Criminal - Walnut Grove

Episode Date: January 6, 2017

In 2010, Michael McIntosh's son was incarcerated at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in the small town of Walnut Grove, Mississippi. One Sunday, Michael McIntosh went to visit his son and was turned away because, he was told, prison officials "did not know" where his son was. He spent the next six weeks searching for his son, only to find him in the hospital with severe injuries. And Michael McIntosh's son wasn't the only one who had been hurt at the facility.  Jody Owens of the Southern Poverty Law center launched an investigation and found that Walnut Grove was such a violent prison that one Federal Judge called it "a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts." Today, we have the story of an especially troubled youth prison, the for-profit corporation, Cornell Companies, that managed it, and the small town that relied on it. The U.S. Department of Justice Investigation of the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility The Southern Poverty Law Center Lawsuit The U.S. Department of Justice Memo Re: Reducing the Use of Private Prisons Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Botox Cosmetic, Adabotulinum Toxin A, FDA approved for over 20 years. So, talk to your specialist to see if Botox Cosmetic is right for you. For full prescribing information, including boxed warning, visit BotoxCosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300. Remember to ask for Botox Cosmetic by name. To see for yourself and learn more, visit BotoxCosmetic.com. That's BotoxCosmetic.com. Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series

worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey

involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums, and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts. This episode contains descriptions of violence that may not be suitable for everyone.

Please use discretion. Visitation days were on Sunday, and I went to go visit him, and when I got there, they told me they didn't know where he was at. In 2010, Michael McIntosh's son was incarcerated at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in the town of Walnut Grove, Mississippi. His son, who's named after him, had just turned 20. And on one Sunday, Michael went to visit his son and was told he could not see him because they didn't know where he was. And I didn't take that as an answer. I asked to speak to the, you know, the sergeant or the guard and the captain and who's ever in charge. And then finally I was told that he wasn't there, but they didn't know where he was at. And then come back or call and talk to the warden tomorrow, which was a Monday, and maybe they can answer you my questions. So that's what Michael did, calling every phone number he could find

until he finally got to the warden's answering machine on Monday. He left a message. The warden didn't call me back until that Wednesday. And then he said, Mr. McIntyre, you got a problem? And I said, yeah, my problem is I can't find my son. And then the warden said, well, I don't know where he's at. So you should call the Mississippi Department of Correction. Michael's son was sentenced to Walnut Grove because the facility was designated as a place for youth offenders who had committed very serious crimes. He'd been incarcerated there

for about three months before his father showed up for visitation that day and realized his son was missing. So here Michael was, now trying to find his son in hospitals. I was so frustrated. I didn't know what to do. And then I thought about it. I said, maybe I'm asking the wrong question. None of them recognize him as Michael McIntosh. They recognize him as a number because he was still considered an inmate. He tried the University of Mississippi Hospital again and asked them if there were any inmates getting medical treatment.

He was referred to security. And then the guard said, well, Mr. McIntosh, he's right here. And I said, well, I want to see him. And he said, well, we can't authorize you to see him, but you can call the Mississippi Department of Corrections, talk to the medical center, and they can authorize you. So that's what I did. And when I called them that very next day,

I told them I was looking for my son. Once again, they said, we don't know where he's at. I said, well, I do. He's in the hospital. He's down at UMC. I want to go see him. So they said, we'll call you back. They did call back. They didn't tell Michael why his son was being treated,

but they did say he would be permitted to visit his son the following Wednesday at 1 p.m. So I waited a whole week. The next Wednesday, I went to go see him, and when I got to the hospital, they say, Ms. McTighe, he is no longer here. They moved him yesterday. And it took me roughly almost about another week and a half

before I realized they moved him two and a half hours away to Greenwood LaFleur Hospital. Michael began calling every phone number he could find for that hospital. And finally, the chaplain spoke with him and said he could help. And he did. He got me a two-hour window. And the first time I seen my son, it had been six and a half weeks later. I stood at the end of the bed. He can hear my voice. They said my voice was the only thing he recognized since he'd been in the hospital.

