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Lee County Works Program – It Works
It “Works”!
That is the name and definition of the program where the Lee County Board of Supervisors, Lee County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) partner to provide positive incarceration for state inmates and thousands of hours of public service to the citizens of Lee County and its municipalities.
It is measured in hours of work, thousands of bags of litter removed from the highways and roads, buses washed, chairs set up and removed for events, and a host of civic and charitable events where helpful hands are needed. For example, the eight-man trash crew alone worked 1,460 hours in 2025, picking up 16,088 bags of trash.
“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,” says Lee County Board of Supervisors President Barry Parker. “I can’t say enough about how important that program is to the cleanliness of our county.”
The Lee County Work Center, under the direction of Sheriff Jim Johnson, allows individuals with non-violent felony convictions to agree to do manual labor in exchange for a dormitory-style life in the Old Lee County Jail on Front Street. They are inmates in every sense of the word, guarded, searched, and supervised by the sheriff’s deputies. Their benefit – to be out in “the free world” doing supervised work Monday through Friday, have slightly relaxed benefits and work toward parole, and in some cases even early release.
The County and the municipalities benefit from thousands of hours and even income from their work. During 2025, more than 4,000 bags of trash were picked up along state roads, and the County was reimbursed $8,000 by the state for supervision. Food pantries, fundraisers, senior events, state parks, charitable organization activities, and manual labor for the County kept the 20 inmates busy.
Funded primarily by Lee County, the Works program is optional for inmates. They participate voluntarily and must comply with all MDOC rules. They are allowed visits on Sunday afternoons with family.
“Participating inmates can come from anywhere in the state, and not just the immediate area,” says Sheriff Johnson. “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.”