Delta Correctional Facility

Last updated
Delta Correctional Facility
Delta Correctional Facility
Location3800 County Road 540
Greenwood, Mississippi
Statusopen
Capacity1,172
Opened1996
ClosedJanuary 15, 2012
Managed by Mississippi Department of Corrections

Delta Correctional Facility is a Mississippi Department of Corrections state prison for women, [1] one of opened in the late 20th century and early 21st century in the state, and operated by for-profit corporations. Located in Greenwood, Leflore County, Mississippi, in the largely rural Mississippi Delta region, it was initially operated by Corrections Corporation of America, which changed its name to CoreCivic in 2014. [2]

The facility opened in 1996, with a capacity of 1172. [3] This facility was closed by the state in 2002, then re-opened in 2004. [4]

The facility was closed on January 15, 2012, due to excess capacity in the state. [4] Prior to closing, the facility also housed about 125 county prisoners from Leflore County, Mississippi. [3] As a result of the closing, the Mississippi DOC claimed $118 million in cost savings and cost avoidance. [4]

The prison reopened after the state bought it out. [1]

Management incidents

In 2009, Joseph Jackson, serving a life sentence at Delta Correctional Facility, escaped custody while on a supervised visit to an eye doctor. Jackson's cousin, Cortney Logan of Louisville, Kentucky, used a firearm to free Jackson, and the pair fled in a rental car. When stopped approximately 300 mi (480 km) northeast in Nashville, Tennessee by police Sergeant Mark Chesnut, Jackson shot the officer in the abdomen, five times. Chestnut survived and later sued Corrections Corporation of America. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount. [5] Logan was later found guilty as an accomplice in the shooting of Chesnut. [6]

Convicted felon Cedric Gordon was mistakenly released from Delta in mid-August 2009; his mother returned him to prison. A gang fight among inmates on July 7, 2011 left six inmates injured and 26-year-old inmate Derek Criddle fatally stabbed. [7]

The warden at the time of closing was Raymond Byrd, who then became warden at Wilkinson County Correctional Center, also in Mississippi, until the contract was lost to Management and Training Corporation, in July 2013. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Correctional Association</span> Private non-profit trade association

The American Correctional Association is a private, non-profit, non-governmental trade association and accrediting body for the corrections industry, the oldest and largest such association in the world. The organization was founded in 1870 and has a significant place in the history of prison reform in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tallahatchie County, Mississippi</span> County in Mississippi, United States

Tallahatchie County is a county in the U.S. state of Mississippi. At the 2020 census, the population was 12,715. Its county seats are Charleston and Sumner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leflore County, Mississippi</span> County in Mississippi, United States

Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,339. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his people's land to the United States in exchange for land in Indian Territory. LeFlore stayed in Mississippi, settling on land reserved for him in Tallahatchie County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mississippi Department of Corrections</span> State agency that operates prisons

The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates prisons. It has its headquarters in Jackson. As of 2020 Burl Cain is the commissioner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CoreCivic</span> U.S. prison-operating company

CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley, Robert Crants, and T. Don Hutto, it received investments from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University, and Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennessee Department of Correction</span> Government agency in Tennessee, United States

The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) is a Cabinet-level agency within the Tennessee state government responsible for the oversight of more than 20,000 convicted offenders in Tennessee's fourteen prisons, three of which are privately managed by CoreCivic. The department is headed by the Tennessee Commissioner of Correction, who is currently Frank Strada. TDOC facilities' medical and mental health services are provided by Corizon. Juvenile offenders not sentenced as adults are supervised by the independent Tennessee Department of Children's Services, while inmates granted parole or sentenced to probation are overseen by the Department of Correction (TDOC)/Department of Parole. The agency is fully accredited by the American Correctional Association. The department has its headquarters on the sixth floor of the Rachel Jackson Building in Nashville.

<i>Big Stan</i> 2007 American film

Big Stan is a 2007 American prison comedy film starring, produced, and directed by Rob Schneider in his directorial debut with help from his company From Out of Nowhere Productions. The rest of the cast consists of Jennifer Morrison, Scott Wilson, Henry Gibson, Richard Kind, Sally Kirkland, Jackson Rathbone, M. Emmet Walsh, Dan Haggerty, and David Carradine. It tells the story of a real estate con artist who gets sentenced to three years in prison and spends the six months beforehand getting trained to survive in prison by a martial arts guru. This film was Gibson's final role before his death in 2009.

South Central Correctional Facility is a privately run, medium-security prison located in Clifton, Wayne County, Tennessee. This prison is operated and administered by CoreCivic under contract to the Tennessee Department of Correction.

