A privately operated Mississippi prison that a federal judge once concluded was effectively run by gangs in collusion with corrupt prison guards, closed Thursday, its prisoners transferred to other state facilities, officials said.
Conditions at the prison, the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, were deemed so substandard by Judge Carlton Reeves of Federal District Court, that he wrote in a 2012 settlement order that it “paints a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world.”
The move to shutter Walnut Grove, in Leake County, comes one month after the Justice Department announced that it would phase out its use of private prisons to house federal inmates after concluding that such facilities are more dangerous and less effective than prisons run by the government.
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But the Obama administration decision does not affect states, which have increasingly come to rely on private firms to manage prison populations, including Mississippi.
While states say they enter arrangements with for-profit prison contractors to save money, some studies have cast doubt on whether private prisons are actually less expensive for taxpayers.
On Thursday, Walnut Grove’s demise was celebrated by prison rights organizations and civil liberties groups.
“Good riddance to Walnut Grove, a cesspool sponsored by Mississippians’ tax dollars,” said Jody Owens, managing attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Walnut Grove was run by Management and Training Corp., a Utah-based company that is among the nation’s largest private prison contractors.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections said in June that it had decided to shutter Walnut Grove not because of the often-unrestrained violence at the facility, but for budget cuts. Grace Simmons Fisher, a corrections department spokeswoman, declined to comment on Thursday.
Issa Arnita, a spokesman for the private prison contractor, said on Thursday in a statement that Management and Training Corporation had “made tremendous improvements to overall operations” at Walnut Grove since it took over management in 2012.
But the 1,260-bed facility had been operating since 2012 under a federal consent decree for violating prisoners’ constitutional rights, and in 2014, Walnut Grove was the scene of two major riots.
Last year, Judge Reeves extended federal oversight of the prison because of continuing constitutional violations.
Conditions in a number of Mississippi’s correctional facilities have been denounced by prison overhaul advocates or enjoined by the federal authorities for violating inmates’ constitutional rights, but Walnut Grove was cited as a particularly brutal, often lawless place.
A 2012 Justice Department report found that rape of younger inmates by older prisoners was relatively common, and that guards habitually denied some prisoners access to medical care, while smuggling in weapons and drugs and having sexual relationships with others.
“The sexual misconduct we found was among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation,” the report said.
Some of the guards, the report said, were themselves members of the gangs, including at least one prison supervisor who let prisoners out of their cells to assault unsuspecting rivals.
Organized gladiator-style fights between prisoners and encouraged by guards were also a frequent occurrence, with guards betting on the outcomes, according to the report.
Mr. Owens, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that on one visit to Walnut Grove, the odor of marijuana hung so heavily in the air that he worried he would get a contact high.
“It was like walking out of a club and your clothes smell like smoke,” he said.
Even after juveniles were removed from the facility, violence continued.
At the same time, the neighboring town of Walnut Grove, population 1,900, boomed from prison revenue and employment. The town lobbied to be the site of a prison after one of its major employers, a glove factory, was closed.
As an example of the close ties between the prison and the town, Walnut Grove’s mayor, William Grady Sims, served for a time as the prison’s warden.
In 2009, Mr. Sims drove a female inmate to a motel room where they had sex. He later told the woman to lie to investigators about it. Mr. Sims was convicted and sentenced to seven months in a federal prison.
Conditions at the prison, the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, were deemed so substandard by Judge Carlton Reeves of Federal District Court, that he wrote in a 2012 settlement order that it “paints a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world.”
The move to shutter Walnut Grove, in Leake County, comes one month after the Justice Department announced that it would phase out its use of private prisons to house federal inmates after concluding that such facilities are more dangerous and less effective than prisons run by the government.
Sign Up For NYT Now's Morning Briefing Newsletter
But the Obama administration decision does not affect states, which have increasingly come to rely on private firms to manage prison populations, including Mississippi.
While states say they enter arrangements with for-profit prison contractors to save money, some studies have cast doubt on whether private prisons are actually less expensive for taxpayers.
On Thursday, Walnut Grove’s demise was celebrated by prison rights organizations and civil liberties groups.
“Good riddance to Walnut Grove, a cesspool sponsored by Mississippians’ tax dollars,” said Jody Owens, managing attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Walnut Grove was run by Management and Training Corp., a Utah-based company that is among the nation’s largest private prison contractors.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections said in June that it had decided to shutter Walnut Grove not because of the often-unrestrained violence at the facility, but for budget cuts. Grace Simmons Fisher, a corrections department spokeswoman, declined to comment on Thursday.
Issa Arnita, a spokesman for the private prison contractor, said on Thursday in a statement that Management and Training Corporation had “made tremendous improvements to overall operations” at Walnut Grove since it took over management in 2012.
But the 1,260-bed facility had been operating since 2012 under a federal consent decree for violating prisoners’ constitutional rights, and in 2014, Walnut Grove was the scene of two major riots.
Last year, Judge Reeves extended federal oversight of the prison because of continuing constitutional violations.
Conditions in a number of Mississippi’s correctional facilities have been denounced by prison overhaul advocates or enjoined by the federal authorities for violating inmates’ constitutional rights, but Walnut Grove was cited as a particularly brutal, often lawless place.
A 2012 Justice Department report found that rape of younger inmates by older prisoners was relatively common, and that guards habitually denied some prisoners access to medical care, while smuggling in weapons and drugs and having sexual relationships with others.
“The sexual misconduct we found was among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation,” the report said.
Some of the guards, the report said, were themselves members of the gangs, including at least one prison supervisor who let prisoners out of their cells to assault unsuspecting rivals.
Organized gladiator-style fights between prisoners and encouraged by guards were also a frequent occurrence, with guards betting on the outcomes, according to the report.
Mr. Owens, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that on one visit to Walnut Grove, the odor of marijuana hung so heavily in the air that he worried he would get a contact high.
“It was like walking out of a club and your clothes smell like smoke,” he said.
Even after juveniles were removed from the facility, violence continued.
At the same time, the neighboring town of Walnut Grove, population 1,900, boomed from prison revenue and employment. The town lobbied to be the site of a prison after one of its major employers, a glove factory, was closed.
As an example of the close ties between the prison and the town, Walnut Grove’s mayor, William Grady Sims, served for a time as the prison’s warden.
In 2009, Mr. Sims drove a female inmate to a motel room where they had sex. He later told the woman to lie to investigators about it. Mr. Sims was convicted and sentenced to seven months in a federal prison.
