OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — The board of supervisors approved a program Monday that will give pretrial detainees the opportunity for a lower bond.
Supervisors approved a contract with Sentinel Offender Services, a GPS-monitoring company that lowers bonds while tracking alleged offenders. The detainees would pay the reduced bond rate while agreeing to wear an ankle bracelet that will monitor their activity 24 hours a day, Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Brett Watson said.
“What we are attempting to do is use GPS monitoring on people who are out on bail for certain crimes — this doesn’t cover everybody — prior to the time they get up and go to court and have the trial,” Watson said.
Judges will decide if a defendant can be out on bail through the program.
Watson said this will be a 12-month pilot program with the goal of having 100 people using it by the end of the period. Other states use Sentinel, but Watson said he believes Oktibbeha County will be the first in Mississippi to launch this kind of program.
Sentinel will not cost the county any money as long as 10 people are using it per month. With the program costing a little over $1,000 monthly, if each defendant on the program pays a daily rate of $3.98, the county will not owe any money to the company.
Watson said the county already works with two other companies similar to this, but those programs are much more expensive, with the price being over $300 and a deposit on the front end. Watson said he believes this program will give more offenders the opportunity to get out on bail, while also allowing OCSO to watch their activity.
“What that does is price people from getting an ankle monitor, so we either give them the lower bail where they get out with no sort of monitoring or they sit in jail with a higher bail,” Watson said.
All justice and circuit court judges, along with the candidates for county court judge, support this program, Watson said.
A judge can also place restrictions on detainees through their ankle bracelet. For example, if a defendant is charged with multiple auto burglaries in the Highlands Plantation, the judge can restrict that person from going to that particular area, and if they do, an alert will notify OCSO.
“If a person who is out on bond is charged with domestic violence, the judge (can) put a restriction on them, saying they can’t go within 100 yards of the victim’s home or residence,” Watson said. “With this program, we can have exclusionary zones around the house or businesses and if they enter into that exclusion zone, a message automatically gets sent back that there was a violation.”
Watson said he believes this will benefit all parties involved because OCSO will save money by not paying for defendants to stay at the Oktibbeha County Jail and also gives the person the opportunity to get out on bail at a lower rate.
Board Attorney Rob Roberson said he believes there are too many people housed at the jail, and this program will relieve some space. He also said this will help prosecutors because it eliminates prison time, while also helping defense attorneys because an alleged offender being out of jail is a positive dynamic.
“I’m excited about this because this may alleviate some of the problems we are having with overpopulation,” Roberson said. “… this has a lot of possibilities, and both sides of the equation prosper.”
County building codes
The board also approved moving forward with enacting commercial building codes within the county.
Fire Services Coordinator Patrick Warner approached the board about potentially enforcing buildings codes for commercial buildings only. He said because there are no codes already in place, several businesses and apartment complexes have been built recently in the county with structures that could be dangerous to people. Having these commercial buildings also can create traffic, which is harsh on county roads.
The board approved putting out advertisements for professional services to create these building codes. District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said he would like to see the county choose a company by mid-May so this process can begin soon.
Warner said having building codes will only affect commercial buildings, not residences, which includes barns or shops outside of a home.
“We can go in there and put exclusions in these codes, for example, to protect the homeowners,” Warner said. “If a homeowner wants to build a 5,000-square-foot barn or shop behind their house, all we have to do is adopt a building code ordinance, and anything under 10,000 square feet is excluded. This is primarily directed toward these apartment buildings.”
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