Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility

Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility
Location Wrightsville, Arkansas
Status open
Security class maximum security
Capacity 2542
Opened 2000
Managed by Corrections Corporation of America

Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility (TCCF) is a private prison for men,[1] authorized by the Tallahatchie County Correctional Authority and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The facility is located in unincorporated Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, near Tutwiler.[2][3] Since its opening, the prison has housed inmates from Wisconsin, Colorado, Hawaii and California, in addition to prisoners from Louisiana. As of 2010 the facility serves as a county jail and also houses more than 1,000 prisoners from California.[1]

The prison opened in March 2000 with 352 prisoners. The facility is located on a 149-acre (60 ha) plot of land located along U.S. Highway 49,[1][3] 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Tutwiler, 12 miles (19 km) south of Clarksdale, and 85 miles (137 km) from Memphis International Airport.[1] 27 acres (11 ha) of the prison property are fenced and used as the prison.[1][3] By 2008 the prison held 2,672 prisoners, and competing California gang members erupted in a violent riot. Additional such incidents have occurred. Legally the prison's capacity is 2,800 prisoners. In September 2005 the facility was accredited by the American Correctional Association.[3]

As of 2016 the county has no hotel facilities, so families visiting inmates must stay in hotels in other counties.[4]

History

Due to poverty in the town and having to rely on charity from Christian organizations, around 1998 the leaders of the Town of Tutwiler decided to permit construction of a private prison in their jurisdiction, hoping it would provide jobs to area residents. It would house Mississippi prisoners as well as others from out of state. To help facilitate the prison, the Town of Tutwiler constructed a sewage lagoon and a water tower. The State of Mississippi and Tallahatchie County paid half of the cost to train correctional officers for the new prison, in order to support improving the local economy.[5] Carrothers Construction built the facility for $35 million.[6] James T. Kilborn of The New York Times said that when the facility opened in 2000 with 351 prisoners, including 322 from Wisconsin, it "seemed the salvation of" Tutwiler.[7] Some area residents quit their jobs and began working as prison guards at the facility. After the prison's opening, its monthly payroll was $467,000.[5]

In March and April 2001, Wisconsin moved its prisoners out of the prison, leaving only about 20 to 125 prisoners per period.[7] Before the move the prison had 208 employees.[8] The prison's employees were reduced to 40 people, with numerous layoffs.[7] Before the reduction, in 2001 the prison had paid $600,000 annually to the county in property taxes and $5,350 per month to the town for water. By late-2001 the total monthly payroll decreased to $80,000.[5] Kilborn said that by November 2001, the prison "left the town little better off than it ever was."[7]

In June 2003 the prison received 1,423 inmates from Alabama, and the prison hired 250 employees during that year to care for them.[9] In May 2004 36 prisoners were moved from the Guadalupe County Adult Detention Center in Seguin, Texas to TCCF; they had been identified as gang leaders. 24 were shipped on one day, with the remaining 12 on another day.[10] In July 2004 inmates from Colorado started a riot at the prison. No injuries resulted. A CCA official said that the Colorado inmates may have been trying to gain return to Colorado.[11]

In October 2004 TCCF had a capacity of 1,104 prisoners. During that month the Mississippi Department of Corrections signed a contract to house 128 maximum-security prisoners at TCCF.[12] In 2005 prisoners from Hawaii being housed here caused a disturbance.[13]

In 2008 the State of California announced it was moving an additional 1,300 prisoners to Tallahatchie County. In May 2008 a riot broke out around 12:00pm. Gang members from the Sudanos, aka 'Southerners' from the Los Angeles area, and Nortanos, aka 'Northerners' from the 'Valley' of Northern California, were fighting one another in the recreation yard. Assistant Warden Richard Bice, reached the yard first among officers. Seeing more than 100 inmates fighting violently, he placed the facility on lockdown and radioed for assistance. With several officers armed with chemical agents and batons, he went out into the yard to subdue the prisoners. Some were lying injured on the ground. Bice along with several staff members used force to quell the riot. Several inmates were treated on site for stab wounds, while some were transported to area hospitals. That was the first of many incidents caused by the California inmates.[14]

On October 24, 2008, the prison's 128-bed expansion was completed, increasing the prison's capacity to 2,672 prisoners. The extra beds were contracted to California.[15]

In 2016 Eli Hager and Rui Kaneya of The Marshall Project wrote that according to Tallahatchie County area officials, CCA had never invested a lot of money in the county and that since the prison's opening the investments declined; they stated that "CCA has not spent as much of its revenue on the Mississippi Delta economy as local leaders had hoped."[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility." (Archive of later date) Corrections Corporation of America. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Tutwiler town, Mississippi." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Five Private Prisons Archived 2015-05-04 at WebCite." Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Hager, Eli and Rui Kaneya. "The Prison Visit That Cost My Family $2,370." The Marshall Project. April 12, 2016. Retrieved on July 30, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Kilborn, Peter T. "Delta Town's Hopes Are as Scarce as Inmates." The New York Times. November 24, 2001. 2. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Correctional." (Archived May 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.) Carrothers Construction. Retrieved on April 28, 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Kilborn, Peter T. "Delta Town's Hopes Are as Scarce as Inmates." The New York Times. November 24, 2001. 1. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  8. ↑ "PRIVATELY OWNED PRISON IN TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY TEMPORARILY CLOSING", Sun Herald, February 10, 2001, Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  9. ↑ Harden, Clay. "Inmates from Ala. revive lost Delta jobs." The Clarion Ledger. September 15, 2003. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  10. ↑ Crecente, Brian D. "PRISON GANG LEADERS MOVE." Rocky Mountain News. May 20, 2004. Retrieved on October 16, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Probe Underway into Riot." Associated Press at WTOK-TV, July 22, 2004. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  12. ↑ "CCA's Tallahatchie prison to get Mississippi inmates." Nashville Business Journal, October 25, 2004. Retrieved on October 16, 2010.
  13. ↑ Kanengiser, Andy. "Officials investigate prison disturbance." The Clarion Ledger. July 28, 2005. Retrieved on October 15, 2010. "Prison officials are investigating a recent disturbance caused by inmates from Hawaii at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility[...]"
  14. ↑ Gates, Jimmie E. "California to move 1,300 more inmates to prison in Tutwiler", The Clarion Ledger. January 13, 2008. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Corrections Corporation of America Announces Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results." Corrections Corporation of America. November 6, 2008. Retrieved on October 15, 2010.

Coordinates: 34°01′33″N 90°26′41″W / 34.02583°N 90.44472°W / 34.02583; -90.44472

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