00:00:01
Phoebe Judge: This episode contains descriptions
of violence and may not be suitable for everyone.
00:00:09
Please use discretion. Michael McIntosh: 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
00:00:29
he was at. Phoebe Judge: In 2010, Michael Macintosh's
son was incarcerated at the Walnut Grove Youth
00:00:35
Correctional Facility in the town of Walnut
Grove, Mississippi. His son, who's named after him, had just turned
20.
00:00:41
And on one Sunday, Michael went to visit his
son and was told he could not see him because
00:00:48
they didn't know where he was. Michael McIntosh: And I didn't take that as
an answer.
00:00:53
I asked to speak to the sergeant or the guard
or the captain who's ever in charge.
00:00:59
Then finally, I was told that he wasn't there,
but they didn't know where he was at.
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And then come back or call and talk to the
warden tomorrow, which was a Monday, and maybe
00:01:12
they can answer my questions. Phoebe Judge: So that's what Michael did,
calling every phone number he could find until
00:01:18
he finally got to the warden's answering machine
on Monday. He left a message. Michael McIntosh: The warden didn't call me
back until that Wednesday.
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And then he said, Mr. McIntosh, I hear you've
got a problem. I say, "Yeah, my problem is I can't find my
son."
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[Music comes in.] And then the warden said, "Well, I don't know
where he's at. So, you should call the Mississippi Department
of Correction."
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Phoebe Judge: Michael's son was sentenced
to Walnut Grove because the facility was designated
00:01:43
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
00:01:52
that day and realized his son was missing. So here Michael was, now trying to find his
son in hospitals.
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Michael McIntosh: I was so frustrated. I didn't know what to do. And then I thought about it.
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I said, maybe I'm asking the wrong question. None of them recognize him as Michael McIntosh.
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They recognize him as a number, because he
was still considered an inmate. Phoebe Judge: He tried the University of Mississippi
Hospital again and asked them if there were
00:02:20
any inmates getting medical treatment. He was referred to security. Michael McIntosh: And then the guard said,
"Well, Mr. McIntosh, he's right here."
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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
00:02:35
Department of Corrections, talk to the medical
center, and they can authorize you," so that's
00:02:41
what I did. And when I called them that very next day,
I told them I was looking for my son.
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Once again, they said, "We don't know where
he's at." I said, "Well, I do. He's in the hospital.
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He's down at UMC. I want to go see him." So they said, "We'll call you back." Phoebe Judge: They did call back.
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They didn't tell Michael why his son was being
treated, but they did say he would be permitted
00:03:04
to visit his son the following Wednesday at
1 p.m. Michael McIntosh: So I waited a whole week.
00:03:08
The next Wednesday, I went to go see him,
and when I got to the hospital, they said,
00:03:13
"Mr. McIntosh, he is no longer here. They moved them yesterday." It took me roughly, almost about another week
and a half before I realized they moved him
00:03:21
two and a half hours away, to Greenwood Leflore
Hospital. Phoebe Judge: Michael began calling every
phone number he could find for that hospital.
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And finally, the chaplain spoke with him and
said he could help. Michael McIntosh: And he did.
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He got me a two hour window, and the first
time I seen my son has been six and a half
00:03:47
weeks later. [Music ends, new music comes in.] I stood at the end of the bed. He can hear my voice.
00:03:57
They said my voice was the only thing he recognized
since he'd been in the hospital.
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They wouldn't tell me, believe it or not,
the hospital wouldn't even tell me what they
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were treating him for because they had to
get authorization from Mississippi Department
00:04:17
of Correction medical staff in order to even
tell me. Phoebe Judge: Eventually, the Department of
Corrections granted the hospital permission
00:04:24
to tell Michael what was going on. [Music fades out.] Michael McIntosh: My son had a few stab wounds,
he had stitches.
00:04:33
They were more concerned about his brain injury,
because they said it was very severe.
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That's why even when he was in the hospital,
they told me not to hold him because he was
00:04:45
in some bad condition. No use of the right arm, no use of the right
leg. His sight was almost gone.
00:04:52
And they said this was all related to the
injury. The few stab wounds, they said they took care
of that.
00:04:59
The fractured nose they were still working,
letting that heal. It was nerve wracking to sit there knowing
I was helpless and couldn't do nothing about
00:05:08
it. Phoebe Judge: Investigators found that his
injuries stemmed from a fight that had occurred
00:05:12
at Walnut Grove. The investigation report states that the Walnut
Grove prison guards did not intervene to stop
00:05:17
the fight. And in fact, they, "Endorsed the disturbance." And then they tried to cover it up by falsifying
log entries.
