Walnut Grove Correctional Facility

In the late 20th century, the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) began to contract with private companies to build and operate prisons in the state to meet rising demand, in part due to changes in sentencing guidelines. The first was opened in 1996. "By 2013, the system had four private prisons and the nation's second-highest incarceration rate." (Note: Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility was also still open in 2013, but it did not hold any Mississippi prisoners. CCA operated the facility under contracts to other states.) Counties and towns had vied to attract the private prisons, in hopes of stimulating economic development and providing jobs in rural areas. Cornell Companies expanded the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), which originally opened in March 2001 under a different operator. It was located in unincorporated Leake County, Mississippi, on land owned by the Walnut Grove Development Authority; this entity was administered by the town of Walnut Grove. The prison was designed as an all-male, youth correctional facility for all levels of custody, with an initial capacity of 321 prisoners. Within several years, the state agreed to a contract to expand the facility and it housed more than 1,000 prisoners by 2009. In total, including the costs of its expansions, the Walnut Grove Correctional facility was the most costly private prison in the state, according to the Jackson Free Press. As of 2006 the prison housed 950 prisoners ages 12 to 21. The 200 prison guard jobs helped employ townspeople who had been laid off by closure of a local garment manufacturing plant. Mental and medical health services were provided by Health Assurance, and additional contractors provided food services, etc. In October 2010, United States Department of Justice officials informed Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour that the department had started a civil rights investigation concerning the prison, in relation to its treatment of prisoners, to assess whether constitutional standards of prisoner safety and humane treatment were being maintained. In November 2010, plaintiffs represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU National Prison Project filed a federal class-action lawsuit against GEO (which had acquired Cornell and taken over its contracts in Mississippi and elsewhere) and MDOC, saying that the prison authorities allowed abuses and negligence to occur at WGYCF. By 2011 prisoners outnumbered Walnut Grove city residents by a 2:1 ratio. Two thirds of the prisoners had been convicted of non-violent offenses. ==DOJ report - March 2012==

The Justice Department Civil Rights Division delivered its March 20, 2012, report directly to the governor's office and the court. It said that conditions at WGCF were "among the worst we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation," characterizing both GEO and the MDOC's lassitude as ignoring the safety of young inmates, allowing a denial of required health care, and hiring guards who were known to have gang affiliations. The DOJ report said that the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility had "systematic, egregious, and dangerous practices exacerbated by a lack of accountability and controls", and stated that sexual misconduct there was "among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation". ==Settlement and aftermath==

Extensive testimony was heard in court related to the class action suit, including about the state's oversight of the privately run prisons. The state's Deputy Corrections Commissioner, Emmitt Sparkman, had testified in court hearings that the state lacked any authority to force GEO to upgrade security at the persistently short-staffed WGCF. He was questioned about the lines of authority for Mississippi corrections policy. "All we can do is make a request," he said, adding GEO Group was "under no obligation" to provide sufficient staffing, according to the terms of its contract with the state. Under the federal court decree, the state agreed to move youthful offenders (17 and under, plus some inmates under 20 who were classified as vulnerable) Under federal court order, the state established a state-run youthful offender unit at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County, for prisoners 17 and under, and 18 and 19-year-olds considered vulnerable. The facility is staffed and operated by state personnel. Operations were to be overseen by a federal court monitor. Operations at WGCF On April 20, 2012, the State of Mississippi announced that it would end its contracts with the GEO Group, as required in the terms of the class action settlement. In contrast, GEO announced the change as its decision due to the "financially underperforming" character of the facility. In 2013 MDOC also awarded a 5-year contract to MTC for operation of Wilkinson County Correctional Facility. The Walnut Grove Corrections Facility, used only for adults, remained under court oversight, with a federal monitor providing regular reports on conditions. In May 2013, a series of articles in Mother Jones magazine described the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility as one of the ten worst prisons in the United States. The article did not include any response from the facility or the state. ==2014 State changes to sentencing==

To offset the costs of prisons and burgeoning growth in the incarceration rate, in 2014 state legislators passed a law providing a "sweeping plan" for alternatives to prison for some non-violent prisoners, such as monitored house arrest. Other financial considerations are the state's obligation to pay off the balance of the bonds that were issued to build the Walnut Grove C.F. The full bond debt for Walnut Grove ($153.98 million) has to be retired by 2028. After the MDOC moved the last 900 prisoners elsewhere, it said that it was considering using the Walnut Grove facility as an alternative to prison, to house parole violators, or adapt it as a reentry facility. The state of Mississippi remains responsible for the remaining balance owed on bonds that had been initially borrowed for the construction in 2001, and adding more debt for its subsequent expansions. As it backed the bonds, the state made its first payment as scheduled on August 1, 2016. The state borrowed $93.6 million for Walnut Grove in 2010. The state refinanced $61.2 million in 2016, and paid off at least $2.6 million of the principal on Aug. 1. ==Operation Mississippi Hustle - federal investigation==

A related five-year federal investigation, named by the FBI as Operation Mississippi Hustle, has been conducted into allegations of corruption and kickbacks between state officials and private contractors. It started following investigation of sexual abuse of an inmate from the Walnut Grove Transition Center. The FBI investigation has resulted in numerous indictments and convictions by the US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, including of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps; Cecil McCrory, a consultant and former state legislator; consultant Robert Simmons of Biloxi; and William Grady Sims, the mayor of Walnut Grove and director of the Walnut Grove Transitional Center. Sentencing On September 15, 2016, Biloxi consultant Robert Simmons was sentenced to seven years and three months for his part in the MDOC bribery scandal. Due to his cooperation with law enforcement and a clean prior record, the judge sentenced him to less than the nine years required by federal sentencing guidelines. Simmons had been paid a $10,000 monthly fee by AJA Management & Technical Services Inc. of Jackson, Mississippi, for 18 months as it managed expansions of the Walnut Grove and East Mississippi state prisons. Simmons kicked back a portion of that monthly fee to Chris Epps, then Commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Simmons admitted bribing Epps from 2005 to 2014. William Sims pleaded guilty to interfering with a witness and received a seven-month prison sentence, plus six months' home confinement. Due to the unfolding case, the sentencing of Chris Epps, who pleaded guilty and cooperated with the investigators, was delayed to May 24–25, 2017. He was charged with receiving an estimated $1.47 million in bribes and kickbacks related to his steering of state contracts worth $800 million to certain businesses. Judge Wingate rejected McCrory's request to withdraw his plea; on February 2, 2017, he sentenced McCrory to years. The judge said his sentence and others may be reduced after other defendants were sentenced. ==State civil suit- 2017==

On February 8, 2017, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood announced that he was filing civil suits against numerous contractors and individuals for damages and punitive damages, related to the contracts made by MDOC under Epps, as revealed in the federal investigation and convictions. The defendants included former Walnut Grove operators Cornell Companies, Inc., the GEO Group, Inc. and Management & Training Corporation, as well as providers of mental and physical health services, telephone, food and commissary services, and construction contractor AJA Management & Technical Services, Inc. as among companies from which he intended to seek recovery of the cost of state contracts, as required by state law. The state of Mississippi has been defrauded through a pattern of bribery, kickbacks, misrepresentations, fraud, concealment, money laundering and other wrongful conduct." He continued, "These individuals and corporations that benefited by stealing from taxpayers must not only pay the state's losses, but state law requires that they must also forfeit and return the entire amount of the contracts paid by the state. We are also seeking punitive damages to punish these conspirators and to deter those who might consider giving or receiving kickbacks in the future. ==Reopening==

In November 2021 it reopened as a state facility. ==See also==