Walnut Grove Correctional Facility

The Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, formerly the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, was operated as a for-profit state owned prison. Historically troubled, it is now vacant, most recently operated by Utah's Management and Training Corporation (MTC)^[1] on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), located in Walnut Grove, Mississippi. It had been accredited twice by the American Correctional Association, most recently in 2012, and had an eventual capacity of 1,461 prisoners.^[2][3]

From 2003 to 2010, the prison was operated by Cornell Companies as a facility for youthful offenders. In 2010 Cornell merged with the GEO Group. GEO operated the facility until April 2012. It had housed juvenile prisoners who had been convicted of felonies and sentenced as adults.^[4] Two-thirds of the prisoners had been convicted of non-violent offenses. The Walnut Grove Development Authority, an entity administered by the town of Walnut Grove, owned the property, which the town had annexed.^[2][5]

Following a 2012 settlement of a 2010 class action suit against the facility's staff and management and the state, for abuse and neglect of prisoners, youthful offenders under 18 were transferred to a state facility to be operated to juvenile justice standards. In addition, the state was prohibited by the court decree from subjecting any youthful offender to solitary confinement, the first time a federal court had so ruled. Walnut Grove was subsequently operated as an adult facility, and was under regular oversight by a court monitor to ensure that conditions were improved. In the court ruling, Judge Carlton Reeves of the Federal District Court wrote that an assessment of its conditions "paints a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world." Press reports indicate the jail was run by gangs which included corrupt prison staff. The federal Justice Department said that rapes of younger inmates was common.^[6]

Federal investigation of conditions and corruption in the Mississippi state prison system continued. In November 2014, Christopher Epps resigned as commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), which he had headed since 2002.^[7] He and a former state legislator, Cecil B. McCrory were indicted on 49 federal counts of bribery and receiving kickbacks related to for profit companies constructing and operating Mississippi prisons. In 2015, both men pleaded guilty and awaited sentencing under their plea agreements although in 2016, McCrory requested that he be allowed to change his plea to not guilty.

The state still owes $121 million in bonded indebtedness for the construction and subsequent expansions of the facility. The MDOC has an "absolute and unconditional" obligation to pay that debt.^[8]

History

The prison opened in March 2001, located in unincorporated Leake County, Mississippi. It was an all-male youth correctional facility for all levels of custody with an initial capacity of 321 prisoners.^[2][9][10] The City of Walnut Grove annexed the property on which facility the facility was sited, after 2000, causing the city population to increase from 488 to 1,424.^[10] By 2011 the prisoners outnumbered city residents by a 2 to 1 ratio.

In 2001, 321 prisoners were held at the facility; all were of 18 years of age or younger.^[11]

Cornell Companies received the contract to operate the prison in September 2003.^[9] The number of prisoners at the facility increased but it was not accompanied by additionally appropriate staffing. A state audit in 2005 showed the guard to prisoner ratio was 1 to 60, contributing to the rate of violence and abuses. According to the Council for Juvenile Correctional Administrators, a ratio of 1 to 10 or 12 is more common. In addition, prisoners were aging; by 2006 prisoners up to age 21 were housed there. Older prisoners in their early 20s were added during expansion of the capacity.^[12]

By 2006, the town of Walnut Grove annexed the prison site, causing the city's population to increase dramatically.^[10] As of 2006 the prison housed 950 prisoners ages 12 to 21.^[13] The city received payment in lieu of taxes from the prison corporation, monies that made up 15% of its annual budget.^[12] In 2009, William Grady Sims, mayor of Walnut Grove since 1981, was appointed as warden of the prison. He also made money independently, from the revenues of the 18 vending machines he had placed at the prison.^[12] The 200 prison guard jobs helped employ townspeople who had been laid off by closure of a garment manufacturing plant.^[12]

By 2009, the prison had 1,225 prisoners. Its prisoner base had aged and the state had also assigned older prisoners there.^[11] Cornell Companies operated the prison until August 12, 2010, when Cornell was bought by GEO Group.^[14]

In November 2010, plaintiffs represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU National Prison Project filed a federal class-action lawsuit against GEO and the state agencies that contracted for the facility, saying that the prison authorities allowed abuses and negligence to occur at the facility.^[5] The lawsuit stated that prison guards engaged in sexual intercourse with the prisoners, tolerated and encouraged violence, smuggled illegal drugs into the facilities, and that prison authorities denied required education and sufficient medical care. As of that month the prison had about 1,200 prisoners ages 13–22; the lawsuit said that half of the prisoners were incarcerated for nonviolent offenses.^[15]

Weeks prior to the filing of the lawsuit, United States Department of Justice officials informed Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour that the department had started an investigation concerning the prison.^[16] In addition to learning about prisoner abuses, investigators found that prison officials were being paid bonuses from federal funds for "administering" education in the prison.^[12] That was reviewed separately by the Office of the Inspector General at the US Department of Education.^[12]

Settlement and aftermath

GEO and the state settled the lawsuit in February 2012. Under the court decree, the state agreed to move the remaining youths from the prison to more suitable locations that conform to juvenile standards.^[17] Under federal court order, the state established a youthful offender unit at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County, for prisoners of 17 and under, and 18 and 19-year-olds considered vulnerable.

