For profit prisons have garnered unwelcome media attention in recent years due to reports of abuse and corruption. One outstanding prison failure was the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility. The town Walnut Grove, of population 1900, beat out several other towns for the private prison.The towns all desired the private prison because of the revenue it generated and the people that could be employed. The Mississippi Department of Corrections thus contracted with Cornell Companies. Opened in 2001, the for profit prison was designed to harbor young male offenders. Although it originally was built to house 321 prisoners, the facility was eventually expanded but the number of correctional officers did not change. In a state audit in 2005, the ratio of prisoners to guards was 60:1, compared to the standard 10:1 found in most other prisons.

A 2010 audit reported that there was over one fight a day in the facility, with staff members being assaulted every other day. Not only did gangs run rampant throughout the facility, but the guards were part of the gang, abusing their power and causing fights. Further complaints included guns and drugs being brought in by guards, inhumane holdings in isolation, inadequate medical care, and rampant guard-inmate and inmate-inmate violence. A 2012 Department of Justice report confirmed many of these complaints, adding that “The sexual misconduct we found was among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation”.

Even though as reports of violence and abuse rose in the facility, the town of Walnut Grove profited off of the prison. According to an NPR report in 2011, the taxes that the facility paid accounted for 15% of Walnut Grove’s annual budget. The reasons to keep the facility ran even further than simple economy reasons. Corruption controlled much of the decisions to keep the facility around. In 2014, a federal investigation called “Operation Mississippi Hustle” was conducted into bribes given to Chris Epps, Commissioner of the MODC and the president of the ACA. The bribes totaled to $1.5 million, and allowed Epps to pay off his mortgage while allowing Cecil McCrory, a former contractor, to do whatever he wanted with the prison. This led to reports of abuse and negligence. To date, the investigation has prosecuted 13 public officials related to the private prison system.