The warden and an employee with the Yazoo County Correctional Facility said the complex is a sitting duck with not enough radios, security or even handcuffs. And with low manpower, both said the facility and its employees are in danger.
Etta Ceasar, a correctional officer, said employees do not have enough working radios, handcuffs or pepper spray. She told the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors during its Monday meeting that the facility does not have adequate lighting or a complete-working telephone system.
“If something happens, we don’t have the proper equipment,” she said. “We may have two to three radios on a shift. That is the only way we can communicate with each other. If we have a riot out there, we don’t have enough officers to even control a riot. If we have a riot, the sheriff’s department is supposed to come and help out. But they have two officers on duty. If they are way out in the country somewhere, we are sitting out there in an open field with no support team.”
Warden Jay Shaw said he arrived on the job about nine months ago, and he brought many of the issues Ceasar spoke of to the table. However, he said the equipment at the facility is outdated,
“The warden is trying,” Ceasar said. “He is doing his very best.”
Ceasar said there are about 300 inmates housed at the local facility, adding that one officer mans the county inmates and maybe two officers handle the state inmates.
“We have to pull the county officers to come help on the state side,” she said. “How can one officer control 300 inmates? There is no way. It is dangerous to us. If we were to get in a situation, we don’t even have the proper radios to call out.”
“Those radios are our lifeline,” added Shaw. “If you don’t have them serviced like they should be, they are no good to us.”
Both Shaw and Ceasar said the back fence also needs attention with its low lighting and lack of razor wire along the bottom.
“We don’t have the proper lighting out there for a prison,” Ceasar said. “That is how people are throwing these packs over the fence to get the contraband to the inmates.”
“This is the first facility for me that has no razor wire on the bottom of the back fence,” Shaw continued.
It is estimated that it would cost about $55,000 to run razor wire across the bottom of the fence.
“We have ten cameras out that haven’t been looked at yet,” Shaw said. “They have been out since I got there.”
Technology companies have said the camera system is outdated and cannot be repaired by today’s standards.
Ceasar added that it is hard to hire qualified employees due to the facility’s pay scale. She said she has been there five years and has only received one 25 cent raise, making her salary $9.35 an hour.
“You don’t give anybody any incentive to want to work there, “she said. “The only good is the insurance. The pay is nothing. I have been here five years, and we have lost so many good officers.”
County leaders said they would take the jail concerns under advisement and research what can be done to bring the facility up to par.