William Grady Sims, eight-term mayor of Walnut Grove and warden of the correctional facility since 2009, resigned from the prison in 2010. He was forced to resign as mayor as part of a 2012 federal plea agreement, after pleading guilty to witness tampering. He had been also charged with sexual assault for removing a female inmate to a motel for sex in 2009; he pressured her to lie about the event to investigators.^[18] Facing up to 20 years in Federal prison for the combined charges, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven months in prison, six months of home confinement, and two years of supervised release for federal witness tampering.^[19]

On April 20, 2012, the State of Mississippi announced that it would end its contracts with the GEO Group. GEO cited the "financially underperforming" character of the facility as its reason for discontinuing management.^[4] Press reports showed that GEO Group had been investigated and strongly criticized during its management of the facility, failing to correct problems even after investigation started in relation to the suit. Shortly before the end of GEO's contract, the United States Department of Justice had accused the facility of "systematic, egregious, and dangerous practices exacerbated by a lack of accountability and controls", and stated that sexual misconduct there was "among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation".^[20][21]

A Mississippi federal judge who heard the suit described the prison to the ACLU as "a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world", citing the fact that GEO had "been derelict in their duties and remain[ed] deliberately indifferent to the serious medical and mental health needs of the offenders."^[22] In compliance with the court decree, the State of Mississippi transferred the youngest Walnut Grove prisoners to a state-operated juvenile facility established as a freestanding unit at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County.^[23] Until its closure, the Walnut Grove Corrections Facility, now used only for adults, remained under court oversight, with a monitor providing regular reports on conditions.

The Department of Justice has continued with investigations of conditions and practices in the Mississippi state prison system in both privately operated and state facilities. These have been noted for "squalid conditions and violence by guards and inmates."^[7] In May 2013 the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU filed a class action suit against the state correctional system on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, established to hold and treat prisoners with mental illness.^[24] In November 2014, Christopher Epps resigned; he had been Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections since 2002.^[7]

In May 2013, a series of articles in Mother Jones magazine described Walnut Grove as one of the ten worst prisons in the United States. The article did not include any response from the facility or the state.^[23]

Closure

In mid-June 2016, the state announced it would close the facility and that was accomplished on September 16, 2016.^[25] Even though it may never hold another prisoner, the state may be obligated to continue to pay off the balance of the bonds that were issued to build the Walnut Grove C.F., the most costly private prison in the state. By 2028, the full bond debt for Walnut Grove ($153.98 million) needs to be retired.^[26] On September 19, 2016, after the MDOC moved its last 900 prisoners elsewhere, it said it was considering using the facility as an alternative to prison, to house parole violators, or as a reentry facility. Mississippi remains responsible for the remaining balance owed on bonds that had been initially borrowed for the construction in 2001, and adding more debt for its subsequent expansions.^[27] The state is obligated to pay, starting having made its first payment on August 1, 2016, having backed the bonds. The state borrowed $93.6 million for Walnut Grove in 2010, and bond documents showed no payments were due until Aug. 1 of this year. The state refinanced $61.2 million this year, and paid off at least $2.6 million of the principal on Aug. 1.^[28]

Criminal cases

According to Leake County Sheriff Greg Waggoner, he had been responsible for initiating the federal investigation. In 2009, he said, Epps's MDOC leased the buildings for what became the Walnut Grove Transition Center from McCrory, and also gave him the contract to operate the male and female facilities. Residents complained about the lack of supervision of inmates. According to Waggoner "It looked like everything new that happened with MDOC, Cecil was involved in," Waggoner said. "They were not supposed to be out at all." "If I ran my facility like that, Epps would have shut me down, but it seemed like there was no problem when McCrory did it." Although the town's mayor Grady Sims, had no correctional experience, McCrory made him the warden of the Center. Sims was reported to have taken a female inmate to a motel in nearby Carthage for sex in November 2009 and Sheriff Waggoner became involved. He reported the allegation to MDOC, which assigned an internal investigator to assist his department in an investigation. Investigators from both agencies jointly talked to the female inmate, gathering evidence to refer the case to the county district attorney. In the spring of 2010, before they could do so, the MDOC investigator came to Waggoner and said, "We're closing the case down." Waggoner, who was "shocked" and asked him, "What do you mean?" "You could tell he wasn't happy about it but that he was given orders." Waggoner said firing a man who committed a felony doesn't end an investigation. It ends when the man is indicted and brought to justice; "If you have knowledge of a felony and chose not to pursue it, you're negligent in your duty." Stunned by the MDOC's termination of the Sims investigation, Waggoner called U.S. Attorney John Dowdy for advice. Dowdy said he contacted the FBI afterward to report the situation. The FBI launched an investigation against Sims and eventually Epps, and named it, "Mississippi Hustle." ^[29]

