Wilkinson County Correctional Center

Wilkinson County Correctional Center
Location 2999 US-61
Woodville, Mississippi
Status open
Security class mixed
Capacity 900
Opened 1998
Managed by Management and Training Corporation (since 2013)

Wilkinson County Correctional Center (WCCC) is a private prison in unincorporated Wilkinson County, Mississippi, managed by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.[1]

The prison facility has an authorized capacity of 900 and is on 17.5 acres (7.1 ha) of enclosed area. The prison property is in total 97.5 acres (39.5 ha).[1]

History

It opened in January 1998.[1] It was originally a low to medium security prison managed by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). It was intended to provide jobs for persons living in the Woodville area.[2]

In 2010 MDOC closed Unit 32, a prison facility of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP or "Parchman") in Sunflower County. The prisoners who were there were transferred to WCCC. The amount of violence began to rise due to the influx of prison gang leaders and members. WCCC became known as the "New Unit 32" and "The Killing Field." The violence rate of WCCC exceeded those of state-operated prisons.[2]

On April 20, 2013, inmate Demond Flowers was stabbed in the heart by members of Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords. Prison officials had ended a lockdown the previous day, caused by an incident of gang conflict.[2]

In 2013 MDOC commissioner Chris Epps gave MTC the contract for managing WCCC.[2] This was effective July 1 that year, with a duration of five years.[3] The violence rate did not decline after the handover.[2]

As of October 2014 WCCC had the highest rate of deaths of any prison in the state, and a prisoner at WCCC had a one-in-seven chance of experiencing assault, exceeding the one-in-fourteen chance held by a prisoner at Parchman. That month Jerry Mitchell of The Clarion Ledger stated that if WCCC was a city of 100,000 it would have deaths of over 111 people per year, and Mitchell contrasted this rate to that of the city of Detroit, which had an annual death rate of 54.6 per 100,000.[2]

On May 25, 2014, Kendrick Walker was stabbed 81 times, resulting in death.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Private Prisons" (Archive). Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on May 4, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mitchell, Jerry."'Killing Field': Prison gangs roam with homemade swords" (Archive). The Clarion Ledger. October 11, 2014. Retrieved on May 4, 2015.
  3. ↑ Nave, R. L. "Can MTC Fix Woodville Prison?" (Archive). Jackson Free Press. Friday May 24, 2013. Retrieved on May 5, 2015.

Coordinates: 31°08′18″N 91°16′38″W / 31.1383°N 91.2773°W / 31.1383; -91.2773


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