Talk:Walnut Grove Correctional Facility

References

The reference linking to GEO's own website is dead. Does anyone have current references for what GEO say about their own facility? Eflatmajor7th (talk) 03:53, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Page quality

GEO no longer owns this facility. I am going to make some changes. If anyone can help with information, pictures, anything, it would be much appreciated. Eflatmajor7th (talk) 07:14, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

• GEO didn't own it in the first place. Niteshift36 (talk) 01:48, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Whoops, true, I meant operates. Thanks Eflatmajor7th (talk) 02:23, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Also could you try not to delete references when you are deleting stuff? Eflatmajor7th (talk) 02:25, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

• I don't think that a singular mistake warrants an admonision. Niteshift36 (talk) 14:36, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Mother Jones article

Some of the things that happened at Walnut Grove are hideous. That doesn't relieve us of the responsibility of being somewhat balanced. There are some NPOV issues with the way the entry is presented.

1. 1) In the original state, it sounds like this list is something official or an annual list. It's a one time opinion piece.
2. 2) There is problem with the neutrality. Both writers were Soros Fellows and the article was sponsored by the Soros org, so pretty much pushing their POV, which included drug legalization. On the other side, there was no response from the facility, company or state DOC. Yes, they may have declined, but that will usually be noted. So you have a foundation directly opposed to company paying for the article doing all the talking and nothing from the other side. That should cause some concern. Niteshift36 (talk) 22:05, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

I had to figure out what you were going on about. The article is a very well researched opinion piece. Both the two lead authors were Soros Fellows in 2012. That said, that was support for a specific project coming from a number of sources and I suspect teaching a handful of young associates how to do investigative journalism. There's no "Soros org." There's the Open Society Institute. Soros doesn't support Mother Jones, as best I know. Maybe you know more than me. Soros was a big stockholder in the industry, so they weren't hardly getting messages from him on how to be tough. He probably doesn't have time to read the stuff he supports. The article is about execrably managed prisons, not drugs. Ridgeway was 76 when this was written, after 55 years of writing for outfits like the WSJ. His colleague wasn't that old, but she is no spring chicken. It may be the last thing he ever writes. It's not surprising that GEO didn't comment. You've read dozens of stories about them, I know. Paez almost never answers anyone, despite being called religiously, except to say that they never comment on anything that might be in litigation. That certainly would have been their excuse here. You don't know whether they called or not. The article was written before anyone knew that Epps took at least $1.47 million in bribes to keep the lid on. Soros has funded Fellows who are against public prisons, but quiet about for-profits. Activist (talk) 20:08, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

Recent quality of edits

There was a good deal of extraneous material added to this article. The problems of Mayor William Grady Sims were in the lede, but the rape was of a female who had been housed at the Walnut Grove Transitional Correction Center, not the youth prison. The problems outlined in the lawsuit against GEO over conditions at East Mississippi, have no direct relationship to GEO Group. Consequently, I corrected many misspellings, confusing language, a bad date and deleted the mayoral and East MS references. Activist (talk) 14:47, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

@Magnolia677: Regarding the deletion of sentencing information on McCrory and Epps, the pair were the absolute heart of the conspiracy to take bribes, to defraud taxpayers, and to subvert the most basic constitutional protections of the youthful offenders therein. All the rest were peripheral figures. It was only through the persistent direct intervention of the pair that perhaps the most out of control youth prison in the United States was able to continue in its disgraceful operation. They were getting $12,000 a month from the operators and laundering the proceeds, until the egregious problems at this prison inadvertently brought the local and statewide corruption to the attention of the U.S. Attorney General for the Southern District of Mississippi and the FBI. Epps alone took a minimum of $1.4 million in bribes and kickbacks. There were $800,000,000 in contracts that were rigged by the pair in a conspiracy that went back at least ten years, probably much longer. It has been almost three years since the scheme was exposed, and the two central defendants in the case have dragged it on since their indictments were revealed to the public over two years ago. I see that some editor has also reverted the correction I made a few months ago to the inaccurate and confusing text about the mayor, kickbacks and the rape. Please see the preceding entry regarding that issue. I'm undoing the deletion, but am certainly open to discussing it. Activist (talk) 14:55, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

