Prentiss recovering after former city clerk embezzles more than $638k
PRENTISS , Miss. (WDAM) - The former Prentiss city clerk who stole more than $600,000 from the town is headed to prison for 20 years, the maximum sentence.
The financial damage she left behind will take years to repair.
“The people did not deserve what they got, and she deserves every day she did get,“ said 15th Circuit Court District Attorney Hal Kittrell.
Mayor Tony Waits says all there’s left to do now is move forward.
“That sort of closes a difficult and sad chapter for the town of Prentiss,“ Waits said.
Dana Melissa Jones was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $670,000 in restitution and court fees.
This comes after investigations and indictments.
Jones is expected to repay $638,720.76 to the town of Prentiss upon her release.
The auditor’s office says Jones pocketed money by adding unauthorized paychecks and overtime payments to her salary. She also used city funds to pay off credit card debt.
The mayor says he inherited this issue at the beginning of his term.
“We had a significant deficit that we found ourselves in, and we had very limited resources to draw upon to service those deficits,” Waits said.
Jones became a town employee in 2000, city clerk in 2014, and resigned from the position in 2025.
The state’s investigation only went back five years.
DA Kittrell says the deficits created in that amount of time would be hard on any municipality, but especially a small one like Prentiss.
“Everybody knows everybody, and for her to shirk her responsibility and to literally cheat these people out of benefits that they were entitled to to fill her pockets is just a hard thing to take,” Kittrell said.
Since the discovery, Mayor Tony Waits says his administration has had to make ends meet.
They’ve cut unnecessary costs, shopped for better deals, and raised taxes.
“That was difficult to ask your citizens to pay more taxes when there’s already been a situation where tax dollars have been misspent or misappropriated,” Mayor Waits said.
Waits said the town had to borrow money to cover operating costs, but they do not plan to raise taxes again.
“We found ourselves in a difficult position, but the lord has been faithful to me, and he’s been faithful to the people of Prentiss,“ he said.
Jones is also expected to repay $12,800 to the Prentiss Run for Roses nonprofit organization.
A March 2026 indictment says Jones stole from the group while serving as its treasurer between 2023 and 2025.
This was another tough pill for the community to swallow.
“She also drew out every dime that they had, and every dime that they had is every dime that they needed to conduct it,“ Kittrell said.
Kittrell says recovery is already on the horizon.
“They’ve got the backbone to do it, and you’ve got the leadership to go back and put them back in shape,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how far and how long it takes to get there. “
Kittrell says the city of Prentiss also requested the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi to complete an audit.
The audit will investigate how much money the city put into the PERS system, on Jones’ behalf, beyond her actual salary.
Those funds will return to Prentiss.
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