VIDEO: County Jail Makes Major Security Improvements

TISHOMINGO COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- It’s every prison’s worst nightmare- a jailbreak.

The Tishomingo County Jail is making major improvements to avoid that.

“In any, any jail period, you’re gonna have security problems because you’re dealing with inmates,” says  Jail Administrator Jason Blakney.

That’s why Blakney is trying to make it nearly impossible for his inmates to break out.

“We added another perimeter fence to the outside, added more razor wire to the whole facility. I have also had alarms put on all the doors, since then and we’ve covered all of that and have made it as secure as you possibly can,” says Blakney.

They’ve even added additional cells…

“Total, we can hold 128 now,” says Blakney.

Cameras, fences, and steel plating have cost the county an awful lot- in turn, the jail has started taking in inmates from other counties.

“Sometimes we’ll hold 10-15 from Itawamba, 4-5 for Prentiss, and 2-3 for Booneville,” says Blakney.

And at 20 dollars per inmate, it surely adds up.

Sheriff John Daugherty is proud of the work Blakney has done since taking over the position.

“With it being able to hold additional prisoners, it off sets the cost for the taxpayers for the building of the new jail and it helps our budget situation greatly,” says Daugherty.

Which in turn, has allowed the county to hire more detention officers.

“It helps to be able to hire more staff to do what we need to do and maintain a safe facility, a secure facility. Final vision for the jail? Just to be as secure and safe as we can possibly make it, for not just us, but for the county and the citizens here,” says Blakney.

Blakeny says they’ll be installing steel cages to the outside doors of the facility on Monday.