Back in November – after hearing concerns of alleged mistreatment of inmates at the Forrest County Correctional Facility off U.S. 49 – Ward 2 Councilwoman requested a copy of the agreement between the jail and the City of Hattiesburg, particularly with regard to that issue.
Having received a copy of the contract, which went into effect in 2012, Delgado revisited the issue at a recent Hattiesburg City Council meeting, where she said to the best of her knowledge, there is no other agreement concerning the housing and care of prisoners.
“While nothing in the agreement specifically addresses the treatment of such prisoners, and such facilities are required to provide for the health and safety of prisoners, I would encourage the city to propose an updated agreement specifically addressing the health and safety of prisoners,” Delgado told council members. “In recent times I have received a number of calls from family members of persons being held in the jail, ranging from bad treatment in general and beatings and failure to administer medication as directed and needed.
“(There have been complaints about) no phone access after (inmate) release if the release is after 5 p.m. Inmates who work off fines and are released do not have transportation at night and are forced to walk down Highway 49 – one was killed walking up 49 a few years ago.”
Delgado said someone recently shared a video with her that showed a seated, handcuffed inmate was tased at the jail in the presence of at least five or six law enforcement officers. The officer who tased the inmate allegedly still works at the jail.
“Persons who work in the jail should be required to wear body cams for the protection of both inmates and all employees who have contact with inmates,” Delgado said. “If the officer had tased an animal on the premise, I would venture to say that she would have been fired.”
Delgado also addressed the high cost of phone calls at the jail, saying a three-minute phone call costs an inmate – or his or her family – approximately $15. Delgado said that cost is entirely unreasonable and should be eliminated, although she did agree that a time limit could be placed on calls.
“The purpose of this (request) is the protection of persons who are inmates of the City of Hattiesburg,” she said. “Any cost resulting from injury to such persons may be that of the sheriff, but as elected officials we have a responsibility to do all within our power to protect health and safety.”
Forrest County Sheriff Charlie Sims confirmed that the jail and the city are still under the same agreement that was signed in 2012.
“So basically, (the city has) been paying 2012 rates for the last 10 years,” he said. “If we charged Hattiesburg what it actually costed us to house inmates, Hattiesburg’s bill would go up considerably.
“So if the city is interested in renegotiating, I’m sure we’d be glad to sit down and talk with them. We’ve always worked well with the city of Hattiesburg; we’ve never had issues, and things have been moving along rather well for the last 10 years. So I’ll leave that up to the mayor to make that decision.”
Regarding the treatment of inmates, Sims said the county contracts with a medical provider that offers treatment options 24 hours a day. Inmates have access to a kiosk, where they can put in requests for medical care; if the issue cannot be handled at the jail, the inmate is transported to Forrest General Hospital for care.
Sims said he was aware of the incident with the tased inmate, but that occurrence was looked at by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which found no wrongdoing at the jail.
“We know that we reviewed it, and investigated it and found no wrongdoing,” Sims said.
As far as inmates walking down the highway after release, Sims said when he was first elected, he held talks with city officials to provide bus routes, but that measure was not determined to be feasible.
In lieu of that, the jail provides phones for inmates to call friends or loved ones for pickup.
“We don’t force them to walk away from here down Highway 49; that’s a choice that they make,” Sims said. “There are nowadays Ubers, taxis, whatever they need, if they can’t find a ride from a friend or a loved one.”
Sims said the cost of a regular phone call at the jail is 25 cents a minute, which would make a three-minute phone call 75 cents. The jail does provide video calls, which are a little more expensive at 50 cents per minute.
“If the city is concerned, they’re more than welcome to tour (the jail),” Sims said. “We have a grand jury that tours, and they have not found any significant issues, so I don’t know where this is coming from.”
