Mississippi Department of Corrections officers conducted another shakedown Thursday morning at the Marion-Walthall County regional correctional facility in Columbia.
MDOC officers found cellphone chargers, sunglasses, free world shoes, hair blow dryers, and an electronic game among assorted contraband during the shakedown along with an MP3 player, bags of tobacco, packs of free world T-shirts, two packs of marijuana, a pack of spice, earbuds, umbrellas, a laser light, scissors, a set of flat irons, and a small bottle of tattoo ink.
“I am pleased that we did not find a lot of contraband when we searched the regional facility with 200-plus inmates and the housing areas for 31 male and female inmates in the Joint State County Work Program,” said Commissioner Pelicia E. Hall. “These items are among those we are accustomed to finding, but show that we need to continue to work on preventing security breaches at the facilities.”
While the Marion-Walthall correctional facility can hold up to 280 inmates, 224 were being held there Thursday.
Hall said the facilities don’t know when officers with the Mississippi Department of Corrections are coming.
“We show up like thieves in the night,” said Hall.
Hall began the shakedowns in early March under Operation Zero Tolerance and said the major searches were designed to slow the flow of contraband in the prison system for the safety of staff and inmates.
Photos courtesy of MDOC.
