The former head of prisons in Mississippi has been charged with orchestrating a massive corruption scheme that saw him take about $1 million in bribes in exchange for state contracts to private prison firms. A newly unsealed 49-count indictment accuses Christopher Epps of directing contracts to private firms with ties to a former state legislator. A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center describes conditions at a prison operated by one such firm as hellish, calling it “an extremely dangerous facility operating in a perpetual state of crisis.”
2014