Fisher among mayors challenging County’s jail fee

By Randy Bell

Uncertainty surrounds an effort by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors to charge Clinton and other municipalities in the county $50 per day to house the inmates they send to the Raymond detention center. Mayor Phil Fisher says the City has no plans to pay the County anything until it’s convinced that the charges are valid.

“We’ve already found some mistakes on there,” Fisher said prior to a Board of Aldermen work session on February 3. “For example, [the County] is charging us $5,000 for medical [expenses] for somebody who was only in there for a day. And, by the way, that person isn’t on the list of people we should be paying for.”

The mayor says it’s not clear as to the type of ailment for which certain inmates were treated.
“[We have] no idea if it’s for a stumped toe or pneumonia. Why aren’t they sending medical paperwork to back up the medical charges?”

Fisher says the County billed Clinton a total of about $67,000 for the last quarter of 2024.

The supervisors voted last August to impose the fees, effective October 1, saying the practice is common in other counties across the state. The municipalities began receiving the statements in January.

Clinton’s mayor joined his counterparts in Jackson, Byram, Raymond, Edwards and Bolton in sending a letter to the County laying out their concerns and asking for more clarity. They pointed out that it would be against state law for the municipalities to make such payments without a valid contract or interlocal agreement. And they complained about the timing of the County’s request, coming just before the new municipal budgets took effect.

“It is patently unreasonable to expect municipalities to absorb a cost of this magnitude…without sufficient notice to plan and budget,” the letter read.

Fisher goes even further.

“I’m still of the opinion that we pay for [inmate housing] in our taxes.”