Proposed $40 Million Jail Could Replace Aging Adams County Facility as Inmate Numbers Rise

A prison construction company estimates it could build an Adams County jail for about $40 million to detain about 116 inmates.

The construction plans presented to county supervisors Monday comes as the county’s substandard 50-year-old jail is being further strained by having to hold more inmates, said Sheriff Travis Patten. Patten said recent legal directives from the state attorney general’s office has prompted the need to jail more inmates as they go through court proceedings.

They have to be incarcerated sooner and longer when arrested, the sheriff said. The Adams County jail building on State Street is deteriorating and can’t be sustained much longer. Many detainees arrested in Natchez-Adams County are taken to the Concordia Parish detention center instead of holding them in the county jail.

However, Patten noted the influx prompted by the AG’s legal directive related to grand juries and indictments has resulted in Adams County having to hold more inmates. The jail had on average about 30 inmates a day, but that’s increased to 50 to 70, he said.

While Natchez and Adams County continues to pay Concordia Parish to take a number of inmates, Patten noted the neighboring prison will not accept those with mental or drug problems. The jail construction plans presented Monday came from executives of ModCorr, the Texas-based company that’s been working in recent months developing a proposal for the Adams County Board of Supervisors.

The board continues to be uncertain how to fund a new jail, but ModCorr President Buddy Johns said he’ll develop more architectural and operational plans. Johns noted a major question remains unanswered: where will the new jail be located.

A site in north Adams County is being considered along with land where the now-closed IP paper mill was in south Natchez. Both properties are owned by the county. The land north of town was donated to the county; the IP site is for industrial development.

Patten said both sites are viable prospects for a new jail, but he noted the old IP property would be easier to prepare with utilities and other accommodations already in place. Johns said a major factor to consider is how well the soil can hold the 42,000-square-feet facility his company is planning for.

“We could have some soft-soil conditions to deal with,” he said. ModCorr specializes in fabricating modular cell units to house inmates. The $35 million to $40 million costs he cited for an Adams County jail is an “educated guess” that could differ from the actual costs.

Johns noted jail construction expenses nationally have increased in recent years as “justice reforms” have been enacted to improve housing for inmates. A 2014 plan prepared for Adams County supervisors by Benchmark Construction Corp. of Jackson had a new 185-inmate detention center costing about $7 million to build.