MDOC awarded the contract at EMCF and Walnut Grove to Management and Training Corporation (MTC) of Utah, but the complaints continued.

[1][2] In May 2013, the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a class action suit against the state of Mississippi and operators of EMCF on behalf of its prisoners because of the abuses and the failure to improve conditions.

In November 2014, Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps resigned a day before he was indicted by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on corruption charges for bribery and taking kickbacks.

Cecil McCrory, a business man and former state legislator, was indicted for bribing Epps in return for having prison-services contracts steered to him and his clients.

He had worked as a consultant for MTC, GEO Group, and Cornell Companies, all of which had operated private prisons in Mississippi.

[3] East Mississippi is the state's main "special needs" facility,[4] housing up to 1500 prisoners with serious mental health issues.

[6] In an effort to improve conditions at EMFC, that year MDOC removed GEO Group, the second-largest prison management corporation in the country, as contractor to operate this facility.

Civil rights advocates claimed that conditions at the EMCF did not sufficiently improve under MTC management.

Placing prisoners in solitary confinement for weeks, months or even years at a time, where the only way to get a guard's attention in an emergency is to set a fire.

[13] The Department of Justice has worked with state, local and private personnel to implement education and efforts to prevent sexual abuse in prison.

[14] On November 6, 2014 the Federal Government of the United States announced that it had indicted Chris Epps, former Commissioner of Mississippi Department of Corrections (he resigned the day before), on corruption charges;[15] these charges were based on his dealings with the private prison industry and were the result of a 5-year investigation.

McCrory had also served as a consultant to GEO Group, MTC's predecessor, which lost its contract as part of a settlement of a class action suit for its failures at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility.

Jody Owens, attorney and investigator with the Southern Poverty Law Center, who has also worked on the EMCF case, was interviewed on The Docket about these bribery allegations.

Carthage, Mississippi businessman and consultant Sam Waggoner pleaded guilty in August 2015 to one count of bribery after waiving indictment in an agreement with prosecutors.

He told federal District Court 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).

[26] He is scheduled for trial July 5, 2016, on charges of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery of Epps for contracts at prison work centers and county jails.

[27] In 2016, Cecil McCrory requested that the court allow him to withdraw from the plea bargain and plead "not guilty", going to trial.

Defense lawyer John Colette said Epps wants credit for the assistance he's provided the government in giving evidence against others.

Assistant US Attorney LaMarca told Judge Wingate that prosecutors determined that Epps awarded more than $800 million in potentially dirty contracts over seven years ending in 2014.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca told Judge Wingate that a grand jury was considering charges against additional people.