The Mississippi Department of Corrections is proceeding with plans to reopen Delta Correctional Facility in Leflore County this spring to house probationers and parolees who violate the terms of their supervision under an alternative sanction program.
“We believe that centralizing our Technical Violation Centers is going to remedy some of the challenges we have had with the program, including having enough bed space to meet the statutory required 300 beds for males,” said Corrections Commissioner Pelicia E. Hall. “Also, we hope to reduce the number of persons waiting in the county jails for a TVC bed, and we hope to reduce the small deficit in our local confinement budget.”
The department plans to staff Delta, which closed in 2012 as a private prison, by consolidating operations at the Greenwood Restitution Center, Washington County Community Work Center (CWC), and Leflore County and Simpson County Technical Violation Centers. As a result, these facilities will close.
Therefore, in addition to the 300 TVC offenders, the new center also will house 124 CWC/camp support inmates and 76 offenders in the restitution center program.
The consolidation will give the department most of the needed 65 employees to staff Delta, and most of the estimated $6.2 million needed to operate the new center. However, of that amount, at least $2 million will be new cost.
Technical violation centers were created under House Bill 585, the comprehensive criminal justice reform package the Legislature and Gov. Phil Bryant approved to take effect July 1, 2014. They are designed to provide substance abuse services, and education, employment, training and behavioral programs. The department has 50 beds for female offenders in Flowood.
“When Gov. Bryant appointed me in 2017, I pledged during my confirmation hearing that I would address concerns about the TVC program and provide meaningful rehabilitation to inmates,” Hall said. “I believe that by using Delta as a TVC, we can do both.”
