Central Mississippi Correctional Facility


The Central Mississippi Correctional Facility for Women is a Mississippi Department of Corrections prison for men and women located in an unincorporated area in Rankin County, Mississippi, near the city of Pearl. The prison is the only state prison to hold female prisoners in Mississippi, in addition to minimum and medium security male offenders. As such, it operates as the female death row of the state.
The prison is in proximity to the cities of Brandon and Jackson.
The prison houses the Receiving and Classification Unit, where most prisoners entering the MDOC system are held before going to their permanent unit assignments. Most male inmates who are sentenced to MDOC by the courts or who are returned to MDOC as parole violators, probation violators, intensive supervision program violators, earned release supervision violators, and suspension violators are placed at R&C. All women inmates who are sentenced to MDOC by the courts or who are returned to MDOC as parole violators, probation violators, ISP violators, ERS violators, and suspension violators are placed in 1A or 2B at CMCF. Male death row inmates do not go to CMCF; they are transferred from county jails and immediately go to the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the location of the male death row.
MDOC states that CMCF was "designed to provide aesthetics along with security."

History

CMCF opened in January 1986 with a capacity of 667 prisoners. CMCF was the first prison facility of the Mississippi Department of Corrections outside of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Sunflower County. Upon the opening of CMCF, female prisoners were transferred from MSP to CMCF; previously women were held in MSP Camp 25. CMCF was designed by Dale and Associates. It was originally named the Rankin County Correctional Facility. Johnson & Johnson uses prison labor from this facility to operate a "clean room" for the cleaning and sterilizing of suture spools.

Demographics

As of September 1, 2008, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, with a capacity of 3,665, had 3,610 prisoners, making up a total of 25.07% of people within the Mississippi Department of Corrections-operated prisons, county jails, and community work centers. Of the male inmates at CMCF, 1,383 are Black, 738 are White, 16 are Hispanic, three are Native American, two are Asian, and one has no available data. Of the female prisoners, 781 are Black, 672 are White, 8 are Hispanic, 3 are Asian, 2 are Native American, and one has no available data.

Notable inmates

Inmates incarcerated at CMCF: