Phil Bryant: state will rebid all contracts with firms involved in Epps indictment
adminBusiness, News, The BuzzComments Off on Phil Bryant: state will rebid all contracts with firms involved in Epps indictment
Former Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, center, and his attorney John Colette, right, leave the federal courthouse after an arraignment hearing in Jackson Thursday. Epps, who resigned abruptly this week, has been charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a Rankin County businessman connected to several private prison companies. Thursday afternoon, Gov. Phil Bryant announced all contracts involving firms mentioned in the Epps indictment will be rebid.
The Associated Press/Joe Ellis
Former Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, center, and his attorney John Colette, right, leave the federal courthouse after an arraignment hearing in Jackson Thursday. Epps, who resigned abruptly this week, has been charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a Rankin County businessman connected to several private prison companies. Thursday afternoon, Gov. Phil Bryant announced all contracts involving firms mentioned in the Epps indictment will be rebid. The Associated Press/Joe Ellis
JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Thursday afternoon the state will rebid contracts with all firms mentioned in an indictment of former Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps.
Spokesman Knox Graham said Thursday that Bryant instructed interim Corrections Commissioner Richard McCarty to stop negotiations with Utah-based Management and Training Corp. over renewing a $60-million-a-year contract to manage four private prisons with 4,000-plus inmates.
Two of MTC’s four prisons have been sued for inmate mistreatment.
Graham says Bryant was unaware of alleged misconduct when he reappointed Epps in 2012, though the FBI had been investigating Epps since 2010.
Bryant received a $1,000 campaign contribution from Brandon businessman Cecil McCrory, alleged to have provided more than $1 million in bribes to Epps. Graham says Bryant will donate the money to the Salvation Army.
A Mount Olive woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for hitting a patient at a personal care facility in the head. Thirty-four-year-old Stacey Keyes pleaded guilty in Covington County Circuit Court to one count of felony abuse of a vulnerable person before Judge Eddie Bowen. […]
By Othor Cain Contributing Writer Former Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps appeared again in federal court Monday before Judge Henry T. Wingate to learn his fate — what he learned — was that […]
JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Gov. Phil Bryant and Don Alway, the top FBI agent in Mississippi, are telling people to be vigilant about activity that might present a threat to public safety. Bryant, Alway and […]
