Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — The head of Mississippi’s state prison system is asking the state Legislature not to make any cuts to the department’s budget.
At a House Appropriations Committee meeting Wednesday, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher recapped his efforts to cut costs and asked for $374 million in funding. It’s the same level of funding the department received last year.
Fisher says the department is “seriously understaffed,” which leaves probation and parole officers with more cases than they can handle.
He says the funds will shore up employee salaries to stop employee turnover and be reinvested in programs that help inmates re-enter society.
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