My concern is that you have slowly morphed this entire article from one about a prison, to one about criminal charges, trials and sentencing. Many of my concerns are discussed in Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. Articles will naturally evolve, but you have completely changed the intended focus of this article, and I feel that about half the article needs to be moved to a separate article, which may or may not meet Wikipedia's notability standards. Magnolia677 (talk) 15:19, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

• Yes, this is becoming a newspaper about the trial. Some of it has nothing to do with the facility. Niteshift36 (talk) 17:24, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

@Niteshift36: @Magnolia677: Actually, it has everything to do with it. Please read the entire lead paragraph in the "Criminal cases" section. To say they have "nothing to do with the facility" is like saying that Nixon's impeachment had "nothing to do with the Watergate burglary." In precisely the same manner, they proceeded one from the other. A security guard found the taped-up lock at the DNC HQ. The links between the burglars/"plumbers" and CREEP led to the FBI investigation and entire ball of yarn unraveling. The cover up of the chaos and violence, and the dropping of case against Mayor Sims caused Sheriff Waggoner to bring WGYF to the attention of the USAG for the Southern District of Mississippi, who in turn had him contact the FBI, and so forth. Sam Waggoner was scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Wingate today, though if he was, it's evaded the attention of the media. Here's a window into the magnitude of the scandal, which stretched from Walnut Grove fifteen years ago across the entire state corrections system, down to the county level, and has resulted in the charges against and the sentencing of many involved in the schemes.

Epps faces up to 23 years after pleading guilty to money laundering and filing false tax returns related to $1.47 million in bribes prosecutors say he took. He is forfeiting $1.7 million in assets. Cecil McCrory, a former state House member, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and faces up to 20 years. He’s also forfeiting $1.7 million in assets. Their sentencing has been delayed.

Finally, as you can see from my September 17 notes above, I am scrupulous about maintaining the accuracy of the article. For instance, a number of editors (and some reporters) confused the problems with the mayor and his role of running the halfway house with being the "warden" of the Youth Facility. I couldn't remember the name of the actual warden who was in charge back in 2010, so I had to look it up after reading your objections today. It was "Brick" Walter Tripp, who still works for GEO. The only role that mayor Sims had in the youth facility, as far as I'm aware, was in promoting the funding of the expansion, I believe, which subject has not been a focus in relation to the scandals, though the state is on the hook for tens of millions in bonded indebtedness. Activist (talk) 06:01, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

Breaking into a house you formerly owned and stealing light fixtures has nothing to do with this facility. It has to do with a person who used to work there. Even if he was employed there when it happened (which he wasn't), I'd still consider it having nothing to do with the facility. Niteshift36 (talk) 03:55, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

@Niteshift36: @Magnolia677: Epps didn't "work there." He was the Commissioner of Corrections, directing all the prisons in the state, the criminal who approved the contracts for the operations of this and the other state prisons. He was getting bribes from those who held those contracts, at least $1.47 million but probably much more. The prison expanded its capacity substantially because he facilitated that enlargement. The reason the prison was able to operate so out of control is because he suppressed the circumstances of the criminal behavior and the incompetence of those who paid him the bribes from public knowledge. He aggressively prevented effective oversight. I referred you to the lead paragraph that described the problems. The article is not about a group of buildings. Rather it is about the terrible, unrestrained horrors that were happening inside those buildings and why they were allowed to happen for years. Epps is the main reason the prison became a national scandal. He is the reason the Mississippi taxpayers now owe tens of millions for the empty prison. He and his crime partner were able to remain out of prison only because they agreed to return $1.7 million each that had been stolen from the taxpayers, because they wore devices to record the conversations with, and provided other evidence against, those who supplied the bribe money. However, he is back in jail because of his continuing dishonesty, his subsequent burglary arrest. The prison architecture, or whatever, is not the reason it has an article, it's Epps and McCrory, just like the Attica article is about Nelson Rockefeller and the 43 killed there, the Lubyanka building article is about Lavrentiy Beria and Stalin's purges, and Abu Ghraib prison is about Saddam Hussein's and the U.S. military's torture program there. Activist (talk) 18:42, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

