After years of legal trouble, the county has decided to close its juvenile detention facility, opting instead to send underage detainees to a facility in Rankin County.

    The board voted 5-0 to accept Sheriff Billy Sollie’s recommendation to close the center and send juvenile inmates to Rankin County at their Tuesday morning meeting.

    The detention center will close, Sollie said, as soon as the county enters into a contract with Rankin County for use of their facility. It is unclear how long it will be until that happens.

    The county has been attempting to comply with a lawsuit settlement that required the county to drastically improve conditions at the facility. The lawsuit alleged abusive and inhumane conditions at the facility, and a report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group that represented the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that a number of those abusive conditions continued nearly a year after the settlement was reached.

    Along with inhumane or abusive disciplinary practices by staff, the lawsuit said that the facility itself was unsanitary and in general unsatisfactory. Multiple grand juries also said the facility was in extreme disrepair and not fit for use.

    In a letter urging the board of supervisors to accept Sollie’s recommendation to close the facility, the SPLC said that unacceptable conditions continue at the facility.

    “The continuing violations include physical abuse, denying children rehabilitative and educational services, threatening children with chemical restraints, and subjecting children to prolonged cell confinement,” the letter read, adding, “The physical plant of the facility remains inadequate and needs immediate renovation to meet minimal standards.”

    The letter said the SPLC has been considering renewing legal action related to the facility because of non-compliance with the settlement agreement.

    Additionally, the U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating the way youth are sentenced to detention in Lauderdale County in response to allegations that the county youth court and Meridian Police Department were violating the fourth amendment rights of black youths referred for law enforcement action by the city school district.

    The juvenile detention facility has been operated by the youth court under County Court Judge Frank Coleman, but its operation was transferred to the sheriff in October 2011.

    Sollie said he made his recommendation after determining that the current facility cannot affordably be brought up to an acceptable standard.

    “The physical complex that was constructed back in the ’70s is not conducive to adequately administering justice to juveniles,” Sollie said in a phone interview Wednesday. “It was a 5-0 vote yesterday to move forward toward an agreement with Rankin County and to cease operation of the detention part of the Lauderdale County Juvenile Center.”

    He said the youth court and several offices in the juvenile center will continue to operate there. He said the county has been in contact with Rankin County officials about the proposed contract, and that he does not anticipate any problems reaching an agreement.

    Sollie said no one currently employed at the facility will lose their job as a result of the detention center closing. He said correctional staff will be given the opportunity to gain the necessary certification and work at the county’s adult detention facility without any loss in pay or benefits.