By C1 Staff
JACKSON, Miss. — One critic of the Mississippi Department of Corrections’ decision to remove state inmates from a county work center says it will cost state counties millions.
WMC Action News reports that work centers operate with minimum-security inmates, who work in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Counties receive $20 per day per state inmate.
WMC Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee
Ron Welch, a prisoners’ rights attorney, says the move will cost the counties millions of dollars in labor, state funding and inmate work center construction costs.
“They’re losing a huge amount of money that was promised to them by the Department of Corrections to build that center,” Welch said. “So taxpayers – all of this is gonna result in the taxes being raised in all these counties because they can’t pay off those buildings.”
The Mississippi Sheriff’s Association also opposes the MDOC’s plan.