And they wouldn't tell me, believe it or not, the hospital wouldn't even tell me what they were treating him for because they had to get authorization from Mississippi Department of Correction medical staff in order to even tell me. Eventually, the Department of Corrections granted the hospital permission to tell Michael what was going on. My son had a few stab wounds. He had stitches.

They were more concerned about his brain injury because they said it was very severe. That's why even when he was in the hospital, they told me not to hold him because he was in some bad condition. No use of the right arm, no use of the right leg. His sight was almost gone, and they said this was all related to the injury. The few stab wounds, they said they took care of that. The fractured nose, they were still working, letting that heal. It was nerve-wracking, you know, to sit there and knowing I was helpless and couldn't do nothing about it. Investigators found that his injury stemmed from a fight that had occurred at Walnut Grove.

The investigation report states that the Walnut Grove prison guards did not intervene to stop the fight, and in fact they, quote, endorsed the disturbance. And then they tried to cover it up by falsifying log entries. And Michael McIntosh believes the reason it took six and a half weeks of searching to find his son is because the prison didn't want the public to know how bad things had gotten at Walnut Grove. The way the story came back to me, I can't verify because, you know, I wasn't there. But they said there was a riot broke out. They got anybody that was on the side, anybody in the area, you know. It was almost like bees swarming, you know, whatever's in the way, that's what we're demolishing. So that's how all these young men got hurt. When the Walnut

Grove Youth Correctional Facility opened in 2001, it promised to be a safe, rehabilitative place for very troubled youth offenders. The youngest was just 13 years old. But by 2012, Walnut Grove was the most violent prison in the entire state of Mississippi. One judge wrote that what happened at Walnut Grove, quote, paints a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world. Today, we have the story of a juvenile prison, the people who ran it, the small town that relied on it, and how everything went so horribly wrong. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. When the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility opened, it housed 350 offenders ages 13 to 19 who had been tried as adults.

The prison's population more than tripled as they steadily increased capacity, and by 2011, it was the largest juvenile facility in the U.S. It's about an hour from Jackson, Mississippi, in the very small town of Walnut Grove. And, as you can imagine, the people in town were not excited about the arrival of a prison. I will say that, at first, residents didn't want a prison. You know, you don't, you think about a prison and you, you know, I don't know if we want that in our backyard. But they began to accept it. This is Russell Beatty, director of the Main Street Chamber of Leek County.

That's basically their version of the Chamber of Commerce. He says Walnut Grove had historically been a manufacturing town. But as the plants closed and as things have changed, it needed that boost. Walnut Grove has always been a friendly, small community-type town, and there was not a lot of jobs. Well, at one point there was when manufacturing was big, but after that kind of phased out, there was not a lot of jobs in town. This is Linda Bounds. She's been the librarian at the Walnut Grove Library for almost 30 years. Some people were against the prison moving in here just because it is a prison and prisons get a lot of bad rap, I guess you

could say, and they were kind of opposed to it. But it did bring a lot of jobs for a lot of people and it brought a lot of good things for Walnut Grove. The prison became the largest employer in town. Keisha Zollicoffer was just a kid in 2001, but remembers when her mother got a job as a corrections officer. My mom, she was one of the first group of people that worked in the facility. The facility helped us, you know, be able to financially survive. So the facility being built here brought a big opportunity for a lot of people. As Keisha grew up, she noticed the prison brought a lot of people into town.

Parents visiting their kids, but also vendors and contractors and teachers. Keisha opened a restaurant, Urban Country Kitchen, and right from the start, she had regulars. Well, I was on Hell's Kitchen season 12, so I've been trying to get my foot out there with my own restaurant and get my name out there. So when the facility came, that kind of put Waterloo Grove on the map. A lot of people came here to visit, which bought new attractions, which led me to find this restaurant and show interest in purchasing it.

