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County this month to take next steps for jail consultant
[07/15/08]
By Danny Barrett Jr.
Details on building a new jail in Warren County will begin to take shape this month as supervisors might approve one of three proposals to hire a planning consultant.
Interested firms include Colorado-based Voorhis/Robertson Justice Services Inc., Jackson-based Dean & Dean Associates Architects and Berkeley, Calif.-based Institute For Law & Policy Planning. All sent information to the Chancery Clerk's Office by a Monday deadline.
When a consultant is picked, the process will gain layers in the form of advisory committees and reviews. A five-member panel consisting of Sheriff Martin Pace, Undersheriff Jeff Riggs, District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, County Administrator John Smith and Purchasing Agent Tonga Vinson will recommend a proposal to supervisors. Excluding Vinson, the panel represents those who attended a Department of Justice jail planning seminar in Denver in 2007. In candidate questionnaires last fall, all supervisors who were elected said a new county jail was a priority as a response to overcrowding and for increased safety.
The board intends to pick a consultant in August, at the latest, in advance of adopting its spending plan for 2008-09, Board President Richard George said last week. Whether a bond issue or a tax hike is the final funding mechanism remains undetermined.
"We're still a ways off from that," George said.
Another advisory committee, yet to be named, will vet ideas from the consultant as it pores through historic and current information on the county's needs. Other research may include capacity projections for the next 20 years and alternatives to new construction.
The largest issue may be siting.
The oldest portion of the Warren County Jail, across Grove Street from the county courthouse, was completed in 1906. Its most recent addition was an expansion for the main cell area built in the 1970s. Its 128 beds are continually full, holding only pretrial detainees. Prisoners being held by the City of Vicksburg are taken to Issaquena County Jail, a practice that has grown in annual cost along with fuel prices.
Convenience to court buildings and being near the Youth Detention Center on Adams Street is the argument in favor of construction on available land downtown. Most counties building new jails in recent years, however, have chosen rural sites.
Though the idea of cost-sharing through regional jails was broached by the Legislature this year, no authorization came out of several bills filed. One that died in the Senate Corrections Committee would have allowed the Mississippi Department of Corrections to contract with one or more of 10 counties across the state to house up to 300 state inmates. Mentioned in the bill were Attala, Claiborne, Yalobusha, Tishomingo, Hancock, Lawrence, Copiah, DeSoto, Benton and Noxubee counties.
Average planning and construction time for a new jail is three to five years, according to the Department of Justice.
Interested firms include Colorado-based Voorhis/Robertson Justice Services Inc., Jackson-based Dean & Dean Associates Architects and Berkeley, Calif.-based Institute For Law & Policy Planning. All sent information to the Chancery Clerk's Office by a Monday deadline.
When a consultant is picked, the process will gain layers in the form of advisory committees and reviews. A five-member panel consisting of Sheriff Martin Pace, Undersheriff Jeff Riggs, District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, County Administrator John Smith and Purchasing Agent Tonga Vinson will recommend a proposal to supervisors. Excluding Vinson, the panel represents those who attended a Department of Justice jail planning seminar in Denver in 2007. In candidate questionnaires last fall, all supervisors who were elected said a new county jail was a priority as a response to overcrowding and for increased safety.
The board intends to pick a consultant in August, at the latest, in advance of adopting its spending plan for 2008-09, Board President Richard George said last week. Whether a bond issue or a tax hike is the final funding mechanism remains undetermined.
"We're still a ways off from that," George said.
Another advisory committee, yet to be named, will vet ideas from the consultant as it pores through historic and current information on the county's needs. Other research may include capacity projections for the next 20 years and alternatives to new construction.
The largest issue may be siting.
The oldest portion of the Warren County Jail, across Grove Street from the county courthouse, was completed in 1906. Its most recent addition was an expansion for the main cell area built in the 1970s. Its 128 beds are continually full, holding only pretrial detainees. Prisoners being held by the City of Vicksburg are taken to Issaquena County Jail, a practice that has grown in annual cost along with fuel prices.
Convenience to court buildings and being near the Youth Detention Center on Adams Street is the argument in favor of construction on available land downtown. Most counties building new jails in recent years, however, have chosen rural sites.
Though the idea of cost-sharing through regional jails was broached by the Legislature this year, no authorization came out of several bills filed. One that died in the Senate Corrections Committee would have allowed the Mississippi Department of Corrections to contract with one or more of 10 counties across the state to house up to 300 state inmates. Mentioned in the bill were Attala, Claiborne, Yalobusha, Tishomingo, Hancock, Lawrence, Copiah, DeSoto, Benton and Noxubee counties.
Average planning and construction time for a new jail is three to five years, according to the Department of Justice.
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pamelasobalvarro wrote on Apr 9, 2009 1:23 AM:
" I was born in vicksburg, but moved to jackson at a very young age. how-ever, we would go visit my
grandmother practically ever other week end.
We always passed by this monument, and I always wondered how they carved into that,
and what they used to do so.I always imagined it
being members of his band riding thru v'burg and stopping to do it shortly after his death.
regardless, he is missed much, but his legacy lives on.the allman bro. ROCK!!!!!!!!!! "
grandmother practically ever other week end.
We always passed by this monument, and I always wondered how they carved into that,
and what they used to do so.I always imagined it
being members of his band riding thru v'burg and stopping to do it shortly after his death.
regardless, he is missed much, but his legacy lives on.the allman bro. ROCK!!!!!!!!!! "
pamelasobalvarro wrote on Apr 9, 2009 1:31 AM:
" I was born in vicksburg, but moved to jackson at a very young age. how-ever, we would go visit my
grandmother practically ever other week end.
We always passed by this monument, and I always wondered how they carved into that,
and what they used to do so.I always imagined it
being members of his band riding thru v'burg and stopping to do it shortly after his death.
regardless, he is missed much, but his legacy lives on...
THE ALLMAN BRO. ROCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "
grandmother practically ever other week end.
We always passed by this monument, and I always wondered how they carved into that,
and what they used to do so.I always imagined it
being members of his band riding thru v'burg and stopping to do it shortly after his death.
regardless, he is missed much, but his legacy lives on...
THE ALLMAN BRO. ROCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "
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