00:05:25
And Michael McIntosh believes the reason it
took six and a half weeks of searching to
00:05:33
find his son is because the prison didn't
want the public to know how bad things had
00:05:39
gotten at Walnut Grove. Michael McIntosh: The way the story came back
to me, I can't verify because I wasn't there,
00:05:53
but they said there was a riot broke out. They got anybody that was on the site and
anybody in the area, it was almost like bees
00:05:59
swarming. Whatever's in the way, that's what we're demolishing. So that's how all these young men got hurt.
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Phoebe Judge: When the Walnut Grove Youth
Correctional facility opened in 2001, it promised
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to be a safe, rehabilitative place for very
troubled youth offenders. The youngest was just 13 years old.
00:06:15
But by 2012, Walnut Grove was the most violent
prison in the entire state of Mississippi.
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One judge wrote that what happened at Walnut
Grove, "Paints a picture of such horror as
00:06:24
should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized
world." [Music comes in.] Today, we have the story of a juvenile prison.
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The people who ran it, the small town that
relied on it, and how everything went so horribly
00:06:32
wrong. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. When the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional facility
opened, it housed 350 offenders, ages 13 to
00:06:37
19 who had been tried as adults. [Music fades out.]. The prison's population more than tripled
as they steadily increased capacity.
00:06:45
And by 2011, it was the largest juvenile facility
in the U.S. It's about an hour from Jackson,
00:06:52
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.
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Russell Baty: I will say that at first, residents
didn't want a prison. You think about a prison and, I don't know
if we want that in our backyard.
00:07:16
But they begin to accept it. Phoebe Judge: This is Russell Baty, Director
of the Main Street Chamber of Leake County.
00:07:23
That's basically their version of the Chamber
of Commerce. He says Walnut Grove had historically been
a manufacturing town.
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Russell Baty: But as the plants closes and
as things have changed, it needed that boost.
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Linda Bounds: Walnut Grove has always been
a friendly, small, community-type town and
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there was not a lot of jobs. Well, at one point there was when manufacturing
was big, but after that phased out, there
00:07:59
was not a lot of jobs in town. Phoebe Judge: This is Linda Bounds. She's been the librarian at the Walnut Grove
Library for almost 30 years.
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Linda Bounds: Some people were against the
prison moving in here just because it is a
00:08:17
prison and prisons get a lot of bad rep, 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,
00:08:40
and it brought a lot of good things for Walnut
Grove. Phoebe Judge: The prison became the largest
employer in town.
00:08:47
Kashia Zollicoffer was just a kid in 2001,
but remembers when her mother got a job as
00:08:53
a corrections officer. Kashia Zollicoffer: My mom, she worked with
the one in the first group of people that
00:09:01
worked in the facility. The facility helped us be able to financially
survive, so the facility being built here
00:09:19
brought a big opportunity for a lot of people. Phoebe Judge: As Kashia grew up, she noticed
the prison brought a lot of people into town
00:09:28
— parents visiting their kids, but also
vendors and contractors and teachers. Kashia opened a restaurant, Urban Country
Kitchen, and right from the start, she had
00:09:38
regulars. Kashia Zollicoffer: Well, I was on Hell's
Kitchen, season 12, so I've been trying to
00:09:43
get my foot out there with my own restaurant
and get my name out there. So when the facility came that kind of put
Walnut Grove on the map, a lot of people came
00:09:58
here to visit, which brought new attractions,
which led me to find this restaurant and show
00:10:06
interest in purchasing it. Phoebe Judge: In addition to creating a lot
of jobs, the prison paid the town about $180,000
00:10:13
a year in lieu of taxes. Over the years, that money funded new sidewalks,
a new library, a new fire department, and
00:10:18
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,
00:10:28
it actually ended up turning things around
for the whole town. Russell Baty: I dare anybody to ride through
the city of Walnut Grove, and you look at
00:10:41
all of the things that a lot of small towns
would be envious of. That beautiful new library, that fire station
there, a nice city hall.
00:10:49
A lot of towns with a population of 500 people
would be envious of those things.
00:10:55
And a lot of that is because of money generated
from the prison. Phoebe Judge: The prison didn't just generate
money for the town of Walnut Grove, it generated
00:11:04
money for a whole lot of other people. [Music comes in.]. The state built the building and private companies
managed operations at the prison.