Southeast State Correctional Complex, formerly the Otter Creek Correctional Center, is a medium-security prison located in Wheelwright, Kentucky. The facility is owned by CoreCivic and is operated by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. The prison has housed both male and female inmates at different times, from Kentucky and from Hawaii. The prison opened in 1981.

Management & Training Corporation or MTC is a contractor that manages private prisons and United States Job Corps centers, based in Centerville, Utah. MTC's core businesses are corrections, education and training, MTC medical, and economic & social development. MTC operates 21 correctional facilities in eight states. MTC also operates or partners in operating 22 of the 119 Job Corps centers across the country. They also operate in Great Britain, under the name MTCNovo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility</span> Prison

Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility (TCCF) is a private prison for men, authorized by the Tallahatchie County Correctional Authority and operated by CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The maximum-security facility is located in unincorporated Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, near Tutwiler in the Mississippi Delta. Since its opening with 352 prisoners, the prison has expanded capacity nearly ninefold, holding 2672 inmates by October 2008. It has housed inmates from Wisconsin, Colorado, Hawaii, Wyoming, Vermont, and California, in addition to prisoners from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. In 2010 the facility served as a county jail and also housed more than 1,000 prisoners from California. Since 2013, it has not held Mississippi state prisoners.

The Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, formerly the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), is a state prison in Walnut Grove, Mississippi. It was formerly operated as a for-profit state-owned prison from 1996 to 2016. Constructed beginning in 1990, it was expanded in 2001 and later, holding male youth offenders. It had an eventual capacity of 1,649 prisoners, making it the largest juvenile facility in the country. Contracts for the facility's operations and services were among those investigated by the FBI in its lengthy investigation of state corruption known as Operation Mississippi Hustle.

Hays State Prison is a Georgia Department of Corrections state prison for men located at 777 Underwood Drive in Trion, Chattooga County, Georgia. The facility opened in 1990 and currently has a capacity of 1683 prisoners.

Adams County Correctional Center (ACCC) is a medium security prison for men located in unincorporated Adams County, Mississippi, near Natchez, It is owned and operated by CoreCivic under contract with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. After striking ground in August 2007 at 20 Hobo Fork Road Adams Correctional Center opened July 2009.

Wilkinson County Correctional Center (WCCC) is a private prison in unincorporated Wilkinson County, Mississippi, managed since July 2013 by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) on a five-year contract with the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Cimarron Correctional Facility is a medium security prison in unincorporated Payne County, Oklahoma, located 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of the city of Cushing. It is owned and operated by CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, under contract with the United States Marshals Service.

The Trousdale Turner Correctional Center is a private prison for men, located in Hartsville, Trousdale County, Tennessee, owned and operated by CoreCivic under contract with the Tennessee Department of Correction.

Operation Mississippi Hustle was a federal investigation initiated in 2014 by the United States Attorney and prosecuted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. It examined the relationship between officials of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and various for-profit prison contractors and subcontractors, who have provided services to the five private prisons in the state. One, Walnut Grove, closed in September 2016 but has since reopened.

Marshall County Correctional Center (MCCF) is a prison in Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi, operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. It was formerly a for-profit prison managed by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) on behalf of MDOC.

Terrell Don Hutto, known as T. Don Hutto, was an American businessman and one of the three co-founders of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), whose establishment marked the beginning of the private prison industry during the era of former President Ronald Reagan. In 1983, Hutto, Robert Crants and Tom Beasley formed CCA and received investments from Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America, Vanderbilt University, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The T. Don Hutto Residential Center, one of CCA's detention centers, was named after him.

References

  1. 1 2 "Delta Correctional Facility". Mississippi Department of Corrections . Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  2. Boucher, Dave (October 28, 2016). "CCA changes name to CoreCivic amid ongoing scrutiny". The Tennessean . Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Corrections Corporation of America Announces Contract to Resume Management of the Delta Correctional Facility and Closure of T. Don Hutto Correctional Center", press release, 23 March 2004, CCA website, investor relations
  4. 1 2 3 Archive)]
  5. "Former Nashville Officer Settles CCA Lawsuit". WBKO. September 14, 2011. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03.
  6. Nix, James (September 22, 2010). "Jury Finds Accomplice Guilty in Shooting of Sgt. Chesnut". Nashville City Paper.
  7. "Inmate Stabbed to Death during Gang Fight in Jail", The Mississippi Link, 12 July 2011
  8. Raymond Byrd, Correctional News , March 13, 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2017.

33°28′50″N90°12′36″W / 33.48054°N 90.20998°W / 33.48054; -90.20998