MAYERSVILLE – The Issaquena County Correctional Facility will continue to be able to receive state prisoners, thanks to passing a state-mandated audit conducted by a national correctional association.

It’s a good thing, officials said, because with 48 full-time employees, the medium-security prison is the county’s largest year-round employer.

The prison is one of 11 regional facilities for medium-security state prisoners. It opened in 1997 during a prison boom spurred by overcrowding at the state’s central penitentiary, also in the Mississippi Delta at Parchman.

Issaquena County, north and west of Warren, has fertile farm fields, but fewer than 2,200 residents. It often has double-digit unemployment rates.

Sheriff Richard Jones said the prison’s annual budget of $1.5 million is important to the area.

A prison must pass an audit conducted by the American Correctional Association every three years in order to house state prisoners.

In addition to the 246 state inmates, there are jail detainees from Issaquena, Warren and Washington counties who push the total census to 282 inmates.

The state pays the jail $28.20 per prisoner per day for housing state prisoners, most of whom are felony DUI offenders, prison attorney Charles Weissinger said. It costs the county slightly more than $23 per prisoner per day to run the jail, plus a $5 per prisoner per day building cost, so the jail just breaks even, Weissinger said.

Passing the audit is no easy task, auditors and prison staff say.

“Only about 5 percent of the county facilities in the country are accredited by the ACA. It’s kind of like the ultimate in correction accreditation,” said Ed Hargett, an ACA consultant who has been working with the prison to meet requirements since it was built.

Auditors judged the prison on 61 mandatory standards and 427 non-mandatory standards. Of the non-mandatory standards, a prison must pass 90 percent of them to be accredited.

The Issaquena County jail passed 99 percent of them, earning compliments from the auditors when they issued their report Wednesday.

“You have a fine facility. You ought to be proud of it, and this report reflects it,” auditor Allan Westmoreland said.

Auditors had especially high praise for the jail’s medical facilities.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been in a facility where there have been no grievances about medical care,” Westmoreland said.

Warden Cecelia Lusk was relieved after hearing the auditors’ verdict.

“I am proud because this was a really hard audit. To get a 99 in this one is wonderful. We hope to do even better in three years, now that we know what to improve,” Lusk said.