Sheriff David Gore was the Eupora Rotary Club’s guest speaker on May 17.
The first-term sheriff was a retired conservation officer (game warden) when he ran for office. Gore said he never intended to be sheriff but a number of godly people in Webster County asked him to run.
The sheriff, he said, should not be a politician but someone who will enforce the law fairly and honestly.
“The people want a good, solid Sheriff’s Department.”
Concerning the proposed new jail, Gore said he believes monies are available (through grants and appropriations) to build it without requiring a tax increase. Belinda Stewart Architects is working with the Sheriff’s Department in designing the facility.
Although the Mississippi Department of Corrections once paid counties to house state inmates long term, Gore said this has been replaced by a work program through which a jail that qualifies can house them but the county must pay for everything. MDOC does pay for the time a state inmate is held in a local jail from their date of conviction until they are taken to a state facility. Justice Court judges have the discretion to order someone to work off misdemeanor fines but they might only work a week, he noted.
Calls concerning theft, family disturbances and domestic abuse are common here, he said, with 90% of the cases being directly related to methamphetamine. Gore said the meth comes from Mexican cartels for the most part, with the only meth created locally being in small quantities through the shake-and-bake process. Deputies also see a little bit of heroin here, he said, and acknowledged, “The war is lost on marijuana.”
Because of the highly addictive nature of meth, Gore said only 8% of meth addicts are eventually able to quit for good.
“It is truly Satan’s drug,” he said.
Four church services are held weekly through the jail ministry and Gore said the sheriff’s office works with Calvary Chapel to give those who are incarcerated a chance at rehabilitation.
