State lawmakers have opted to fund a $66.7 million corrections program with cash rather than bonds.
"Them had been discussion about borrowing the money for prisons, but because state revenues have been coming in at a much higher rate than expected, the decision was made to finance the program out of general funds," Andy Reese, information ofricer for the state's House of Representatives, said about the legislature's action last Tuesday on the final day of a special nine-day legislative session.
Reese said that at the start of the special session, state budget officials projected a $100 million revenue surplus for the current fiscal year, which began July 1. The surplus was more than enough to cover the cost of the new jail facilities for more than 4,000 inmates.
The additional space will consist of 1,400 beds at a state's prison in Greene County, 700 beds at its unit in Rankin County, and 1,000 beds each at two new private correctional facilities that will be built in Leflore County and either Marshall or Wilkinson County.
The corrections package approved by lawmakers also authorizes between $5 million and $6 million to raise the daily reimbursement to counties for housing state inmates from $10 to $20 a day per prisoner.
Timely construction of the jails is necessary to comply with a federal court order to relieve overcrowding, particularly at county jails, Reese said. A hearing on the federal order, he said, has been set for Sept. 23 before U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter in Jackson.
Reese said that the legislature did authorize a small bond appropriation in another area, approving $2.5 million of state general obligation debt for three new veterans homes.
The bonds, he said, were needed to cover unanticipated expenses of building the homes in the cities of Collins, Kosciusko, and Oxford, after the projects were approved in the 1993 legislative session.
-- Donald Yacoe. Atlanta