In addition to creating a lot of jobs, the prison paid the town about $180,000 a year in lieu of taxes. Over the years, that money funded new sidewalks, a new library, a new fire department, and enabled the town to move to a 24-hour police force. So even though many residents hadn't liked the idea of the prison moving to Walnut Grove, it actually ended up turning things around for the whole town. I dare anybody ride through the city of Walnut Grove and you look at all of the

things that have, a lot of small towns would be envious of. You know, that beautiful new library, that fire station there, a nice city hall. A lot of towns with a population of 500 people would be envious of those things. And a lot of that is because of money generated from the prison. The prison didn't just generate money for the town of Walnut Grove. It generated money for a whole lot of other people. The state built the building, and private companies managed operations at the prison. It changed operators several times. In 2003, it was taken over by Cornell Companies. In 2010,

Cornell Companies was acquired by the second largest for-profit prison company in the country, GeoGroup. GeoGroup made all the operational choices, food vendors, medical vendors, uniforms, and their biggest expense was staffing the prison with correctional officers. The corporation decided how many guards to hire, how much to train them, and what they would be paid. These decisions are subject to oversight from the state. In theory, this private model allows a prison to operate at a lower cost, it makes money for the corporation running it, and boosts the local economy of a town like Walnut Grove along the way. But that's not what happened.

We first learned of the issues related to Walnut Grove because we would get complaints from families, from clergy, from members of the community about just some really horrific events that were happening, that people were being extorted, people were being raped, sexual assault, People were being left alone when they committed to hurting themselves and subsequently did take their own lives. This is Jody Owens. He leads the Mississippi office of the Southern Poverty Law Center

and first visited Walnut Grove in 2009. So what we did as a result was launch an investigation internally, and once we got into place, we couldn't leave. Everyone had something to tell us about what was happening in this hellhole. In November of 2010, Jody Owens in the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections, alleging a culture of violence and corruption that endangered the young people incarcerated at Walnut Grove. You had children as young as 14 and 15 years in the prison who were there growing up, essentially, whether they would have been in grade school or 9th or 10th grade,

they were growing up in the prison. And what we would find is that drugs, contraband were rampant, sanctioned fighting between the residents of the facility were a normal event. Abuse and overuse of force and mace by the guards was something that we would see on a regular basis. There were these sanctioned riot-like events called Flipping the Pie where it would just be a battle roar. And I don't want you to think of just a fight. I want you to think of people getting knocked unconscious and teeth being knocked from people's mouth. All the while, the question everyone would ask is, where are the guards?

Where are the people who are supposed to be protecting the most vulnerable population we have, our kids? And they would know where to be found. What were the racial demographics of Walnut Grove? Mississippi's prison system as a whole is predominantly African American. Mississippi has approximately about 65% Caucasian population to a 35% African American population, and the prison rate would be upward of easily 75%. And that goes into a larger problem as well. You can't talk about prisons without talking about who's there and how they got there and what other people look like.

And Walnut Grove was mostly African American. Absolutely. When Jody was investigating the prison in 2010, about 80% of the 1,200 youth offenders were African American. And he found that there was a documented lack of mental health and educational services. Not even half the inmates were in school, and there were just not enough guards. There was only one correctional officer for every 60 inmates. The recommended ratio is one guard for every eight inmates. Things

had gotten out of control. Guards were caught smuggling in weapons and drugs and coercing inmates to have sex in exchange for food or phone privileges. There were widespread reports of rape, stabbings, beatings, and other acts of violence. Inmates reported organized gladiator-style fights that were encouraged by the guards. Sometimes the guards bet money on the outcomes. One involved an individual who his brothers or his gang got off the pod, and he was there by himself. And he was beat savagely for approximately about 12 minutes. He was stabbed more than 100 times.

He was urinated on. This video of microwaves being dropped on his head as he sat there, and his clothes were just soaked with blood. And what was so sad about this instance is that the control tower that looked down upon this pod had an opening where the guards were supposed to be able to shoot a canister for emergency purposes, smoke screen, tear gas, to quell a disturbance if this happened. But unfortunately, the guards were not trained properly to do so.

