/Juvenile jail sees new light as new arts center in McComb

Juvenile jail sees new light as new arts center in McComb

He was able to lock the doors behind him. Lowe’s employees could not copy the keys because they were too complex. Even though most of the jail’s buildings had been cleared out by the last guards, Phelps found blank forms for fingerprints, disabled security cameras, and other equipment that he didn’t know how to use. Phelps said, “Let’s turn some lights on,” as he entered the darkened building. Phelps, who is also the director of Pike School of Art in Pike County, said that he knows how to turn on the lights. He signed a 10-year lease with the nonprofit organization in the hopes of making the youth detention center a vibrant space for art-making and other activities. After an investigation by Southern Poverty Law Center in 2013, the jail was closed. It has remained largely unchanged for the past five years. In the last five years, the jail has been largely unaffected by the decline in youth detention. Communities like McComb have transformed the relics of these jails into projects that promote neighborhood revitalization. Phelps, a McComb native, left Mississippi in 2013 to study and become an artist in Chicago and Los Angeles. He returned to Pike County to live in the home his grandmother left him. While running the Pike School of Art, he took a job in McComb as a grantwriter at St. Andrews Mission. Phelps used to walk past the jail each day, and thought to himself “This should become the space.” Clay Russell, communication director at the Pike School of Art, and Phelps have made that dream a reality. The facility was reverted to the city after the county closed it down. Ronnie Pierce, the former warden of Pike County Juvenile Detention Center has been meeting with them to discuss how the lights and other control panels work. Phelps envisions the converted building to eventually house a local history museum, with exhibition space, living quarters for artists-in-residence, and space for community workshops and other events. Southern Poverty Law Center, who nearly sued the county for conditions at the detention center’s, wrote a letter supporting the city leasing it to the arts group. Fern Crossley, a radio host from the area, is one of the prominent members who have supported the project. Crossley said that the place was like a blank canvas. She is also on the McComb Creative Economics Partnership board, an arts group in the town where Phelps works. Russell stated that they documented the building’s condition and cleaned it up. One item that was eventually removed, the cinderblock wall, was an ominous note with the following message: “Tony B.” The Southern Poverty Law Center started investigating allegations of abuse at the Pike County facility. The investigation was initiated amid a string of lawsuits filed by the SPLC against county-operated facilities in the past 12 years. These included Hinds, Forrest and Harrison counties. Many of these are currently under federal consent decrees. Paul DeMuro, a juvenile justice consultant, recommended that Pike County close the facility and redirect its operating budget to local alternatives for “the vast majority of Pike County Youth Court youths who do not pose any risk to public safety and do not require secure detention.” DeMuro also noted mold, physical decay, insufficient medical staff, and the use of pepper spray by detention officers. DeMuro also found that the facility’s youth had not been given due process and were subject to disciplinary isolation. The staff did not keep track of the time the youth were locked down. The camera system had blind spots that allowed youth to escape observation. This was dangerous because solitary confinement can be associated with higher self-harm risk. With a lawsuit by the SPLC imminent, the county’s supervisors had decided to close the facility and send juvenile detainees instead to the Adams County facility. It is located about an hour-and a half away. The McComb Enterprise Journal was informed by supervisors that the facility’s age meant that it couldn’t be maintained in accordance with federal guidelines. The county budget would not allow for a new detention center at a cost of between $3 million and $4 million, according to the Enterprise-Journal. According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, there was a drop in the number of youth being detained or removed from their homes across the United States by more than half between 1999-2015. This is a trend Mississippi has maintained. The National Juvenile Justice Network deemed Mississippi a “comeback” state in 2013. It implemented policies to decrease juvenile detention. In 2005 and 2006, major juvenile justice reform laws were passed. A task force for juvenile detention and alternative was established in 2012. According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice statistics, Mississippi had 21 juvenile residential facilities as of 2000. In 2016, this number was 16. Point-in-time counts of youth in these facilities fell from 786 to 234 during that time. A November census by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure review found that only 189 juveniles were living in 15 facilities. John Price, a local youth court judge, has called on the county for a new facility that can house anywhere from one to three-dozen people. According to the Enterprise-Journal, Price stated last year to county supervisors that Adams County’s facility was frequently full and that he had to decline detention requests. Price stated that the county could rent the facility out to other counties to build a new facility. Price explained to Mississippi Today that Pike County currently spends more than $100 per night to put youths in the Adams County facility, Natchez, and up to $200 per night for them to be housed in Hattiesburg’s Forrest County juvenile detention centre. This does not include the cost and time involved in transporting them between the detention centers in Magnolia and the youth court. According to Tami Dangerfield, the county administrator, Pike County spent $114,070 last fiscal year on housing juvenile detainees. The county spent $85,147 between October 2017 and July 2018. Many communities have started to re-purpose these spaces as community centers, development projects, and affordable housing, in response to the increase in closings of juvenile prisons. The Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank, published a report in June that showed how prison land could be used to spur economic growth, serve community needs, and provide housing for local residents. Others, such as the Columbia Training School, Marion County, and Walnut Grove Correctional Facility in Mississippi, were either leased to private companies or left empty. The Urban Institute recommends that such organizations partner with former prisoners and educate community members. Open houses have been held by the School of Art, which included a Making a Future event last autumn with a visiting artist. Participants were able to draw their ideas for an arts center onto photos of the building. Russell stated that neighbors have offered to help mow the lawn and lend a pressure washer. Ronnie Brock, McComb selectman, said that it was just something to look at — from jail to art. This is the ward where the future home of Pike School of Art will be located. Brock said that there are many kids eager to enter the space and discover what they can do there. Brock stated, “I’m eager to see the talent in McComb.” “And it comes along with the opportunity that center, that school will offer them.”_x000D