00:11:15
It changed operators several times. In 2003, it was taken over by Cornell Companies.
00:11:18
In 2010, Cornell Companies was acquired by
the second-largest for-profit prison company
00:11:21
in the country, GEO Group. GEO Group made all the operational choices
— food vendors, medical vendors, uniforms
00:11:26
— 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
00:11:34
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.
00:11:43
It makes money for the corporation running
it and boosts the local economy of a town
00:11:49
like Walnut Grove along the way. But that's not what happened. Jody Owens: We first learned of the issues
related to Walnut Grove because we would get
00:11:57
complaints from families, from clergy, from
members of the community about just some really
00:12:00
horrific events that were happening. That people were being extorted, people were
being raped, sexual assault, people were being
00:12:06
left alone when they committed to hurting
themselves and subsequently did take their
00:12:10
own lives. [Music fades out.] Phoebe Judge: This is Jody Owens. He leads the Mississippi office of the Southern
Poverty Law Center, and first visited Walnut
00:12:16
Grove in 2009. Jody Owens: So what we did as a result was
launched an investigation internally.
00:12:22
Once we got into place, we couldn't leave. Everyone had something to tell us about what
was happening in this hell hole.
00:12:29
Phoebe Judge: In November of 2010, Jody Owens
and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed
00:12:34
a lawsuit against the Mississippi Department
of Corrections, alleging a culture of violence
00:12:39
and corruption that endangered the young people
incarcerated at Walnut Grove. Jody Owens: You had children as young as 14
and 15 years in the prison who were there,
00:12:48
were growing up essentially where they would
have been in grade school or 9th or 10th grade,
00:12:53
they were growing up in the prison. And what we would find is that drugs, contraband
were rampant.
00:12:58
Sanctioned fighting between other residents
of the facility were a normal event.
00:13:02
Abuse and overuse of force and Mace by the
guards was something that we would see on
00:13:09
a regular basis. There were these sanctioned riot-like events
called "flipping the pod" where it would just
00:13:17
be a battle royale. I don't want you to think of just a fight,
I want you to think of people getting knocked
00:13:26
unconscious and teeth being knocked from people's
mouth. All the while the question everyone would
ask is: where are the guards?
00:13:33
Where are the people who are supposed to be
protecting the most vulnerable population
00:13:41
we have, our kids? And they were nowhere to be found. Phoebe Judge: What were the racial demographics
of Walnut Grove?
00:13:47
Jody Owens: Mississippi's prison system as
a whole is predominantly African American.
00:13:51
Mississippi has approximately about 65% Caucasian
population to a 35% African-American population.
00:13:56
And the prison rate would be upward of easily
75%. And that goes into a larger problem as well.
00:14:02
You can't talk about prisons without talking
about who's there and how they got there,
00:14:09
and what do the people look like. Phoebe Judge: And Walnut Grove was mostly
African American.
00:14:15
Jody Owens: Absolutely. Phoebe Judge: When Jody was investigating
the prison in 2010, about 80% of the 1,200
00:14:20
youth offenders were African American. And he found that there was a documented lack
of mental health and educational services.
00:14:28
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.
00:14:38
The recommended ratio is one guard for every
eight inmates. Things had gotten out of control.
00:14:45
Guards were caught smuggling in weapons and
drugs and coercing inmates have sex in exchange
00:14:53
for food or phone privileges. There were widespread reports of rape, stabbings,
beatings, and other acts of violence.
00:14:58
Inmates reported organized gladiator-style
fights that were encouraged by the guards.
00:15:02
Sometimes the guards bet money on the outcomes. Jody Owens: One involved an individual who,
his brothers or his gang got out the pod and
00:15:10
he was there by himself. And he was beat savagely for approximately
about 12 minutes.
00:15:14
He was stabbed more than 100 times. He was urinated on. There's a video of microwaves being dropped
on his head as he sat there, and his clothes
00:15:24
were just soaked with blood. And what was so sad about this instance is
that the control tower that looked down upon
00:15:28
this pod had an opening where the guards were
supposed to be able to shoot a canister for
00:15:32
emergency purposes — smokescreen, tear gas
to quell a disturbance if this happened.
00:15:35
[Music comes in.]. But unfortunately, the guards were not trained
properly to do so, so they shot the tear gas
00:15:37
in the control tower. It didn't go into the pod. So what you see in the video is that the control
tower fills with smoke and the beatings continue
00:15:46
and continue and continue. You see people taking these
knives and these punches and these punches,
00:15:52
all on video. It's something no human should ever have to
endure, particularly a human that's in the
00:15:59
custody and control of a state. Phoebe Judge: Did the man survive? Jody Owens: He did survive.