So they shot the tear gas in the control tower. It didn't go into the pod. So what you see on the video is that the control tower. It didn't go into the pod. So what you see on the video is that the control tower fills with smoke. And the beatings continue, continue, continue. You see people taking these knives and these punches and these punches all on video. It's something no human should ever have to endure, particularly a human that's in custody and control of a state. Did the man survive?

He did survive. He did survive. I'm pretty sure he lost his eye, but he survived. If this happens to someone on the free world, near me or near you, we would be talking about it there every day. It would be on 6 o'clock news, it would be on Fox News, CNN, it'd be going viral. But because these things happen in prison, they don't make it to the public. Much of the documented abuse took place under the management of Cornell Companies, which no longer exists because it was acquired by GEO Group. In its complaint,

the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote, Defendant GEO has a policy, which began years ago under Cornell, of understaffing the prison. The understaffing creates violent conditions that subject youth to serious and sometimes permanent injury. We reached out to GEO Group for comment, and they emailed a statement from their spokesman, Pablo Páez, that reads, At GEO, we do not believe in cost-cutting for profit's sake. Instead, we believe in running an efficient operation that provides adequate staffing and relies on state-of-the-art technology for monitoring, communication, health care. In October of 2010, the Department of Justice launched a formal investigation into the conditions at Walnut Grove. They reviewed videos, injury lists, death reports, and even the floor plans. They interviewed between 300 and 400 youth offenders. They also interviewed prison staff. Was there violence? Absolutely. As with any institution, prison facility.

Was it worse than your average facility? I would say no. I may be a little bit biased. I have been in a lot of prisons over my course of my working career. This is Jeremy Belk. He was trained as a chaplain and worked as an alcohol and drug counselor at Walnut Grove. He was promoted to fire and safety manager and later promoted again to facility investigator. What was it like to work there, to work at the prison when it was being investigated by the DOJ? I guess it could be considered awkward. You know, you didn't know if you were going to have a job six months down the road. It was disheartening to me personally and to other people, the prison got a lot of flack for some things that were purported to have happened. And unfortunately, when you're in this line of work, you never get to tell

your side of the story. You only get a skewed view because it's mainly coming from a complaint from a parent or from an inmate who was at the facility. So the view is certainly skewed view because it's mainly coming from a complaint from a parent or from an inmate who was at the facility. So the view is certainly skewed. These were not children who disobeyed their parents. These were many times hardened criminals, and many times they were very respectful, but many times they had a problem with society, and it was society's fault for them being there, and they were going to punish anyone that was around them, including other inmates. What was it like working there? How were the employees and guards treated? Did you make a good salary? Well, of course, there's always room for bigger and better salaries, but I think

it was comparable to maybe a little bit better than most of your work in the area. The staff is just your typical staff. There were people there who did their jobs and who wanted to excel in their line of work, and then also you had some bad apples as well. Guards that weren't operating correctly. Yes. And you were responsible for stopping them or citing them. Sure. Any facility in this country or any other country, you're going to have people who are there to, I guess, take advantage of the situation, unfortunately. I heard this over and over when I talked to people in the town of Walnut Grove, that yes, some guards were abusive, but no worse than any other place.

Yes, there were riots in the prison, just like many other prisons in the country. The town felt like it was being unfairly singled out. I felt like they were eager to tell all the bad news, and there was a lot of good going on. Linda Bounds. What about the people who say, wait a second, this town is improving because of a place where there's reports of inmates getting hurt? It is a prison, and you're going to have problems in a prison. And so I felt like they had, like I say, I knew there would be problems in a prison. This isn't Sunday school.

