Chris Epps

Christopher B. "Chris" Epps was a career criminal justice specialist and former commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). Appointed in 2002 and serving to 2014, he was the agency's longest-serving commissioner in the state. Epps came up within the system, working for the department for 32 years.[1] In 2014 he was the sole African-American director of any Mississippi state agency.[2]

Although MDOC had been sued in two class-action suits in the 21st century on behalf of prisoners because of poor conditions, Epps was respected for his efforts to reduce the use of solitary confinement in Mississippi and to make other improvements. Mississippi had contracts with for-profit prison companies to run several of its prisons. He had been elected president of the American Correctional Association, but resigned that position on November 4, 2016 as well. The ongoing federal investigation of the state prison system was continuing.

Epps resigned in November 2014 the day before being indicted on federal charges of bribery and kickbacks, for allegedly receiving more than $2 million in bribes from Cecil McCrory, a businessman and former Mississippi Republican state house member, and others. The latter worked as a consultant for Management and Training Corporation (MTC) of Utah, a major prison operating company that at the time had a $60 million contract in Mississippi to operate four prisons. He had previously worked for GEO Group, which had contracts at three Mississippi prisons.[3]

Early life and education

Christopher Epps was born and grew up in Tchula, Mississippi, in Holmes County, which is bordered on the west by the Yazoo River and the Mississippi Delta.[1] His mother, Fannye Epps Love, is the Dean at the School of Education at The University Of Mississippi DeSoto Center.[4] Epps attended Mississippi Valley State University and received a bachelor's degree in elementary education.[5] Several of Epps' relatives worked in the education sector and had post-graduate education. Intending to go into teaching,

Epps filled out an MDOC job application at a university job fair and was hired.[6]

Career

Epps started his work life at a school in Drew, Mississippi, teaching science and mathematics.

In 1982 MDOC contacted Epps to recruit him for the prison system. Epps by that time thought the criminal justice system might provide more opportunity for advancement than education. Originally he worked as both a teacher and a prison correctional officer in Unit 29 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) in Sunflower County, Mississippi. In January 1985, he quit his teaching position. He began to be promoted to higher positions within the corrections department. In December 1988 Governor Ray Mabus appointed Epps as the deputy superintendent of Mississippi State Penitentiary .[7]

On August 30, 2002, Governor Ronnie Musgrove appointed Epps as Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Governors Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant reappointed Epps on January 13, 2004 and January 11, 2012, respectively.[8] He was the only African American to lead a state department in Bryant's administration.

Epps earlier attended Liberty University, receiving a master's degree in guidance counseling.[8] Serving also in the Mississippi National Guard, he worked his way to a rank of colonel before his March 2008 retirement. Epps worked as an auditor for the American Correctional Association (ACA). In May 2010 he was elected as the association's president. On November 5, 2014 Epps resigned from his ACA position.[1]

Personal life

Epps's wife is Catherlean Sanders and the two had two sons.[8] Prior to 2015, Epps's primary residence was in Flowood, Mississippi in the Jackson metropolitan area. He at one time had a condominium in Biloxi but later replaced it with a condominium in Pass Christian, Mississippi.[9] He served as a deacon of Hanging Moss Road Church of Christ in Jackson.[8]

Legal issues

On November 6, 2014 the Federal Government of the United States announced that it had indicted Epps on corruption charges;[1] these charges originated from dealings with the for-profit prison industry.[10] The federal indictment stated that Cecil B. McCrory, a former Mississippi Republican House member and businessperson who served as the chairperson of the Rankin County School District's board of education, provided Epps with kickbacks and bribes totaling more than $1 million. His payments included payment of part of the mortgage of Epps' primary residence in the Jackson area. The resulting increased equity and another bribe payment were leveraged by Epps to buy a condominium and trade up the latter for a larger, more expensive condo. In exchange, Epps directed contracts to McCrory-owned companies for prison-services contracts, as well as to companies that hired McCrory as a paid consultant. Per the indictment, the activity started in 2007 and ended on March 12, 2014. Epps entered an initial plea of not guilty, and he received a bond of $25,000.[9]

