A U.S. appeals court has ruled that a federal takeover of the Raymond Detention Center in Hinds County can proceed, contingent upon an amendment of power of the federal consultant.
Unconstitutional conditions and “a stunning array of assaults, as well as deaths” were among the factors cited by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a Thursday ruling. That decision confirmed the initial ruling of U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves when he appointed a public safety consultant to act as a receiver for the detention center. The judges also wrote that “we find that some constitutional violations remain current and ongoing” at the jail in Mississippi’s most populous county.
The federal takeover was blocked pending an appeal by Hinds County, which argued that a federally appointed consultant would be “utterly unaccountable” to voters and taxpayers.
Judge Reeves was told by the court of appeals panel to reevaluate the scope of the consultant’s work and remove his budgeting power. They went on to say that the consultant was given “overly broad” authority to determine the budget for the facility, which includes staff salaries and benefits, medical and mental health services, and facility improvements.
In the opinion, the appellate judges said this power would allow the consultant to “ignore the budgetary constraints that the Hinds County Board of Supervisors has had to deal with” in managing the jail.
The jail was put into receivership in July 2022 after Reeves cited poor conditions, such as deficiencies in supervision and staffing. He also cited the death of seven detainees in 2021 alone. In the receivership order, Reeves also wrote that cell doors did not lock, lack of lighting in cells made detainees “miserable,” and that guards sometimes slept instead of monitoring the cameras in the control room.
In response to the federal takeover orders, Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones noted that county officials are committed to fixing the jail’s problems and that many of them stem from staffing shortages. Jones announced in October 2023 that one of the worst areas of the jail had been closed and 200 inmates were transferred to a separate, private facility in Tallahatchie County.