• Stop clouding the actual issue. Who was Epps employed by when he was arrested on November 1, 2016? (No one) Did he steal anything from the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility that resulted in the arrest on November 1, 2016? (no) Was the second home the items were found in owned by the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility? (no). THAT is why the edit was removed. "The article is not about a group of buildings. Rather it is about the terrible, unrestrained horrors that were happening inside those buildings and why they were allowed to happen for years. Epps is the main reason the prison became a national scandal." That quote right there tells me how confused you are about this article. This article is about WGCF, not Attica, Abu Ghraib or every misdeed done by Epps. It is about the facility and the direct history of that facility. Stop thinking like an activist with an agenda and start thinking like an encyclopedia editor. Niteshift36 (talk) 19:03, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

User:Niteshift36 is right to mention Attica Correctional Facility, whose article is separate from the Attica Prison riot. As I suggested earlier, instead of morphing this article in several directions, a separate article about the various scandals and players associated with the prison may be the best route, though there is no guarantee it will pass notability. Magnolia677 (talk) 20:26, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

@Niteshift36: Please refrain from leveling personal insults and giving orders. WP:AGF Thank you. 07:42, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Lead

The lead on this article tries to jam everything into it. It has an advocacy/point making tone, rather than a neutral, informational one. A re-write may be in order. Niteshift36 (talk) 17:21, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

I have added slightly to the Lead but prefer otherwise to keep it as it is. It covers the prison, the relevant class action suit related to poor conditions, and the corruption case related to officials and contractors, including those involved in this prison. It also notes the state civil suit against the many contractors. Walnut Grove and this prison, as well as the Transitional Ctr, were central to the unfolding of the corruption case and the state case. I think some of Operation Mississippi Hustle has to be addressed in this article, but agree it needs to be limited, as there is an article devoted to it.Parkwells (talk) 14:24, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Massive deletions by Niteshift36

@Niteshift36: @Parkwells: @Lockley: No, once again you insult the intelligence of numerous other editors who have painstakingly worked for many, many hours, to maintain and improve an article who have engaged in a collaborative process, by your trademark "slash and burn" savaging of an article that neutrally recounts with well-sourced edits, a complex situation, by essentially and exclusively mounting a corporate reputation defense, whether or not you have a COI. It is precisely where once more, GEO Group was intimately involved, this time by the corporation's giving $10,000 monthly for years to be split between the pair of crime partners involved in corrupting the process of awarding state contracts mainly to GEO Group, but also to about a dozen other contractors, over half of whom have already admitted their guilt, been convicted or committed suicide, while the rest await trial. By his actions, Epps stole what appears to be tens of taxpayer millions in overpayments involving rigged contracts. He admitted that he frequently demanded, but periodically took, a minimum of $1.47 million in bribes, but most likely far, far skimmed more than that. His prime bagman, McCrory, presumably kept over a million. It resulted in what is agreed upon by most experts who have weighed in, as the nation's collectively most egregious violation of the civil and human rights of over thousands of unfortunate young, "vulnerable" and often disabled prisoners upon whom punishment has been heaped far and beyond what any sentencing court could have possibly imagined. You have, typically, as you have done dozens of times in the recent and distant past, without a care in the world, struck 871 consecutive words this time. Those were words that had been carefully considered by all those other demonstrably "good faith" editors, and you are again imperiously imposing your autonomous judgement on their consultative work, essentially as eminently disposable. Once again, rather than adding productively to the community process, you have wielded your virtual eraser to trash, in a few keystrokes, their extensive and well considered toil, then you have the gall warn them that they should not act as you have once again done, and dare to repair and restore the effects of your destruction. You've been through this, over and over, with a host of other editors, a good many of whom have no doubt abandoned the process as Wikipedia contributors in frustration with your cavalier ravaging of their efforts. If you have some alternate explanation, why it is that rather than contributing useful information, you consistently and exclusively delete massive quantities of data that may in any way be construed to reflect poorly, particularly on GEO, but also upon those others whom you've chosen to champion? Activist (talk) 22:56, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

As I said here in a previous discussion, this article is being morphed from one about a prison, to one about criminal charges, trials and sentencing. Start a separate article about the trials and so forth. Magnolia677 (talk) 00:33, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