McCrory also had gone to work for Correctional Communications Inc. "I brought Cecil in in 1996 to help me with political connections," said owner and consultant, Sam Waggoner. "I do all the work, and Cecil did the political stuff. I talk to him about twice a year." Waggoner, of Carthage, said the scandal has affected his business, and he worries he'll lose some of the 40 or so contracts he and McCrory had earned during the past two decades. "Nobody wants to be associated with the company because of the stigma," he said. "But he did no contracts with the county jails, no connections with the sheriffs or anything like that." When the news was first released, Waggoner said he was "shocked" to hear about the McCrory/Epps indictment.[11]

According to Leake County Sheriff Greg Waggoner, he had been responsible for initiating the federal investigation. In 2009, he said, Epps's MDOC leased the buildings for what became the Walnut Grove Transition Center from Cecil McCrory, and also gave him the contract to operate the male and female facilities. The center charged newly released inmates $20 a day for room and board in dormitories, augmented by another $6 daily, per bed, from the MDOC. Residents complained about the lack of supervision of inmates. According to Waggoner "It looked like everything new that happened with MDOC, Cecil was involved in," Waggoner said. "They were not supposed to be out at all." "If I ran my facility like that, Epps would have shut me down, but it seemed like there was no problem when McCrory did it." Although the town's mayor Grady Sims, who had no correctional experience, McCrory made him the warden of the Center. Sims was reported to have taken a female inmate to a motel in nearby Carthage for sex in November 2009 and Sheriff Waggoner became involved. He reported the allegation to MDOC, which assigned an internal investigator to assist his department in an investigation. Investigators from both agencies jointly talked to the female inmate, gathering evidence to refer the case to the county district attorney. In the spring of 2010, before they could do so, the MDOC investigator came to Waggoner and told him it was over. "We're closing the case down," he told Waggoner, who was "shocked" and asked, "What do you mean?" "You could tell he wasn't happy about it but that he was given orders." Waggoner said firing a man who committed a felony doesn't end an investigation. It ends when the man is indicted and brought to justice; "If you have knowledge of a felony and chose not to pursue it, you're negligent in your duty." Stunned by the MDOC's termination of the Sims investigation, Waggoner called U.S. Attorney John Dowdy for advice. Dowdy said he contacted the FBI afterward to report the situation. The FBI launched an investigation against Sims and eventually Epps, and named it, "Mississippi Hustle." [12]

In November 2014 Governor Phil Bryant ordered rebids of the contracts that had been awarded by Epps.[13]

In February 2015 Epps pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges:[10] one count of filing a false tax return and one count of conspiracy to launder money.[14] As part of the plea, he forfeited two Mercedes Benz vehicles and his two residences.[15]

McCrory plea bargained to lesser federal charges. He had begun working as a consultant to the GEO and Cornell successor, Utah's Management and Training Corporation. It held a $60 million contract to operate four Mississippi prisons. MTC fired McCrory, claiming they knew nothing of his criminal activities.

Epps and McCrory blamed each other for beginning the bribery scheme. Sentencing was first scheduled for June 9, 2015,[14] but a day earlier, the U.S. Attorney for Mississippi said the sentencing was indefinitely delayed, as they were pursuing additional indictments.[16]

Sam Waggoner pleaded guilty in August 2015 to a single count of bribery, waiving indictment in yet another plea bargain. In November his sentencing was postponed due to his undergoing heart surgery. He admitted to federal Judge Henry Travillion Wingate that he paid more than $108,000 in kickbacks to Epps from a consulting contract with prison phone company Global Tel-Link (GTL).[17] GTL had been given the Mississippi prison telephone business monopoly. As a result of the prosecutors efforts to further and more specifically quantify the many millions of dollars of damages suffered by the state of Mississippi as a result of the bribery scheme, Waggoner's sentencing was once again delayed until after a hearing scheduled for June 9, 2016.[18]

As of February 2015 Epps was still eligible to receive benefits from the Mississippi Public Employees’ Retirement System.[19]

