Post by Logan on Jun 10, 2016 21:11:45 GMT -6
Mississippi will close the troubled, privately run Walnut Grove Correctional Facility in Leake County due to budget cuts and a shrinking inmate population, state Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher said iFriday.
“MDOC’s budget is lower than we anticipated,” Fisher said in a news release. “Pursuant to an intensive budget review and evaluation, we have determined this is the most prudent action. We have space in our state-run prisons to house the 900 inmates at Walnut Grove.”
Mississippi's prison population in 2013 climbed to 22,600, the second highest per capita in the nation. But recent criminal justice reforms passed by state lawmakers, including reforms in sentencing and probation, have reduced prison population. As of Friday it was 19,394, and at one point last year had dropped to about 18,900.
MDOC, like most other state agencies, has seen budget cuts for the current and coming years, including a $16.8 million, or 5 percent, cut for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Read more: www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/10/walnut-grove-correctional-facility-to-close/85715998/
“MDOC’s budget is lower than we anticipated,” Fisher said in a news release. “Pursuant to an intensive budget review and evaluation, we have determined this is the most prudent action. We have space in our state-run prisons to house the 900 inmates at Walnut Grove.”
Mississippi's prison population in 2013 climbed to 22,600, the second highest per capita in the nation. But recent criminal justice reforms passed by state lawmakers, including reforms in sentencing and probation, have reduced prison population. As of Friday it was 19,394, and at one point last year had dropped to about 18,900.
MDOC, like most other state agencies, has seen budget cuts for the current and coming years, including a $16.8 million, or 5 percent, cut for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Read more: www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/10/walnut-grove-correctional-facility-to-close/85715998/