STARKVILLE — The city is looking to discontinue an interlocal agreement reserving beds in Lowndes County Juvenile Detention Center.
Aldermen on Tuesday will consider giving Lowndes County 30 days notice of its intent to leave the arrangement — one that ostensibly guaranteed the city two beds to house juveniles at the detention center for a flat rate that was not based on usage. The city entered the agreement in August 2021.
Oktibbeha County does not have its own juvenile detention facility.
Mayor Lynn Spruill told aldermen at a Friday work session she had asked Oktibbeha County Youth Court referee Lydia Quarles for a cost-benefit analysis of the arrangement. That report showed it would cost far less to use the Lowndes detention center as needed rather than reserve space.
“Her numbers did not put us in a position to make me think it was a good investment for us,” Spruill said.
Quarles’ report, included in the e-packet of Tuesday’s board of aldermen agenda, shows Starkville has used beds at the detention center for 205 total days over the past 16 months. Without the interlocal agreement — which her report figured at $175 per bed per use — it would have cost $35,875.
With the agreement, which charges a bed rate of $125 per day regardless of usage, the city has paid Lowndes County more than $120,000 in that span.
“We’re not at all surprised because it wasn’t utilized as much,” Lowndes County Board of Supervisors president Trip Hairston told The Dispatch Friday after Spruill had spoken with him. “… I understand the methodology behind the decision.”
Oktibbeha County actually is legally responsible for bearing the costs of housing juveniles, Spruill told The Dispatch, with the city historically providing funds to juvenile court for infrastructure and equipment.
The city took on the burden of entering the agreement with Lowndes County for two reasons Spruill said. Quarles wanted to use detention as a deterrent for serious juvenile offenses that were primarily being committed in the city limits. Also, Oktibbeha County had not provided youth court the funds Quarles felt she needed for that initiative.
On the Lowndes County side, the detention center was suffering from staffing shortages that affected its ability to accept juveniles from outside jurisdictions. The deal guaranteed the county income while guaranteeing Starkville needed space.
Even with the agreement, Hairston as well as Quarles’ report noted instances when staffing levels led detention officials to turn away Starkville juveniles.
“There were times we couldn’t staff the male and female side,” Hairston said.
Spruill reduced these issues to “glitches” associated with operating a new program and stressed there were no hard feelings between the city and Lowndes County.
“We can still use Lowndes County’s (juvenile detention center),” Spruill said. “We can just do it on an as-needed basis where we are not obligating ourselves to monies we don’t need to spend for something we are not using.”
Starkville can also house juveniles at the Alcorn County facility in Corinth, though that comes with higher travel costs for a four-hour round trip, compared to just an hour round-trip to and from Columbus.
Spruill said with youth court falling under the newly established Oktibbeha County Court in January, it’s also prudent for the city to see to what level the court’s judge, Lee Ann Turner, sought to use detention.
Starkville’s is the only interlocal agreement the Lowndes juvenile detention center has reserving beds, Hairston said. He added if Starkville ever wants to discuss re-entering the agreement, supervisors would be “all ears.”
“They’re going away, but they’re not going away mad,” Hairston said. “We’re glad to have the relationship we do with the city of Starkville.”
Staffing woes at the juvenile detention center have abated somewhat since the pandemic, though county officials confirmed it is two officers short of its budgeted 16.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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