Oktibbeha County has agreed to provide an extra eight beds at the county jail for prisoners from Starkville. This will cut the number of prisoners being transported to the Clay County jail from 15 to seven.
“For the past few years, we have budgeted to have 15 prisoners in custody,” Starkville Police Chief David Lindley said. “We have an agreement with Clay County to house these prisoners. We have now worked out a deal with Oktibbeha County Sheriff Steve Gladney to house eight prisoners.”
Lindley said the new agreement will help cuts costs for his department.
“We had a situation where we were spending an inordinate amount of time transporting prisoners to West Point,” he said. “This will alleviate some of that and help us cut back on fuel costs and overtime.
Short term prisoners will be placed in Oktibbeha County jail while long-term prisoners will be taken to West Point.
Oktibbeha County will charge Starkville $30 a night for each bed space while Clay County will charge $35 for each of its beds.
“We are just trying to save the taxpayers some money,” Lindley said.
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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