Russell Beatty. So you're housing incarcerated people. So, yes, you're going to have an issue from time to time. No one thinks that prison should be a club med. Jody Owens. And should be this vacation. But if it ever is your loved one in the prison, that your prayer is that they will be free of torture and abuse. They can sleep at night without worry about somebody coming in their cell with a knife. And I don't think the public appreciates just how this system is run and what

accountability looks like. Because if we're asking for, if you do the crime, you pay the time, what does that mean? Does that mean that time means that you're restricted? How does that time mean for the entire time you're there every day, every second, every minute you have to be abused? And to do so, that impacts you as a person that's permanent. On March 20th, 2012, the Department of Justice completed its 18-month investigation of Walnut Grove, concluding that the inmates were not receiving constitutionally adequate protection. Their report states that the sexual misconduct was among the worst that they had seen in any facility in the nation. Staff was routinely engaging in sexual acts with the youth.

Excessive force was a first response, not a last resort. Officers brutally reacted to low-level aggression, like abusive language or passive resistance to an order, by slamming youth headfirst into the ground, slapping, beating, and kicking them. A federal judge wrote, those youth, some of whom are mere children, are at risk every minute, every hour, every day,

and ordered that all offenders under the age of 17 be moved out of Walnut Grove. And less than a month after that report came out, the state of Mississippi did not renew its contract with the corporation operating the prison, GEO Group. Walnut Grove became an adult-only facility, and a Utah-based company called MTC took over its operations. Last August, in a move that made national news, the Department of Justice announced that it would phase out its contracts with private prisons.

The memo read, Private prisons served an important role during a difficult period, but time has shown that they compare poorly to our own bureau facilities. But this move only impacts federal prisons. It won't impact the vast majority of private prisons in this country, which are operated at the state level. And yet, the next month, in September of 2016, the Mississippi Department of Corrections shut down the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility.

The stated reason was budget cuts and a decreasing prison population. The decision was made without any communication with the town itself. Oh, I'm absolutely mad. I think that the governor has an unleashed rabbit dog running the Department of Corrections. Walnut Grove Mayor Brian Gamillion is furious at Commissioner Marshall Fisher and the Mississippi Department of Corrections after hearing on the news that the state was closing his town's privately managed prison after 14 years. It's a sad day. Your largest employer is shut down and your state government does not bother to tell you they're about to do that. Mayor Gamillion did not respond to our request for an interview.

The 900 remaining inmates were moved to other prisons, and now the facility sits empty, just a three-minute drive from downtown. It's one of the biggest buildings I've ever seen. And it's just sitting there, and there's no hustle and bustle. Jeremy Belk, the man who worked at the prison for five years. I've always said there's no way they're going to they're going to close this facility. It's needed. It's too new. It would be a tremendous burden for it to close for the taxpayers of the state. And I was shocked. I did not believe it. It feels like maybe these people just got picked up and what was once a bustling place is now completely, the signs are still here. Everything is here except there's no people.

That's correct. And that's essentially what happened when the decision was made, within about a month, maybe five weeks, they picked all the inmates up and closed the doors. In its wake, the prison left the town of Walnut Grove in even more shape financially than it was before. The library can only afford to be open 20 hours a week now. City offices are only open four days a week. Police officers have taken a pay cut of $2 an hour. Everyone's utility bills have gone up to compensate for the loss of the town's biggest customer. And the 200-some-odd jobs that the prison created have all been lost. You are standing downtown Walnut Grove. This is an absolute epicenter of the town.

So this is the busiest place that you could be in Walnut Grove? This is it. This is it. And there's one vehicle on Main Street. Would that have been the case before the prison closed? No. At shift change, there was an absolute traffic jam here on Main Street. So it's completely different. It is certainly a lot quieter than it was this time last year. You really can kind of like stand in the middle of Main Street here. You can. Literally stand in the middle of it.

You can stand here for quite a while, actually. Nobody wants to admit that they're disappointed that a prison closed, especially one as bad as Walnut Grove. But the thing is, there are a lot of people in the town of Walnut Grove right now who don't really know what to do. Jeremy Belk has opened a food pantry to make sure people in town have enough to eat. Well, we see, you know, we have our share of elderly, and I'm seeing a lot of my ex-co-workers come through.

