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 26-year-old Canton man has been released on a $50,000 bond after allegedly trying to smuggle drugs, alcohol, cell phones and other items into a correctional facility in Pearl.
Twenty-six-year-old James Brooks was released from jail Monday following his arrest on Friday, July 26. Brooks, a truck driver for a private vendor, was taken into custody after a search of the Stericycle truck he had driven to the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility turned up the contraband.
MDOC officials discovered cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, 46 cell phones, 44 phone charges, an I-Pod, alcohol, 94 vacuumed packed bags of tobacco, 21 lighters, a pack of hearing aid batteries and 21 bags of yeast. […]
April 22, 2014adminNews, The BuzzComments Off on After prison fight at Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, monitors call for change
JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Violence is out of control, drugs are being smuggled in and guards are not adequately trained at the privately run Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, a prison with a history of troubles, […]
JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Groups supporting low-income Mississippi residents said Tuesday that elected officials are ignoring 300,000 people and refusing billions of federal dollars by choosing not to expand Medicaid in one of the poorest […]