@WhisperToMe:, @Eflatmajor7th:, @Lockley:, @Niteshift:, @Parkwells:, @Magnolia677: I actually went back to the earlier talk in which you explained your position, and intended to copy you (and Whispertome, Eflatmajor7th) who have made substantial prior edits and deletions to this series of articles that revolved around the Mississippi ethical swamp). Unfortunately, family matters called me away for a couple of hours. The article is precisely about the sorry history of this prison, since its foundation in 2001 when Epps was deputy commissioner, to its first massive expansion in 2003, when Epps was Commissioner, and through its subsequent expansions. The prison, which never should have been built, and its horrific mistreatment of almost a generation of children, was the product of bribery, conspiracy, malfeasance and incompetence. Besides the staggeringly corrupt Epps, the only compromised players named in the article were those co-conspirators who drew attention to it in the first place: The rapist William Grady Sims, and their admittedly corrupt business partner of 15-20 years, Cecil McCrory. The grifter Robert Simmons, who skimmed $10,000 a month from Andrew Jenkins who built this overpriced and demonstrably useless, now empty, $152 million piece of junk, that amount now entirely owed by the Mississippi taxpayer, of whom you are one, and kicked a good chunk of the dough back to Epps and McCrory. Sam Waggoner, who was not mentioned, gave more than $108,000 to Epps, taken from the pockets of poor people who were forced to subsidize his extortionate phone contracts, among others. That means inmates' families which couldn't afford to visit, also could hardly afford to pay those overcharges to Global*Tel in order to talk to their teenage sons or brothers. When he tried to stop paying the bribes, and to back out of the rapacious deal, Epps terrorized him. It's about the management of Cornell, corrupt since its inception 20 years ago, and GEO's which bought Cornell and brought its own sorry history to this tiny town, and now MTC, playing musical chairs, which has demonstrated prodigious incompetence in various places such as the riot-torn gulags in Kingman, Arizona and Willacy County, Texas, another bribe-infested venture each of which have accrued almost as much unpayable public debt as Walnut Grove. The only other player mentioned and subsequently scrubbed from the article was Emmitt Sparkman, who goes back 20 years hand-in-glove with Epps and McCrory, and who has now retired from public "service." Unlike Niteshift36, you have a long and responsible history at Wikipedia. I would ask that you revisit that massive edit which duplicated his or hers, and discuss and possibly surgically remove those parts which you can justify to your peers, rather than simply wiping it from history as would a Ministry of Truth. You've amputated the head, rather than removing what might be arguably surplus growths. It's a question of decency, and I see no indication that you are not a person who would disregard that, after giving some thought to the matter. Lastly, the reason the article needs to contain this information is so it is available for those members of the Wikipedia public who haven't the time, background or the patience to give more substantial consideration to the issues it presents. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants" Activist (talk) 03:05, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

• When you're ready to discuss the actual issue and not just rant about your unfounded conspiracy theories, I'll be ready. You've got to stop thinking like an activist with an agenda. You threw the same fit over this in the other article. After a lot of words and a lot of bad faith allegations by you, we ended up with what I advocated all along.....a few sentences that describe what happened and a clear path to a more in depth account. No "truth" has been hidden. Everything doesn't go every where. As I pointed out before, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a far more historically relevant event than this, but the article on World War 2 mentions it, gives it a sentence or two and then a clear path to find more information. Your response above has POV written all over it..."gulags", "terrorized", "the rapist", "the grifter" and so on. You are so deeply passionate about this that I suspect you honestly don't even realize how non-neutral you sound. Instead, you make false allegations about me. Please, calm down and try to be objective for a change. And please, please.... ping a person once, not every single person every time you reply. Niteshift36 (talk) 03:22, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