Exposing the cover-up On November 6, 2014, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi disclosed indictments he had obtained against the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Chris Epps, and his associate, consultant and Republican former state house member, Cecil McCrory. They alleged that beginning as early as 2005, Epps had begun to take bribes that had been passed through McCrory and another consultant, Robert Simmons, from various contractors and subcontractors for the state and that those payments had been structured to fall beneath the mandated reporting amount so that bank deposits would not come to the attention of federal banking authorities. Epps had resigned from the MDOC and also resigned his position as the president of the American Correctional Association (ACA) on the previous day. The ACA was responsible for doing periodic accreditations of the Walnut Creek and other facilities. Both defendants became cooperating witnesses, at first, with the intention of assisting with the identification of the originators of those bribes who were to be prosecuted with the help of both men, although McCrory later requested that the judge allow him to withdraw his plea. On February 11, 2016, consultant Robert Simmons was indicted for giving kickbacks to Epps from three contractors involved in constructing expansions of the Walnut Grove and East Mississippi Correctional Facilities including part of a $10,000-a-month fee he got from AJA Management and Technical Services of Jackson and more from a second unnamed contractor.^[30] When pleading guilty before U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden in Gulfport on February 18, Simmons admitted it was, "the cost of doing business in Mississippi."^[31] McCrory was an ex-judge and former Sheriff's investigator as well. He started a prison commissary company, GTent, selling it to the Centric Group holding company, which owns the Keefe Commissary Network (KCN), for a substantial profit. McCrory also had gone to work for Correctional Communications Inc. "I brought Cecil in in 1996 to help me with political connections," said owner and consultant, Sam Waggoner. "I do all the work, and Cecil did the political stuff. I talk to him about twice a year." Waggoner, of Carthage, said the scandal had affected his business, and he worried he'd lose some of the 40 or so contracts he and McCrory had earned during the past two decades. "Nobody wants to be associated with the company because of the stigma," he said. When the news was first released, Sam Waggoner claimed he was "shocked" to hear about the McCrory/Epps indictments, although he subsequently pleaded guilty to bribery.^[32][33] McCrory plea bargained to lesser federal charges. He had begun working as a consultant to Utah's Management and Training Corporation, GEO Group's successor operator in Mississippi for state contracts. It had held a $60 million contract to operate three Mississippi prisons: Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, East Mississippi Correctional Facility and Marshall County Correctional Facility, which had been managed by GEO Group. MTC fired McCrory, claiming they had known nothing of his criminal activities.

Sentencing

On September 15, 2016, Biloxi consultant Robert Simmons was sentenced to seven years and three months for his part in the MDOC bribery scandal. A sealed record filed by the U.S. Attorney's office indicated he had provided the government with “substantial assistance at great risk.” His cooperation, plus a clean prior record, led the judge to sentence him to less than the nine years required by federal sentencing guidelines. The Department of Justice had initially confronted him with considerable evidence against him, including video and audio recordings, and wiretaps. Simmons had been paid a $10,000 monthly fee by AJA Management & Technical Services Inc. of Jackson, Mississippi, for 18 months as it managed expansions of the Walnut Grove and East Mississippi state prisons. Simmonds kicked back a portion of that monthly fee to Chris Epps. Simmons admitted bribing Epps from 2005 to 2014.^[34] William Grady Sims pleaded guilty to interfering with a witness and received a seven month prison sentence, plus six months home confinement.^[35][36]

See also

• Prison–industrial complex
• For-profit prisons

References

External links

• C.B., et al. v. Walnut Grove Correctional Authority, et al., Southern Poverty Law Center, documents linked include settlement, DOJ investigation, court monitoring reports
• "Gangs Ruled Prison as For-Profit Model Put Blood on Floor", Bloomberg, 12 July 2013
• "Private prisons face suits, federal probes", The Clarion-Ledger. October 15, 2014.
• Privately Run Mississippi Prison, Called a Scene of Horror, Is Shut Down. The New York Times. September 15, 2016.

Mississippi Department of Corrections prisons
State prisons	Central Mississippi Correctional Facility♂♀ Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) South Mississippi Correctional Institution
Privately operated prisons	Delta Correctional Facility (closed) East Mississippi Correctional Facility Marshall County Correctional Facility Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility Walnut Grove Correctional Facility Wilkinson County Correctional Center
Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♂♀ (both sexes)

Coordinates: 32°34′57″N 89°26′45″W / 32.58250°N 89.44583°W / 32.58250; -89.44583