MARSHALL COUNTY, Miss.–Another shakedown ended with guards at a state-run prison in Marshall County finding shanks, cell phones and drugs. Wednesday’s search was the fifth in a series of checks that started in February.
So far, more than 200 prison-made knives have been found and taken away. Cell phones continue to be a big problem, and that affects your safety if inmates use the phones to plan an escape.
Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher told media that getting better pay for guards may be a good way to improve conditions at prisons. If the state can pay more, they can get true professionals who know how to handle inmate situations, and the with better pay, officers might not be tempted to provide contraband to the prisoners for extra cash.
The starting salary for a guard ends up with about $16,000 per year take-home pay. That ends up being about $43 per day, said Fisher.
Some people in Mississippi have gotten as much as a 15-year sentence for bringing in cell phones. That statute is apparently somewhat more lenient on the federal level.
A prison nurse at the federal prison in Yazoo City was charged this week with bringing a cell phone to an inmate. Lavonne Boose, of Benton, goes on trial May 5 and could get a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.