@WhisperToMe:, @Eflatmajor7th:, @Lockley:, @Parkwells:, @Magnolia677: Rape is rape. There's no nice name for it. He's fortunate he's not doing ten years. Sims is said to have had a habit of that, unfortunate for his poor late wife, a nice lady who had to bear with it until she finally had a heart attack and died. Actually, as you did today, you don't ping me or others at all when you've whitewashed some article that I and they have collectively put hours into, you operating in the interest of those executives, officials or stockholders who deserve no confidence or respect. "Grafter" is a word you've used, not me. You just hope no one will notice your erasures and that you'll get away with it again. You don't in fact leave a "clear path." You deleted the very hat note that you claimed justified your deletions. Stop ordering me (and many others) to do or not do something. I won't ping you any more. That works for me. The last time you went into your hissy fit, you just wore down all the others who had been posting to that article and then claimed victory. You had no consensus, except as usually happens, may have existed your own peculiar mind. If that doesn't work, you dig a bit deeper into your bag of tricks, using personal attacks, invective and vulgarity. You have a long record that exposes you for whom you are. Activist (talk) 05:03, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

• Yes, rape is rape. Thanks for clearing that up. You're missing the point entirely. Look at your replies "nice lady". She probably was, but I honestly doubt you met her, so why are you telling me how nice she was. No, I don't ping everyone because I shouldn't. You clearly have the page watchlisted, so pinging everyone who every edited, every time I respond is just unnecessary and, at worst, a backdoor attempt to canvass. As for your claim that I'm editing on behalf of the company.... you've been warned several times to cease that. Expect a notification in the near future. The word was "grifter", I made a typo. Relax sparky. There absolutely is a clear path. There is a hatnote (which I didn't delete) and a wikilink in the paragraph. I'm sorry if you feel like you need a flashing neon sign, but most intelligent readers can find the other article just fine. Niteshift36 (talk) 16:45, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi all. Let's take a deep breath before proceeding. I agree that there were terrible abuses here and at East Mississippi CF, which were identified in the class action suit and later. The widespread corruption likely was part of this and the state's apparent failure to have standards-based contracts, but the privately run, for-profit prisons have had a reported history of problems and abuses in numerous places even when there was not corruption revealed. The question is how to make this article show the important things about WGCF, and how it was related to the people and events that were subjects of the FBI investigation, and what this all means for the state of MS and its prison system (indebtedness, civil suit). I think we should point out at the beginning that the county and state encouraged building of the prison here for economic development and local jobs. You all are knowledgeable, it appears, about the construction of private prisons in struggling rural areas around the country, creating local lobbies for more prisons and prisoners. I do not think all the details of how Sims was caught and the US Attny got involved need to be repeated here, nor all the charges, & sentences for numerous figures in the corruption case below Epps, McCrory and Simmons. For me, some of the meaning gets lost when so many of the fine details of the case are provided about individual defendants. A source such as the NY Times is good for getting/providing an overview. I added pointers to the main article on Operation Mississippi Hustle within this one. I think we have to find a way to pick and summarize that information to make it more useful for readers of this article. So, for instance, I think we do want to refer by name to the other MS prisons operated by the Cornell/GEO Group entities - both in the Lead and in the article, so readers can also read to see what is happening with them. There is an article about East Mississippi CF, but I can't remember if there are articles about the two county prisons. How about letting me work on it for a couple of days and seeing if I can get to something we can agree to? WGCF is part of a very big, complex, multi-year case. Parkwells (talk) 14:44, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

I thought I remembered reading that the state of Vermont had some prisoners here at WGCF, under contract w/ MTC, having moved them from private prisons in KY and TN, but withdrew them, which contributed to MTC closing the prison, as there were too few prisoners to warrant keeping it open. Or do I have that confused with a prison in another state? I've been working on several of these articles.Parkwells (talk) 14:48, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

VT had contracts with CCA which worked out very badly. They were at St. Mary's/Marion Adjustment Center, in Kentucky, where their prisoners were sexually abused by staff. They moved them to Beattyville, Lee Adjustment Center, back in 2004, if memory serves. They had a huge riot, I think it was in September 2004, after many escapes. They also had their inmates in Florence, AZ and Sayre, OK. The state's monitors did a miserable job on all these contracts, which is commonplace. Then they moved them to GEO at Baldwin, Michigan, which also has not gone well. GEO gave notice that they would not renew the contract as the spec prison has room for perhaps 10x as many prisoners than VT can send. GEO built that unnecessary prison for supposed "juvenile predators," and had nothing but problems. Granholm closed it after horrible abuses. They massively expanded it to take in immigrants, then literally complained that Obama wasn't locking enough of them up, so after a small number of California inmates left after a brief stay, it was closed again until the Vermont inmates arrived from Kentucky. Activist (talk) 19:32, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

