LEE COUNTY, Miss. — A partnership among the Lee County Board of Supervisors, the Lee County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Department of Corrections is providing supervised manual labor for state inmates while delivering thousands of hours of public service, county officials said.
Called the Works program, it is measured in hours of work, bags of litter removed from highways and roads, buses washed and chairs set up and removed for events, officials said. “The Lee County Works Program is crucial to Lee County. The roads in Lee County would not be as clean as they are without the assistance of these State inmates,” Lee County Board of Supervisors President Barry Parker said.
Lee County officials said the Work Center, under the direction of Sheriff Jim Johnson, houses individuals with nonviolent felony convictions in a dormitory-style setting at the old county jail on Front Street. The inmates are guarded, searched and supervised by sheriff’s deputies and may participate voluntarily to work Monday through Friday while pursuing parole or, in some cases, early release.
Officials provided program totals for 2025, saying an eight-man trash crew worked 1,460 hours and picked up 16,088 bags of trash. During 2025 more than 4,000 bags were collected along state roads, and the county was reimbursed $8,000 by the state for supervision. Food pantries, fundraisers, senior events, state parks and other charitable activities kept about 20 inmates busy, officials said.
Funded primarily by Lee County, participation is voluntary and subject to Mississippi Department of Corrections rules. “Participating inmates can come from anywhere in the state, and not just the immediate area,” Sheriff Jim Johnson said. “We have had this program in place since about 2007, and it has been a benefit to Lee County plus a benefit to those who volunteer to participate in this program.”
