Eleven juvenile inmates of the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Facility were transported to Rankin County Tuesday afternoon.

    Lauderdale County is no longer in the juvenile detention business.

    Tuesday afternoon 11 juveniles that were being held at the facility in Meridian were loaded into a van and transported to Rankin County where they will now be kept.

    “Rankin County officials contacted us late Monday afternoon and said they are ready to accept our juveniles,” said Sheriff Billy Sollie.

    Seven boys and four girls were transported at about 2 p.m. from Meridian to Rankin County.

    The latest reports in regards to the facility were that Rankin County officials were not going to take Lauderdale County juvenile inmates because of ongoing legal issues. But LCSD Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun said that changed Monday afternoon.

    “An agreement was reached between us, Rankin County and the Southern Poverty Law Center that effectively have opened up our being able to send our inmates to their facility,” said Calhoun.

    In October of last year, Sollie said he took over responsibility of the center after an administrative order shifting that responsibility was signed by Judge Frank Coleman and the county’s other judge in the youth court, Veldore Young. He said he was asked by Coleman to assume responsibility for the center.

    Conditions at the center were the subject of protests from parents and were criticized by multiple grand juries before the Southern Poverty Law Center and Disability Rights Mississippi brought a lawsuit against the county in 2009.    

    The SPLC and a group of concerned parents and children said conditions at the center were abusive, unsanitary, unsafe and inhumane. Grand juries also used strong language and admonished the county for letting conditions at the facility deteriorate.

    In 2010, the lawsuit was settled when the county agreed to address a long list of problems at the center. Earlier this year, the SPLC issued a report on the county’s compliance with the agreement. They said the county had made some progress in important areas, but that abusive conditions still exist at the center.

    The facility has been seen as a huge legal liability for the county, which has been unable to comply with many of the conditions  laid out in a lawsuit settlement agreement. The agreement includes about 50 provisions for improvements that would bring the facility up to an acceptable standard, ranging from restriction of the use of MACE on juvenile inmates to requirements that the children be allowed to maintain adequate hygiene.

    In January, members of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to accept Sollie’s recommendation to close the center and send juvenile inmates to Rankin County. But a month later that plan hit a major obstacle when Rankin County, not wishing to take on the mountain of legal issues stacking up against the facility and the juvenile court, decided not to accept Lauderdale County inmates.

    The agreement that was reached in the last couple of days has now moved things forward, Calhoun said.

    Calhoun said only the detention section of the existing building will be closed and the corrections officers will be transferred to the adult facility in downtown Meridian. He said vacancies that have occurred in the last few months at the adult facility were purposely kept open in the event the juvenile facility closed its operations.

    “That way these certified employees can slide right over to the adult facility if they so choose,” Calhoun said.

    Calhoun said juveniles who still have business with the courts and the counselors will be able to continue at the current location as administrative staff will stay in the building. Sollie said the only time juvenile offenders will be in the building will be when they are transferred over from law enforcement custody to that of transportation officers who will then transport the juveniles to Rankin County.

    “They won’t be here at this location for maybe an hour until the transfer is complete and they are on their way to Rankin County,” Sollie said.    

    Calhoun said he didn’t have exact numbers as to how much Rankin County is charging Lauderdale County for housing the inmates but added based on projections, Lauderdale County officials believe Rankin County will provide much better care and facilities than have been available here.

    “This is a new program for us and we believe the cost will be about the same annually as our running our facility here,” Calhoun said.

    Calhoun said the annual budget for the detention facility in Lauderdale County was just short of $1 million.