Phil Bryant: state will rebid all contracts with firms involved in Epps indictment
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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.
The Mississippi Link Newswire
Mississippi State Penitentiary inmate Michael Dowda, who had escaped Saturday while on a maintenance work detail, has been captured in the early morning hours in Macon, Ga., according to a press release from the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Through investigations by the MDOC-Corrections Investigation Division and United States Marshal’s Service in Mississippi and Georgia, Dowda was captured in Macon at approximately 12:30 a.m. today by officers with the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Georgia.
Dowda, 48, faces extradition to Mississippi and multiple charges including escape. […]
It’s up to Gov. Phil Bryant to protect the Big Gulp and the Happy Meal in Mississippi.
The House passed the final version of Senate Bill 2687 on a 92-26 vote Wednesday, March 6. It bars local governments from requiring nutritional information, restricting portion sizes, or barring toys in kids’ meals.
The bill, introduced by Picayune Republican Sen. Tony Smith, is meant to keep Mississippi cities and counties from modeling rules after cities like New York. […]
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) said two inmates from the Forrest County Community Worker Center went missing Saturday evening about 5 p.m.
MDOC Spokesperson Tara Booth said 26-year-old David Bass and 22-year-old James Robert Martin walked off a work detail at the Forrest County facility in Hattiesburg and were last seen wearing MDOC state-issued green and white striped pants and white MDOC shirts with “MDOC Convict” printed on the back. […]
