Jackson tries again for central booking
The Jackson City Council restarted a five-year effort with Hinds County Tuesday to build a centralized booking and holding facility for detainees.
“It would get us out of the millions of dollars in transportation costs we’ve incurred since the early 1990s,” city Chief Administrative Officer Otha Burton said.
The county-run facility would be built on the first floor of the Hinds County Public Safety Building at 407 Pascagoula St. The holding area would take in and process people from the Jackson Police Department rather than the city transporting them to the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond.
The agreement picks up where the city left off in May, when JPD said it stopped booking suspects in Jackson and left it up to county employees at the Raymond jail. More than four years ago, Hinds County had moved its dispatch communications operations out of the area in anticipation of the work. Since then, changeover in the JPD chief’s seat, missed meetings and false starts repeatedly halted the project.
On Tuesday, the agreement passed on a 4-1 vote. The Hinds County Board of Supervisors and then the state attorney general’s office will have to approve the agreement before plans can be drawn.
Clarion Ledger
6/29/5