00:16:07
He did survive. I'm pretty sure he lost his eye, but he survived. If this happens to someone in the free world,
near me or near you, we'd be talking about
00:16:18
it every day. It would be on the six o'clock news, it'd
be on Fox News, CNN. It'd be going viral.
00:16:30
But because these things happen in prison,
they don't make it to the public. [Music fades out.]
00:16:39
Phoebe Judge: Much of the documented abuse
took place under the management of Cornell
00:16:46
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,
00:16:52
which began years ago under Cornell, of under-staffing
the prison. The under-staffing creates violent conditions
that subject youth to serious and sometimes
00:16:59
permanent injury." We reached out to GEO Group for comment, and
they emailed a statement from their spokesman,
00:17:08
Pablo Paez, that reads, "At GEO, we do not
believe in cost cutting for profit's sake.
00:17:16
Instead, we believe in running an efficient
operation that provides adequate staffing
00:17:22
and relies on state-of-the-art technology
for monitoring, communication, and healthcare."
00:17:26
[Music comes in.] In October of 2010, the Department of Justice
launched a formal investigation into the conditions
00:17:36
at Walnut Grove. They reviewed videos, injury lists, death
reports, and even the floor plans.
00:17:43
They interviewed between 300 and 400 youth
offenders. They also interviewed prison staff.
00:17:51
Jeremy Belk: Was there violence? Absolutely. As with any institution, prison facility.
00:17:56
Was it worse than your average facility? I would say no. I may be a little bit biased.
00:18:03
I haven't been in a lot of prisons over my
course of my working career. Phoebe Judge: This is Jeremy Belk.
00:18:11
He was trained as a chaplain and worked as
an alcohol and drug counselor at Walnut Grove.
00:18:17
He was promoted to fire and safety manager
and later promoted again to facility investigator.
00:18:23
[Music fades out.] What was it like to work there, to work at
the prison when it was being investigated
00:18:31
by the DOJ? Jeremy Belk: I guess it could be considered
awkward. You didn't know if you were going to have
a job six months down the road.
00:18:38
It was disheartening to me personally, and
to other people. The prison got a lot of flak for some things
that were purported to have happened.
00:18:49
And unfortunately, when you're in this line
of work, you never get to tell your side of
00:18:56
the story. You only get a skewed view because it's mainly
coming from a complaint from a parent or from
00:19:02
an inmate who was at the facility. So the view is certainly skewed. These were not children who disobeyed their
parents.
00:19:06
These were, many times, hardened criminals. And many times they were very respectful,
but many times they had a problem with society,
00:19:11
and it was society's fault for them being
there, and they were going to punish anyone
00:19:18
that was around them, including other inmates. Phoebe Judge: What was it like working there?
00:19:23
How were the employees and guards treated? Did you make a good salary? Jeremy Belk: Well, of course there's always
room for bigger and better salaries, but I
00:19:34
think it was comparable to — maybe a little
bit better than — most of your work in the
00:19:38
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,
00:19:48
and then also you had some bad apples, as
well. Phoebe Judge: Guards that weren't operating
correctly?
00:19:56
Jeremy Belk: Yes. Phoebe Judge: And you were responsible for
stopping them or citing them.
00:20:02
Jeremy Belk: Sure. Any facility in this country or any other
country, you're going to have people who are
00:20:09
there to, I guess, take advantage of the situation,
unfortunately. Phoebe Judge: I heard this over and over when
I talked to people in the town of Walnut Grove.
00:20:18
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.
00:20:26
The town felt like it was being unfairly singled
out. Linda Bounds: I felt like they were eager
to tell all the bad news, and there was a
00:20:35
lot of good going on. Phoebe Judge: Linda Bounds. What about the people who say, wait a second,
this town is improving because of a place
00:20:44
where there's reports of inmates getting hurt. Linda Bounds: It is a prison and you're going
to have problems in a prison.
00:20:52
And so I felt like they had, like I say, I
knew that there would be problems in a prison.
00:21:00
Russell Baty: This isn't Sunday School. Phoebe Judge: Russell Baty. Russell Baty: So you're housing incarcerated
people, so yes, you're going to have an issue
00:21:07
from time to time. Jody Owens: No one thinks that prisons should
be a Club Med. Phoebe Judge: Jody Owens.
