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.
JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — The lawyer for indicted former Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps wants to push back the Jan. 5 trial date. John Colette, in a motion filed Thursday, wrote he received […]
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Christopher B. Epps was sworn in on Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, as the 102nd president of the American Correctional Association (ACA). He is a native of Tchula, Mississippi.
The ACA, founded in 1870 as the National Prison Association, is the oldest and largest international correctional association in the world. The organization has more than 20,000 members from 60 countries…. […]
JACKSON, Mississippi — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is making the third round of spending cuts since the budget year started in July, and the fifth round in the past 14 months. Bryant, a Republican, announced […]
