n Those prisoners must be held separately from local prisoners.

By Errol Castens

Daily Journal Oxford Bureau

PONTOTOC - Pontotoc County supervisors plan to build a 2,700-square-foot facility south of the existing county jail facility to increase their capacity to house state inmates.

Currently, the Mississippi Department of Corrections pays Pontotoc County some $200,000 yearly to house about 26 inmates at a time - an arrangement similar to those of many counties - but recent court orders compel that they be separated from county inmates.

One benefit to the county for housing state inmates is that many of them, most of whom are serving sentences of a year or more, are a source of labor.

Some work on the county's household garbage pick-up routes, and others collect litter from roadsides.

Supervisors are still figuring out how best to fund the new structure, but they've already decided to save a substantial portion of the cost by using county labor.

"We're going to do most of the construction in-house," said Board of Supervisors President Wayne Stokes.

Recycled materials also will cut expenses.

"We're going to tear down the old Extension Building and use some of the materials from it," he said. "We haven't gotten bids yet on a new concrete slab, but most of the other materials we should have from the other building."

Stokes said he and fellow supervisors hope to begin construction this spring.

"Just as soon as it dries out, we hope to start moving dirt," he said.

Contact Errol Castens at (662) 281-1069 or errol.castens@djournal.com.