00:21:14
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
00:21:24
of torture and abuse. They can sleep at night without worrying about
somebody coming in their cell with a knife.
00:21:33
And I don't think the public appreciates just
how this system is run and what accountability
00:21:38
looks like. Because if we're asking for, if you do the
crime, you pay the time. Well, what does that mean?
00:21:47
Does that mean that time means that you're
restricted or does that time mean for the
00:21:54
entire time you're there, every day, every
second, every minute you have to be abused
00:22:01
— and to do so that it impacts you as a
person that's permanent? Phoebe Judge: On March 20th, 2012, the Department
of Justice completed its 18-month investigation
00:22:10
of Walnut Grove, concluding that the inmates
were not receiving constitutionally adequate
00:22:13
protection. Their report states that the sexual misconduct
was among the worst that they had seen in
00:22:17
any facility in the nation. Staff was routinely engaging in sexual acts
with the youth.
00:22:22
Excessive force was a first response, not
a last resort. Officers brutally reacted to low level aggression
— like abusive language or passive resistance
00:22:29
to an order — by slamming youth head-first
into the ground, slapping, beating, and kicking
00:22:32
them. A federal judge wrote, "Those youth, some
of whom are mere children, are at risk every
00:22:38
minute, every hour, every day," and ordered
that all offenders under the age of 17 be
00:22:44
moved out of Walnut Grove. [Music comes in.] And less than a month after that report came
out, the state of Mississippi did not renew
00:22:53
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
00:23:02
its operations. Last August, in a move that made national
news, the Department of Justice announced
00:23:08
that it would phase
out its contracts with private prisons. The memo read, "Private prisons served an
important role during a difficult period.
00:23:18
But time has shown that they compare poorly
to our own bureau facilities." But this move only impacts federal prisons.
00:23:25
It won't impact the vast majority of private
prisons in this country, which are operated
00:23:30
at the state level. And yet the next month, in September of 2016,
the Mississippi Department of Corrections
00:23:37
shut down the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility. The stated reason was budget cuts and a decreasing
prison population.
00:23:43
The decision was made without any communication
with the town itself. [Music fades out.]
00:23:47
[News clip.] Brian Gomillion: Oh, I'm absolutely mad. I think that the governor has an unleashed
rabid dog running the Department of Corrections.
00:23:54
Newscaster: Walnut Grove Mayor Brian Gomillion
is furious at Commissioner Marshall Fisher
00:24:01
and the Mississippi Department of Corrections
after hearing on the news that the state was
00:24:06
closing his town's privately managed prison
after 14 years. Brian Gomillion: It's a sad day.
00:24:12
Your largest employer is shut down and your
state government does not bother to tell you
00:24:17
they're about to do that. [News clip ends.] Phoebe Judge: Mayor Gomillion did not respond
to our request for an interview.
00:24:29
The 900 remaining inmates were moved to other
prisons, and now the facility sits empty,
00:24:34
just a three-minute drive from downtown. It's one of the biggest buildings I've ever
seen.
00:24:41
Jeremy Belk: And it's just sitting there and
there's no, there's no hustle and bustle.
00:24:46
Phoebe Judge: Jeremy Belk, the man who worked
at the prison for five years. Jeremy Belk: I've always said, there's no
way they're going to close this facility.
00:24:58
It's needed, it's too new. It would be a tremendous burden for it to
close, for the taxpayers of the state.
00:25:05
And I was shocked. I did not believe it. Phoebe Judge: It feels like maybe these people
just got picked up and what was once a bustling
00:25:15
place is now completely ... the signs are
still here. Everything is here, except there's no people.
00:25:20
Jeremy Belk: That's correct, and that's essentially
what happened when the decision was made.
00:25:25
Within about a month, maybe five weeks, they
picked all the inmates up and closed its doors.
00:25:30
Phoebe Judge: In its wake, the prison left
the town of Walnut Grove in even worst shape
00:25:37
financially than it was before. The library can only afford to be open 20
hours a week now.
00:25:43
City
offices are only open four days a week. Police officers have taken a pay cut of $2
an hour.
00:25:50
Everyone's utility bills have gone up to compensate
for the loss of the town's biggest customer.
00:25:56
And the 200 some-odd jobs that the prison
created have all been lost. Jeremy Belk: You are standing downtown Walnut
Grove.
00:26:05
This is in the absolute epicenter of the town. Phoebe Judge: So this is the busiest place
that you could be in Walnut Grove?
00:26:14
Jeremy Belk: This is it. This is it, and there's one vehicle on Main
Street. Phoebe Judge: Would that have been the case
before the prison closed?
