Talk:Operation Mississippi Hustle

Comment

This is an article in process which by request of another editor is intended to migrate a substantial part of the material in the Chris Epps biographical article to distinguish it from the case that has brought Epps to infamy and prominence. The format is consistent with similar articles about U.S. Federal corruption investigations and prosecutions, such as Operation Tennessee Waltz, Operation Greylord, Operation Rocky Top and Operation Polar Pen. The latter also originated from an investigation of for-profit prison-centered corruption. I may have contributed, I'm guessing, 45% of the edits to the original Epps bio article as has the requester. It needs a bit more busy work which I intend to get to over the next few days. At the same time, I've pared down the Epps article to more appropriate proportions and content. Thank you. Activist (talk) Activist (talk) 05:06, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

Template removal request

@Auric: In responding to the suggestions in overly detailed template, I read the entire Wikipedia inclusion policy, and the separate advice on responding to the template. I've deleted non-essential text from numerous sections. This article has previously been pared extensively by another long time editor, and I and others have tried to keep it both as understandable and as brief as possible containing all the crucial elements of what is perhaps the largest and is becoming the longest state bribery investigation and prosecution by the FBI and the Department of Justice in history. The bribery went on for 15 years. An estimated $800 million in contracts were affected by the demands for bribes by the former Mississippi Commissioner of Corrections and his three "bagmen." Only one recipient has an article. There are very brief mentions of the three Mississippi governors during whose tenures the Commissioner was appointed and retained, through which the corruption persisted. Likewise, the State Attorney General (Jim Hood), and Auditor and received only the briefest of mentions. Of the four bribe recipients, only the ex-Commissioner has an article. The whistleblower/sheriff is mentioned briefly and has no article. The mayor, whose corruption was the initial cause for the investigation has no article and receives cursory mention. The US Attorney for Southern Mississippi received just a single mention and has no article; two assistants get a single mention, and one is mentioned four times through quotes, though the case has gone on for six years. No FBI agent is mentioned. The judge presiding over the case for 2 1/2 years is mentioned often, but nothing that is not directly case-related is in the article. Only one defense attorney is named, once. But here's what generated the length of the article, despite its brevity regarding individual bribers and contracts. The MS A.G. is civilly suing 19 corporations which furnished the money for the bribes and none have yet been indicted, though nine individuals have. The Commissioner has been confirmed as the recipient of $1.47 million in bribes, but estimates are that he got over $2 million. Sixteen contractors and subcontractors are said to be involved. Seven have their own articles but this case is not covered in them. Jails in nine counties had contracts with corrupt recipients, and five for-profit prison corporate operators of four prisons and many jails have not yet been indicted but were paying between $3,000 and $12,000 a month to the "consultants" who were splitting the fees with the commissioner. Other statewide prison and county jail contracts involved actually and/or allegedly corrupt subcontractors, including for medical care, insurance and commissary. Only one former operator of two prisons has not yet been named in a suit. Eight individuals who supplied bribes have been indicted, one committed suicide and four have been sentenced, with the media silent on the sentencing status of another. Four indicted defendants await trials and the ex-commissioner awaits sentencing in May. Both the judge and the U.S. Attorney have frequently voiced the expectations of additional indictments which may result in suspensions of part of the sentences of those already sentenced in return for their cooperation in ongoing or future proceedings involving named and unnamed others. In my opinion, removing anything additional from the article at this time would detract from it as a source of important information. I would suggest it is appropriate for the template to be removed. Activist (talk) 07:48, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for doing this. I've removed the template.--Auric talk 11:34, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Editing

I established a few new sub-headers, just to make it easier to keep track of the main topics. Added a "Background" section about the private prisons in Walnut Grove and Eastern, as so much activity seemed centered on Walnut Grove. Also made some new paragraphs in order to emphasize certain information. You have done so much to cover this huge investigation, with many players - terrific job! Now that MS has filed suit against several corporations, do you think we should go back and add that information to the corporation articles? I do. I know in some of those corporate articles other editors kept trying to delete content about lawsuits related to treatment of prisoners, but I think both kinds of suits belong in the history of the companies. Also, the state is seeking the return of the costs of the contracts plus punitive damages - significant. These are also part of the overall record of private prisons.Parkwells (talk) 20:35, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

@Parkwells: @Lockley: @RFD: I do think it would be a good idea to add the suit info to the operators and subcontractors articles, but I haven't seen the filing posted yet in the media, a link to which would also be helpful. Sometimes "Jackson Jambalaya" does post those documents, and as does the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. If memory serves, a Gulf Coast paper may also post some of those. Cornell Companies, of course, was purchased by GEO Group, though it still has an article. Global*Tel has an article. Keefe Commissary doesn't have a Wikipedia article, but should, or searches should redirect to its holding company, Centric Group, which also has no article. Wexford has an article and a history. I got the impression from news reports that Keefe didn't buy the goods in Mississippi, but merely earned a commission or fee for selling them. Oddly, I looked at the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator search engine, and defendants Sam Waggoner and Robert Simmons do not show as being "in BOP custody," nor does Mark Longoria, who should have been sentenced four months ago, but whose name does not show up on any searches regarding what sentence he may have received. Cecil McCrory is still out on bail. I think if sentenced prisoners go directly to halfway houses, they still would show up on the BOP website. Activist (talk) 18:17, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

I have added to this article and several related ones to note there were five private prisons in the state in 2014 and their names. I'm trying to look over all five prison articles, to ensure summary content is provided re: Operation Mississippi Hustle and the state's 2017 civil suit. In addition, prisoners were being transferred among these prisons as a result of class-action suits over conditions. Most recently was working on Wilkinson Co. CF, which has suffered a particularly high level of violence since being converted to a max security prison.Parkwells (talk) 16:40, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

@Parkwells: There are actually six for-profit pens in MS, but one has been closed for years after a particularly nasty escape, where a Metro Nashville police sergeant was shot soon after the escape by the fleeing convict, who had been picked up by his cousin after shooting up a local eye clinic. It was Delta, in Green County, operated by CCA, if memory serves. It's been empty for a long while, as far as I know, and was owned by the county which put up the constructions funds from bonding. Vermont recently gave notice that it would be sending hundreds of inmates to Tallahatchie, which has held California inmates for some time. I'll check them out and see if I can catch all that up. Thanks for the heads up, though it's been almost 20 months since you've posted it. I should pay more attention to Talk pages. Activist (talk) 08:50, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Status of prosecutions, defendants

I've updated the numbers going to the lede to sort out the changes and also checked to see how many defendants are in custody and where. There were four new indictments last month, and the LeBlanc defendants had a history of being for-profit prison contractors themselves. Besides those four, the only defendants not serving time are the ex-mayor of Walnut Grove who was released, Theresa Malone who had a double lung transplant and may never go to the pen, and Butch Evans, who is awaiting sentencing. I'll see about cross posting to the operators' pages, but there is another editor who scrubs negative info from the corporate page of two of them before the electronic "ink" gets dry. Hood is still the AG, but I don't see any recent progress on his lawsuits against the bribers. Activist (talk) 08:50, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Merge of Cecil McCrory and Chris Epps

Just stopping by here... Very interesting subject matter... Shouldn't Cecil McCrory and Chris Epps be merged into this article? Those articles seem largely if not completely about Operation Mississippi Hustle, and there is a lot of redundancy. R2 (bleep) 17:44, 5 December 2018 (UTC)