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, 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 McIntosh's son wasn't the only one who had been hurt at the facility. 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 corporations 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

 

 

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Artwork by Julienne Alexander.