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.
A 44-year-old work inmate who failed to return from a weekend pass has been captured, MDOC officials said.
Noxubee County Community Work Center inmate John Jason Lee was arrested around midnight, July 16, in Mathiston by officers with the Mississippi Department of Corrections. They were assisted by Choctaw County Sheriffs’ deputies, Mathiston Police Department officers, Webster County Sheriff’s deputies and the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.
Lee was serving a 12-year sentence for an auto burglary conviction and a vehicle theft from Clay and Webster Counties. […]
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. […]
adminNewsComments Off on Task force: Ban no-bid contracts in Mississippi prison system
JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Corrections should eliminate as many of its no-bid contracts as possible and start a competitive process to see if it can get better deals, says a group […]
