Renovated housing unit to reopen at Hinds County Detention Center

RAYMOND, Miss. (WLBT) - For the first time in several years, a part of the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond is secure and up to standard.

The Hinds County Sheriff’s Office will reopen the renovated housing unit on Wednesday afternoon.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) once called the detention center “an unacceptable dangerous environment.”

Problems go back to years ago with gang violence, cell locks not working as well as health and environmental issues.

The sheriff’s office said that in 2012 housing unit Pod C was getting damaged on a regular basis.

A few years later, the DOJ ordered the detention center to be renovated, putting it under a legal agreement in which the pod was shut down.

The Hinds County Board of Supervisors approved more than 70 new security doors, new locks, and new fencing for the renovations. The board used money that was allocated for other projects to pay for the upgrades.

“These new measures are going to really help prevent some of the gang violence because, before, inmates who had beef with anyone were able to unlock their own doors and just go have at it,” said Sheriff Lee Vance.

These new doors are said to prevent that violence from happening.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held on Wednesday afternoon to reopen the new pod, but inmates are not going to be moved into it until a later date.

Copyright 2020 WLBT. All rights reserved.