been a rising prison population in our state,” Hall said. “In 2014, there were over 22,000 incarcerated. We’ve reduced that to 19,000.”
Reducing recidivism is another goal set forth by the Legislature, and Hall said programming at the new facility will be designed to accomplish that objective.
She described those who will be housed there as inmates looking for a second chance. They might have failed to keep up meetings with their probation officers, committed another technical violation or relapsed into drug use.
“We tried commingling these offenders with the general prison population and that didn’t work,” she said. “Then we took them to community work centers, and there were not enough of them.
“We’ll be set up now where I can provide programming to these offenders during the 90 to 180 days they’ll be there.”
Programming at the new Delta Correctional Facility will include cognitive behavior training, drug and alcohol treatment, classes in life skills such as parenting and anger management, and ultimately vocational training.
“We’re reaching out to businesses to give these offenders a second chance, to say, ‘Yes, I’ll hire them,’” Hall said.
A third challenge she identified is funding.
“My budget is $20.4 million short of what I need to accomplish these goals,” Hall said.
The prison system, she emphasized, is not just about housing inmates but about treating and rehabilitating them so that they don’t return.
With a capacity for 1,000 beds at Delta, Hall indicated it has the capacity to grow in the future. The newly opened facility will not be privately operated, she said.
“This will be a completely MDOC-run facility,” she said.
MDOC is currently enmeshed in a trial answering charges of mistreatment of inmates at East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian, a facility that houses the bulk of mentally ill offenders in the state. That facility has operated under private management.
Hall said she has 2,000 employees currently and that is not enough. MDOC has 566 vacant positions around the state, and it plans to hire as many as 65 new employees at the Delta facility.
Specifically, Hall and her administrative staff are looking for teachers in the various programs they plan to offer at Delta, counselors, an administrative assistant and security staff.
Jobs available at the Delta facility will be listed on the State Personnel Board website at www.mspb.ms.gov.
Questions about employment can be directed to Deputy Commissioner Christy Gutherz at 601-359-5619 or by email at cgutherz@mdoc.state.ms.us.
Hall said she is also developing a re-entry team dedicated to preparing inmates for what they will face when they leave prison.
“I am committed to continuing to make change,” she said. “My mother was an educator, and my father worked for UPS. I was raised in a two-parent family with advantages, and I understand that many in the system didn’t have those same kinds of advantages.”
Hall was made the head of MDOC by Gov. Phil Bryant in March 2017.
Prior to that, she served as chief of staff to then-Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher, who now heads the state Department of Public Safety.
She is former lead counsel for the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. A native of Shubuta, a small town south of Meridian, Hall graduated from Alcorn State University and the Mississippi College School of Law.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