00:26:24
Jeremy Belk: No. At shift change, there was an absolute traffic
jam here on Main Street, so it's completely
00:26:30
different. It is certainly a lot quieter than it was
this time last year. Phoebe Judge: You really can kind of stand
in the middle of Main Street here.
00:26:41
Jeremy Belk: You can. Phoebe Judge: [Laughs.] Literally stand in the middle of it.
00:26:46
Jeremy Belk: You can stand here for quite
a while, actually. Phoebe Judge: Nobody wants to admit that they're
disappointed that a prison closed, especially
00:26:55
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
00:27:04
don't really know what to do. Jeremy Belk has opened a food pantry to make
sure people in town have enough to eat.
00:27:08
Jeremy Belk: Well, we have our share of elderly,
and I'm seeing a lot of my ex-coworkers come
00:27:11
through. Phoebe Judge: People who worked at the prison? Jeremy Belk: People who worked at the prison,
absolutely.
00:27:14
Phoebe Judge: How has been — how's the response
been? Jeremy Belk: Unbelievable.
00:27:16
Lots of not-so-dry eyes when we're here. Very, very thankful people. Lots of gratitude for doing this.
00:27:25
[Music comes in.] Phoebe Judge: You must feel so relieved that
Walnut Grove is closed down now.
00:27:34
Michael McIntosh: Well, I'm relieved because
the young men that were there were basically
00:27:36
living in barbaric conditions. They was a prey to the older ones that was
there, and there was no relief.
00:27:41
You send those young people there and they
are so charged up, you wonder if they ever
00:27:46
can get back down. Phoebe Judge: Michael McIntosh, the man we
met at the beginning of the story who spent
00:27:51
weeks searching for his son. Michael McIntosh: So to have it close, I thought
it was a good thing because I realized, as
00:27:57
I was walking through this process and learning
quite a bit from going through this process,
00:28:01
that anytime you start putting rehabilitation
against profits and profits win, rehabilitation
00:28:02
never occurs. It's hard enough to even try to get rehabilitation
from a prison system that's even running correctly.
00:28:04
So imagine the ones that's out for profit,
they're cutting corners, they're not caring.
00:28:05
They got a lot of lapses in it, and then you
want rehabilitation. It was never going to happen.
00:28:07
So to have this place close and know that
these kids might have a better chance, especially
00:28:08
not from that place, I'm all for it. Phoebe Judge: Michael's son is out of prison
now, working and trying to go back to school.
00:28:10
He's gone through a lot of physical therapy. His cognition has improved, but he still can't
remember things sometimes.
00:28:14
His father says he may never recover from
that. [Music fades out.] While Michael McIntosh and the Southern Poverty
Law Center see the closure of Walnut Grove
00:28:19
as a victory, the private prison industry
on the whole is doing pretty well. Walnut Grove's former operator, GEO Group,
manages a lot of other prisons in this country,
00:28:24
and also in Australia, South Africa, and the
UK. The other major private prison operator in
this country is called the Corrections Corporation
00:28:26
of America, also known as CCA. They recently rebranded as CoreCivic. And these are publicly traded companies.
00:28:29
A large chunk of their shares are held by
investment funds that pool people's money.
00:28:34
[Music comes in.] Like Vanguard, Wells Fargo, or Fidelity. So if you have a 401(k) or invest in mutual
funds, you could have a stake in the private
00:28:40
prison industry without even knowing it. The day after the election, CCA was the best-performing
stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
00:28:44
It rose 43%. GEO Group rose 21%. Some have speculated the spike was in response
to President-Elect Trump's comments about
00:28:47
detaining undocumented immigrants. He also said in March, "I do think we can
do a lot of privatizations and private prisons.
00:28:53
It seems to work a lot better." Criminal is produced by Lauren Spohrer, Nadia
Wilson, and me.
00:28:55
Audio mix by Rob Byers. Alice Wilder is our intern. Special thanks to Russ Henry and Sam Turkin.
00:28:58
Julienne 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
00:29:04
Grove and the Department of Justice report. We're on Facebook and Twitter, @CriminalShow.
00:29:06
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.
00:29:11
Radiotopia from PRX is supported by the Knight
Foundation and MailChimp, celebrating creativity,
00:29:16
chaos, and teamwork. Thanks to Adzerk for providing their ad-serving
platform to Radiotopia.
00:29:24
I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. [Music ends.] Jingle: Radiotopia. From PRX.