The 2010 meaning of the words “convenient” and “necessary” came into play Monday as Warren County supervisors discussed a new jail and separately heard the first sales pitch for the construction contract.

A 15-month study recommending a 350-bed jail built on between 20 and 50 acres wrapped up in April and the process of choosing a place to build it has begun.

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The proposed size suggests building outside Vicksburg’s city limits, but officials have said that could make operations too remote from county business at the Warren County Courthouse and annex near Grove and Cherry streets. Building inside the city could cut transportation costs for taking prisoners to court and for moving prisoners arrested by the City Vicksburg, but some officials fear that could take too much property tax revenue off the books if acquired by the county. Research by a committee charged with examining ways to speed up criminal cases has turned up several interpretations to Section 19-7-1, which allows boards of supervisors to purchase or be donated land to build a variety of vital government components, such as courthouses, jails, fire stations and road equipment hubs.

The statute further says courthouses and jails should be built at places “as may be convenient and necessary for the building and use of the courthouse and jail.” In January 2009, the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office was asked for opinions on whether DeSoto County, in the far northwest part of the state, could build a jail and a courthouse outside the county seat, Hernando.

In its “no” answers to both questions, the AG cited parts of an opinion by state Supreme Court Justice George H. Ethridge from a 1952 case involving the Jackson County Historical Society and the coastal county’s Board of Supervisors that appeared to address the question of moving a county seat from one locale to another.

District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, representing supervisors on the panel that has included the local judiciary and some parts of the business community, indicated Monday the county’s options shouldn’t be limited, but should, despite the AG’s stance, still take into account cost and effect on the tax base.

McDonald’s northeastern district covers the widest expanse of non-municipal property among the five districts, and includes Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex, the only specific reference to a potential site in public discussions since Voorhis/Robertson Justice Services’ released its detailed study.

It was McDonald, a three-term supervisor, and state Rep. Alex Monsour, who has attended justice system committee meetings, who were contacted by the first group of developers seeking the contract to build the jail.

The developers, headlined by former New York Giants and University of Alabama head football coach Ray Perkins, expressed interest in building a jail and gifting it back to the county after an unspecified time period. Accompanying Perkins was Curtis Crenshaw, who starred for the Crimson Tide in the early 1960s, and Jay Wilson, of Birmingham-based construction firm HC Whitney LLC. Monsour was not at Monday’s meeting.

Crenshaw, of Florida-based Coastal States Realty and Management Corp., told supervisors the trio had no experience in developing jails but “were just people who see a need” and had made similar proposals for jails in Alabama and North Carolina.

The company’s idea to supply high-turnover industries — such as construction — with prison labor via a facility at Ceres financed by a private company was panned on several points of law and facility finance by Sheriff Martin Pace and Port Commission executive director Wayne Mansfield, both of whom sat in briefly on the discussion.

“That’s a whole other animal,” Pace said, addressing supervisors referring to the trio’s notion that pre-trial detainees were eligible for work programs.

Only state prisoners who have been found guilty of a crime may pick up trash on highways and engage in other means of manual labor. Warren County is not allowed by the state to house state prisoners, but Pace has said a new jail could eventually persuade the state to recertify the county to do so.

“That would mean that you as the board would be asking me to get into the business of housing state inmates — which is not anything we’ve talked about up to this point,” Pace said.

A majority of supervisors had cleared the room to take other calls about halfway through the group’s two-hour presentation. The three also mentioned talks in recent weeks with Mayor Paul Winfield and Police Chief Walter Armstrong on their proposal, which evolved at one point in Monday’s session into a city-county partnership and creative financing, mostly with federal money. Taxpayers inside Vicksburg who pay property taxes to both local governments would bear some cost of a bond issue if supervisors choose that route, but neither board has offered an operational partnership on a new jail that must be at least 134,000 square feet and be expandable to 650 beds to keep up with prison population trends, according to Voorhis/Robertson.

The justice system committee has its next session at 1 p.m., May 26. Jail site selection and reworking the indigent defense system are expected to be discussed.