After Editing

OK, I've worked hard to establish chronological order, to eliminate duplication of material in both the Lead and the body of the article, and to cover the main things about the prison itself and private prisons in Mississippi, plus some of the content revealed in hearings on the class action suit, etc. I know there are remaining questions and suggestions, but this is all I can right now. Will return to it later. I know there is content about MTC's performance in AZ and loss of the Arizona contract in 2015, but think that is difficult to introduce retroactively, and limited that section to what Mississippi could have found out about MTC (the 2010 prison escape in AZ). I hid the rest so that we can discuss it. Parkwells (talk) 16:35, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

I took a look at the differences in revisions. It is true that it's good to introduce the wider background, but the article needs to be focused upon Walnut Grove Correctional Facility in particular. I reviewed and agree with Parkwells's revisions. WhisperToMe (talk) 20:02, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

MDOC private prisons

After reading and working on all the articles for private prisons, as well as the article for Mississippi Department of Corrections - which had very little detail, I added some material there on the private prisons, "Mississippi Hustle" and the state 2017 civil suit for damages. In addition, it seems we need an article on MDOC's private prisons, which could provide in detail all the changing contracts, numerous contractors involved, including the service providers below the prison mgmt companies, and the scale of the investigation, plus changing policies that finally have started to reduce prison populations: laws passed in 2008 re: allowing parole before 85% of sentence has been served, and in 2014, alternatives to prison for some non-violent offenders. Before that, the MDOC article would need more data on the arc of rising prison population and its causes, including laws contributing to increased incarceration and then the reduction. I need to read more about the 2008 and 2014 laws.

I think the individual facility articles are the places for content about their specific contractors, incidents and investigations, and individual class-action suits. The overall look suggests that the Operation Mississippi Hustle article might be strengthened by noting more about what the various contractors were doing in other states when MDOC made contracts with them here. (But with so few contractors to choose from, all states were losing much choice in selection - bringing up policy issues about not shifting to state-run prisons.) An overall MS Private Prisons article, or beefing up that section in the MDOC article, could show more about the interrelationship among the contractors - or the revolving doors - what contractors were doing in other states before and since their contracts in MS, including making payments to campaigns of elected officials. Just business. I think the MS Private Prisons article or section would be the place, if any in MS-related content, to refer to MTC's issues in AZ, for instance - with the 2015 Kingman riots and losing their contract in 2015. As other editors and reporters have pointed out, the contracts keep getting shuffled among the very big prison mgmt companies, but the recurring problems seem related not only to inherent issues of running prisons but the companies' efforts to make profits from their services. There has been reporting in many places about the prison-industrial complex, with lobbyists and rural legislators looking to build prisons in increasingly isolated areas, which increases the social and financial burdens of prisoners and their families to maintain relations. Also, some coverage of other contractors, like the ones providing telephone service at such outrageously high rates for inmates, might be covered; a US Supreme Court decision ruled that FCC could not cap those rates. So, what do people think?Parkwells (talk) 15:26, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

DOJ civil rights investigation

DOJ was very specific in their brief to the state in Oct. 2010, saying they were undertaking an investigation of operations at WGYCF, to assess how prisoners' rights to safety, humane treatment, medical care, etc. was being fulfilled at that facility. Another reference in this article suggested that DOJ was doing such an investigation overall of MS prisons, but I haven't found a specific reference to that; have not searched too hard yet. Does anyone know for sure? It seems there may have been some confusion with the statewide FBI corruption investigation. DOJ has initiated an overall statewide assessment of Alabama's mens' prisons, which they announced Oct. 6, 2016, from the point of view of rights of prisoners to constitutionally humane treatment.Parkwells (talk) 15:26, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

I haven't found anything yet - DOJ investigations tend to be more specific (found one for the Hinds Co system and jails, for instance), so will correct the text.Parkwells (talk) 14:49, 14 March 2017 (UTC)