In April 2015 Epps' wife hired an attorney to represent her in regards to the forfeiture case involving their Flowood residence.[20]

In April 2016, Cecil McCrory informed the court that he wanted to change his plea bargain to "not guilty" and requested a trial. As a consequence, Epps' sentencing was again postponed, this time until July 18, 2016. Epps had been scheduled for sentencing on April 11, 2016, after pleading guilty to money laundering and filing false tax returns.[21]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Pettus, Emily Wagster. "Epps’ star falls in Miss. after federal indictment", Washington Times (Archive). Washington Times. November 8, 2014. Retrieved on February 27, 2015.
  2. ↑ Nave, R.L. "MDOC Scandal Highlights Privatization Problems" (Archive). Jackson Free Press. November 12, 2014. Retrieved on July 14, 2015.
  3. ↑ Nave, R.L. "MDOC Scandal Highlights Privatization Problems" (Archive). Jackson Free Press. November 12, 2014. Retrieved on April 16, 2016.
  4. ↑ University of Mississippi. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Amy, Jeff. "Ex-Prison Boss and Businessman Admit to Bribery Scheme" (Archive). Associated Press at ABC News. February 25, 2013. Retrieved on February 27, 2015.
  6. ↑ Gates, Jimmie E. and Emily LeCoz. "Chris Epps' history with the MDOC" (Archive). The Clarion-Ledger. November 6, 2014. Retrieved on February 27, 2015.
  7. ↑ Buntin, John. "Down on Parchman Farm" (Archive). Governing, blog, 27 July 2010. Retrieved on February 27, 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Christopher B. Epps Commissioner" (Archive). Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on February 27, 2015.
  9. 1 2 Estwick, Tammy. "Epps pleads not guilty to federal bribery charges" (Archive). WAPT. November 7, 2014. Retrieved on February 28, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Blinder, Alan. "2 Former Mississippi Officials Plead Guilty in a Graft Case Involving Private Prisons." The New York Times. February 25, 2015. Retrieved on February 27, 2015.
  11. ↑ Alleged kickback scheme: McCrory's connections vast,[The Clarion-Ledger]], Emily Le Coz, November 8, 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  12. ↑ Epps probe, "Mississippi Hustle" started sex scandal, Clarion Ledger, Emily LeCoz, November 22, 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  13. ↑ "Bryant orders prison contracts rebid" (Archive). WAPT. November 7, 2014. Retrieved on February 28, 2015.
  14. 1 2 "FORMER COMMISSIONER OF MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND LOCAL BUSINESSMAN PLEAD GUILTY IN FEDERAL COURT" (Archive). United States Department of Justice. Retrieved on February 27, 2015. Version at the website of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
  15. ↑ Mitchell, Jerry and Jimmie E. Gates. "Chris Epps, Cecil McCrory plead guilty to corruption" (Archive). The Clarion-Ledger. February 25, 2015. Retrieved on February 27, 2015.
  16. ↑ Gates, Jimmie E. "Former MDOC Commissioner Chris Epps' sentencing delayed" (Archive). Clarion Ledger. June 8, 2015. Retrieved on June 9, 2015.
  17. ↑ AP, "Sentencing delayed in Mississippi prison contract bribery case", Associated Press, November 5, 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  18. ↑ Judge delays sentencing for man who bribed Epps, WAPT News, April 14, 2016. Retrieved 26 April, 2016.
  19. ↑ Carter, Ted. "(UPDATE) Prison won’t interrupt ex-prison chief’s retirement cash flow" (Archive). Mississippi Business Journal. February 26, 2015. Retrieved on July 14, 2015.
  20. ↑ Gates, Jimmie E. "Chris Epps' wife hires attorney in forfeiture case" (Archive). The Clarion Ledger. April 29, 2015. Retrieved on July 14, 2015.
  21. ↑ Epps sentencing delayed; McCrory wants to withdraw plea, The Clarion Ledger, Jerry Mitchell, April 11, 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.

External links

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