# Hinds County's New Jail Is Behind on Supplies. Supervisors Meet Tuesday With $2.3 Million a Year Already Committed.

> The county's new criminal justice facility is running into supply delays, WJTV reported Monday, the same day supervisors held a special called meeting and one day before a work session. The millage that pays for it was adopted Sept. 10.

*Development · By Jackson Wire Staff · September 21, 2026*

Hinds County's new criminal justice facility is hitting supply delays, WJTV reported Monday, a snag that lands in the middle of the county's most expensive construction commitment and one day before supervisors sit down for a work session.

The timing matters because the money is already locked in. Supervisors adopted the county budget at a special called meeting on Sept. 10, according to the board's published meeting calendar, and that budget carries the 1.5-mill increase the board proposed in July to fund the facility, county buildings, and infrastructure.

That increase is not small change in aggregate. WLBT reported in July that the millage would generate $2.3 million in additional annual revenue, at a cost of about $2.50 a month, or $30 a year, for the average homeowner. Board President Robert Graham framed it as a competitiveness question, telling WLBT that residents "want to see a super site, they want to see us competitive with Rankin and Madison County."

Do the arithmetic on the county's own numbers and the facility's annual debt-and-operating claim comes to roughly $2.3 million a year against a tax base that has to absorb it every year, not once. That is the figure to hold onto when a supply delay pushes a construction schedule: the millage does not pause when the materials do.

The board's calendar shows a special called meeting Monday, Sept. 21, and a work session Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the Chancery Court Building. Work sessions are where Hinds County has historically worked through construction and budget problems before they reach a vote, and the 2026 schedule shows the board has used that format repeatedly, in January, February, March, May, June, July, and August.

The facility itself is large by any measure. Graham told WLBT the proposed building would house more than 800 people and include additional security measures, replacing a prior criminal justice facility he described as having security issues and capacity concerns.

Not everyone signed on. Hinds County resident Monica Bradshaw told WLBT the county should examine its existing spending first. "If you can't manage what you have, getting more is not going to solve the problem," she said.

There is a structural reason the jail line item is hard to trim. A detention facility is a fixed obligation: staffing, food, medical contracts, and utilities run whether the building is full or half empty, and the county has been carrying an aging facility in the meantime. A supply delay does not reduce any of those costs. It adds to them, because the county pays to operate the old building while the new one waits on materials.

The county has also been pushing a separate broadband and digital-literacy program this fall, with free training classes and a Rural Community Connect event set for Sept. 24 at the Terry Community Center, according to the county's news page. That is a reminder that the same general fund absorbing the jail millage is also absorbing every other county initiative.

What's next: Supervisors hold a work session Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the Chancery Court Building, with the next regular board meeting scheduled for Oct. 5 and the following special meeting Oct. 19, per the county's published 2026 calendar. Watch whether the supply delay shows up as a change order, a schedule revision, or a request to shift money within the already-adopted budget. The county administrator's office and the board president are the people who can say which.

The number to track is whether the $2.3 million annual millage yield still covers the facility once delayed materials are re-priced. If it does not, the board's options are a supplemental appropriation, a bond issue, or a second millage adjustment, and any of those would come back before the same five supervisors who adopted the budget on Sept. 10.

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[The Jackson Wire](https://www.thejacksonwire.com/) · [Read on the web](https://www.thejacksonwire.com/article/hinds-county-jail-supply-delays-work-session-september-2026)