Unless Vicksburg and Warren County’s court systems speed up the wheels of justice, a new jail will fill to capacity as quickly as it is built, the county’s consultant for a new detention facility said Thursday.

At a meeting with municipal, justice, circuit and chancery judges and the district attorney, Dave Voorhis of Voorhis/Robertson Justice Services encouraged forming a committee to review case processing to work in tandem with the committee that has been working more than a year to assess needs and plan a new jail.

District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, the supervisors’ delegate to the jail study group, indicated the parallel committee would be formed.

Details shared so far point to a 350-bed, 130,000-square-foot new facility to be built at a cost of about $26 million on a yet-to-be-identified 50-acre rural site. It will replace the 128-inmate capacity county jail on Grove Street, parts of which date to 1904.

“What we want is expansion capability up to 600,” Voorhis told the group that included Sheriff Martin Pace, Mayor Paul Winfield and other city and county officials.

During the meeting, Voorhis and Pace pointed out that almost every person in custody in the existing jail is a pre-trial detainee, awaiting action on a felony charge or indictment. The City of Vicksburg uses the Issaquena County Detention Center for an average of 50 additional city detainees, although Winfield said steps have been taken to reduce that number.

Vicksburg does not have a jail and has for decades paid per diem fees to the county or, in more recent years, to other area detention facilities.

Voorhis said court processes were outside his scope, but pointed out that “pre-trial services” to include more aggressive case management along with creation of a public defender’s office and an increased use of alternative sentencing have been effective in other jurisdictions where his company has worked.

Though the company’s analysis does not carry a mandate for implementation, Voorhis endorsed a more open jail design and enhanced structure for the process of handling incoming prisoners.

“You don’t have these pre-trial services, no classification staff that we’re going to just be making up when you go to the new building,” Voorhis said.

Although new jail designs are more efficient, staffing models from the study indicate employment must triple inside the jail to 63. Much of that would work to oversee a jail population analysis database to go alongside a new, pod-like design to jail cells to improve monitoring and access and a more office-like appearance to holding areas. Keeping law enforcement functions of the sheriff’s department inside a slightly modified old jail structure is an option favored by Pace, who also expressed hope an expanded facility will enable state prisoners to be held there so a work detail system can be re-established.

Another option for the existing jail, endorsed by Senior Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick, could be adding a courtroom specifically for criminal trials.

Financing a new jail could come from issuing bonds and/or a tax rate increase. About $1 million in extra revenue might be needed to pay for the added staffing.

Working with McDonald on the jail study committee are Pace, County Administrator John Smith and Undersheriff Jeff Riggs.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com