The Yazoo City Police Department recently received a letter from Sheriff Jeremy McCoy and Warden Jacqueline Morton requesting that their department reimburse the Yazoo County Regional Correctional Facility for half a million dollars for housing and medical bills on city inmates.
The letter sparked Police Chief Terry Gann and Assistant Chief Patrick Jaco to appear before the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors for an explanation.
“I was concerned about the letter we received saying that we owed almost a little over half a million dollars in back inmate housing fees,” Gann said, to the county board. “From my understanding, for centuries, we have been in an agreement that the county house our inmates. When they are bound over to Grand Jury, they would become county inmates. We are asking for explanation for this bill.”
According to the letter sent to the city police department from McCoy and Morton, there had “been a mix up with the reimbursement as to who has been bound over to the County and who is still considered a city inmate.” Both McCoy and Morton requested that the county be reimbursed for “under payment” for housing and medical expenses that they said were not paid by the city from January 2024 until May 2025.
Morton said the inmates who arrive at the local county jail from the city police department should not be considered county inmates. Even if the inmate has been bound over to the Grand Jury to appear within the county circuit court, she said the inmates remain “city inmates.” She added that the county has been assuming the financial responsibility of those inmates once they were bound over, which she said should not be happening.
Those payments requested from McCoy and Morton to the city included:
* Cost for housing inmates from January 2025-May 2025: $290,225
* Cost for housing inmates from January 2024-December 2024: $209,600
* Medical and pharmacy costs from January 2025-June 2025: $4,224.95
* Medical and pharmacy costs from January 2024-December 2024: $4,803.73
* Total Cost: $508,853.67
All parties agree that there was a “mutual agreement” between the police department and the sheriff’s office. The written agreement cannot be located with many reporting that the agreement was “a gentlemen’s agreement.”
Jaco said he assumed the police department was up to date with the bills from the county jail based on what was submitted to their department.
“The problem now is this half a million dollars we are being billed is back billing,” Jaco said. “We assumed we were up to date as far as our housing goes. We pay the bills as we get them. Why are we going back now after we have already received bills that we have paid?”
McCoy said the letter to the police department should not have even been brought to the table with the county supervisors. He said the letter was meant to open a discussion.
“Coming to the board like this did not need to happen because we needed to talk department to department to see if this is even a price that is agreed upon,” McCoy said. “There was no need in getting everyone involved.”
“Well, you don’t rent a house for $200 for the last century and all of a sudden you decide you could have charged more,” Gann said.
Gann said the local county jail is holding about 20 of the city’s inmates. He said the city police department pays $25 per inmate, per day, for housing.
McCoy said the medical expenses with some of the city inmates have presented a burden upon his budget.
“How could we cover $500,000 in medical costs at $25 a day,” McCoy said. “That is not good business. That doesn’t cover medical. That is coming out of our budget. We can’t do the things we need to do because we are paying money out of our budget for somebody else’s inmate.”
Donna Kraft, county administrator, said she inquired about the medical claims on the city inmates.
“I am not seeing where the county has paid from the jail any medical bills on city inmates directly,” Kraft said. “My question is who is paying the bills on the city inmates. I am assuming that the city is paying the medical costs directly on city inmates unless they are being submitted as county inmates. But we have not paid any bills directly.”
Morton admitted that there was a “misunderstanding,” adding that the bills had not been sent to the police department because her staff assumed the inmates were considered county inmates after receiving email confirmation that the inmates had been bound over to the Grand Jury.
“My staff is responsible for submitting bills to the city,” Morton admitted. “My staff had been getting emails that those inmates were bound over so my staff assumed it was a county bill.”
“The county dropped the ball by not referring the bills to the city because the county thought they were bound over,” Gann added.
Gann said the police department is also experiencing problems with McCoy and Morton sending certain city inmates back to its holding facility. The police department is considered a holding facility, not a jail. Legally, Gann said they can only hold inmates for more than 48 hours. Jaco added that they had held inmates for as long as six months before.
“We have somebody for six months in a facility not built for that,” Jaco said.
Gann said McCoy and Morton are sending problematic inmates and inmates who require more medical attention back to the city’s holding facility.
“The picking and choosing inmates are putting us in a bind,” Gann said. “I have to come get them because they are being a problem child, and they sit over there in our jail. That’s illegal. That’s breaking the law.”
Morton said she receives calls in the middle of the night about city inmates being disruptive at the county jail. She said recently an inmate set the jail on fire.
“It wasn’t a county inmate who set that jail on fire,” she said. “It is not my responsibility if it is a city inmate.”
“If your inmate is over there flooding the zone or setting the jail on fire…” McCoy added. “I can deal with my own hardheaded kids. But at what point is somebody going to help us.”
McCoy said he does not want any problems with the city police department.
“But I am at the point that by Jan. 1, have them somewhere else because we can’t come to an agreement on nothing,” McCoy said. “(The Board of Supervisors) have done got involved, and this is a conversation that could have been had between us. We don’t have an issue. That jail is running fine. If there is an issue with the bill, then write another letter back. That is how the conversation starts.”
“That is the thing,” Gann replied. “I should have never gotten this letter.”
Moving Forward
After the county board meeting, McCoy and Morton, along with jail consultant Jerry Williams, attended the Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting last Monday. They met with the city council in executive session citing “litigation and security.”
“The meeting included a lot of the concerns that the city had particularly with transportations and medical appointments,” Williams said, to the county board last Monday. “The only problem was the pricing. (City Board Attorney Lilli Evans-Bass) brought it up at the meeting that she did not have the updated Memorandum of Understanding and wanted to talk about it.”
Supervisor Joseph Thomas Jr. said Evans-Bass should send a proposed MOU to Jay Barbour, the county’s board attorney, for review.
“After that meeting you had Monday, (Evans-Bass) needs to send us a MOU because (Barbour) didn’t not have privy to know what was discussed,” Thomas said. “(Barbour) did not have privilege to that meeting.”
Another meeting between McCoy and Gann’s departments was also held last Thursday. Gann said despite the earlier disagreement, he felt an understanding had been met to productively move forward.
“It had always been assumed that after the inmates were bound over, they were assumed to be county inmates,” Gann said. “Moving forward, once an arrest has been made, they remain city inmates until their sentencing. We have worked on a solution that benefits both the city and county.”