People who worked at the prison? People who worked at the prison, absolutely. And how has the response been? Unbelievable. Lots of not-so-dry eyes when we're here. Very, very thankful people. Very, very, lots of gratitude for doing this. You must feel so relieved that Walnut Grove is closed down now.

Well, you know, I'm relieved because the young men that were there were basically living in barbaric conditions. There was a prey to the older ones that was there, and there was no relief, you know. You send those young people there, and they are so charged up, you wonder if they ever can get back down. Michael McIntosh, the man we met at the beginning of the story,

who spent weeks searching for his son. So to have it close, you know, I thought it was a good thing because I realized as I was walking through this process and learning quite a bit from going through this process that any time you start putting rehabilitation against profits and profits win, rehabilitation never occurs. You know, it's hard enough to even try to get rehabilitation from a prison system that's even running correctly. So imagine the ones that's out for profit.

You know, they're cutting corners. They're not caring. They got a lot of lapses in it, you know, and then you want rehabilitation. It was never gonna happen. So to have this place closed and know that these kids might have a better chance, especially not from that place, I'm all for it. Michael's son is out of prison now, working and trying to go back to school. He's gone through a lot of physical therapy. His cognition has improved, but he still can't remember things sometimes. His father says he may never recover from that.

While Michael McIntosh and the Southern Poverty Law Center see the closure of Walnut Grove as a victory, the private prison industry on the whole is doing pretty well. Walnut Grove's former operator, GeoGroup, manages a lot of other prisons in this country, and also in Australia, South Africa, and the UK. The other major private prison operator in this country is called the Corrections Corporation of America, also known as CCA. They recently rebranded as CoreCivic. And these are publicly traded companies. A large chunk of their shares are held by investment funds that pool people's money, like Vanguard, Wells Fargo, or Fidelity. So if you have a 401k or invest in mutual funds,

you could have a stake in the private prison industry without even knowing it. The day after the election, CCA was the best-performing stock on the New York Stock Exchange. It rose 43%. GeoGroup rose 21%. Some have speculated the spike was in response to President-elect Trump's comments about detaining undocumented immigrants. He also said in March, quote, I do think we can do a lot of privatizations and private prisons.

It seems to work a lot better. Criminal is produced by Lauren Spohr, Nadia Wilson, and me. Audio mix by Rob Byers. Alice Wilders, our intern. Special thanks to Russ Henry and Sam Turkin. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com, where we've put links to various things about Walnut Grove and the Department of Justice report. We're on Facebook and Twitter, at Criminal Show.

Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collection of the best podcasts around. Radiotopia from PRX is supported by the Knight Foundation and MailChimp, celebrating creativity, chaos, and teamwork. And thanks to Adzerk for providing their ad-serving platform to Radiotopia. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

Radiotopia. From PRX. The number one selling product of its kind with over 20 years of research and innovation. Botox Cosmetic, Adabotulinum Toxin A, is a prescription medicine used to temporarily make moderate to severe frown lines, crow's feet, and forehead lines look better in adults. Effects of Botox Cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Don't receive Botox cosmetic if you have a skin infection. Side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow and eyelid drooping, and eyelid swelling. Allergic reactions

can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Tell your doctor about medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome in medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. For full safety information, visit BotoxCosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300. See for yourself at BotoxCosmetic.com. Hey, it's Scott Galloway, and on our podcast, Pivot, we are bringing you a special series about the basics of artificial intelligence. We're answering all your questions.

What should you use it for? What tools are right for you? And what privacy issues should you ultimately watch out for? And to help us out, we are joined by Kylie Robeson, the senior AI reporter for The Verge, to give you a primer on how to integrate AI into your life. So, tune into AI Basics, How and When to Use AI, a special series from Pivot sponsored by AWS, wherever you get your podcasts.