Another push to shutter Mississippi’s oldest and infamous prison died in a Senate committee Wednesday.
Senate Bill 2047 by Sen. Juan Barnett proposed a four-year phase down of operations at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. More than half of its committee members voted to table the bill, meaning it cannot be brought up for reconsideration.
“How long are we going to sit by and do nothing?” said Barnett, a Democrat from Heidelberg, who chairs the Corrections Committee, before the vote.
He estimated that the cost to close Parchman would be about $110 million – cheaper compared to the $120 million to $130 million the state spends years on the facility.
Parchman has had years of defunding and neglect that have led to deteriorated infrastructure and violence that boiled over in 2020. In response, the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation and found in a 2022 report that the prison’s conditions violate the Constitution.
Barnett said it’s not fair to keep asking taxpayers to pay for an old building that may be beyond repair, and he said inmates and staff would have to continue to be in that environment. The prison, which opened in 1901, has 2,542 beds and houses the state’s 34 death row inmates.
He also said Missisisppi shouldn’t have to be forced into a position like Alabama, which is building a $1 billion facility in response to a Justice Department lawsuit about unconstitutional conditions including violence and sexual assault.
SB 2047 directed Parchman to close by transferring inmates, employees and programs to other state prisons and regional facilities, including by contracting with Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, which is run by CoreCivic.
Last year, some members of the Senate Corrections Committee expressed hesitation about contracting with CoreCovic because a contract or memorandum of understanding was not yet in writing.
That concern came up again Wednesday as members asked for figures about cost and specifics about the number of inmates and staff who would be moved.
Sen. Sarita Simmons, a Democrat from Cleveand whose district includes Parchman and part of Tutwiler, asked Barnett how the committee could be asked to vote on the bill when not everyone has been to Parchman to see the conditions.
Barnett said he would schedule a visit for any member, they just needed to ask. After the question, at least half of the committee members indicated they had visited the prison.
Corrections Vice Chair Lydia Chassaniol, R-Winona, said numbers would have helped her to support the bill. She requested a reverse repealer to help move the bill along, which members approved.
Simmons made the motion to table the bill, which was the last vote of the committee meeting.
Last year, the bill passed through the Corrections Committee and made it to the Appropriations Committee, where it died because it was not brought up for a vote. This year’s bill was also referred to both committees.
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