Purdie addresses Hinds County breakaway proposal
By Randy Bell
One of the candidates in the recent Republican primary for alderman in Ward 3 promoted the idea that Clinton should pull out of Hinds County and form a new county. With that as a central theme of his campaign, Ronnie Morton finished second in the three-person race. But it’s not a new idea.
Mayor Phil Fisher says he brought it up a few years ago, because he was unhappy with the court system in Hinds County.
“I kept watching people get turned out of court for serious crimes that they should be going to jail for,” says Fisher. “So, I started talking to some people, and it got some traction; and some people were saying, ‘Yeah, I agree with you.’”
Fisher says he worked with City Attorney Will Purdie to find out what would be involved in breaking away from Hinds County.
Section 260 of the Mississippi Constitution requires that any new county must contain at least 400 square miles and that no existing county can be reduced below that size, meaning that Hinds County, with 877 square miles, would have to be split practically in half. It also says: “No new county shall be formed unless a majority of the qualified electors voting in each part of the county or counties proposed to be dismembered and embraced in the new county, shall separately vote therefor.”
Purdie, who will take over as Clinton’s mayor in July, calls the breakaway idea “an interesting question.”
He continues: “There is a procedure laid out in the state constitution for the creation of a new county from part of an existing one, though, in practice, there would be significant logistical and legal hurdles that would need to be overcome.”
“However, the need to even question whether it is in Clinton’s best interest to stay in Hinds County points to substantial issues that must be addressed at a county level,” says Purdie. “And I do believe, in a vacuum, it is a fair question to ask.”
Like Fisher, Purdie has concerns over the county’s criminal justice system.
“Prosecutions, when they take place, often drag on for years, while the judicial system regularly places dangerous offenders back on the street, often ultimately imposing little consequence for their crimes,” Purdie says. “When you couple that with the historic levels of violent crime occurring in Jackson, you have a system that is completely overwhelmed. The Hinds criminal justice system must address these significant deficiencies both in procedure and, in my opinion, philosophy.”
“This is one of a number of issues that needs to be urgently addressed at the county level,” says Purdie. “As the incoming mayor of Clinton, I look forward to working with all of Hinds County leadership to make the county as strong as it can be.”
Following the Ward 3 election, Morton indicated that the only reason he ran for alderman was to promote the idea of the City breaking” away from Hinds County.
“I believe Clinton needs to do this,” Morton said, “and the time to do it is now.” According to Morton, remaining part of the county is “holding Clinton back.”
