Date:
Subject:

Wilkinson County Correctional Facility Comprehensive Audit

To:

Jodie Bradley, Warden

Copy:

Sara Revell, Region IV Vice President

From:

D. Scott Dodrill, Audit Team Leader

December 20, 2018

This report is the result of the MTC comprehensive audit conducted at the Wilkinson County
Correctional Facility (WCC) the month of November 2018. The on-site portion of this audit was
conducted the week of November 26 - November 30, 2018. The audit team consisted of myself, Mike
Atchison, Conrad Graber, Lindsey Mueller, Rick Widner, and Michelle Coffin. The staff at the facility
were very helpful in accommodating the requests of the audit team, both on-site and remotely.

Audit Objective  
The objective of this audit is to identify, report, and mitigate items that pose risks to operating the WCC
in a safe and secure manner, to identify best practices and innovations, and to provide technical
assistance, guidance and training.

Executive Summary 
As a result of the implementation of the comprehensive audit system and the new audit tool, not only
are we combining several components into one review, but areas that have not been previously
addressed, are now. For example, on the last audit at this facility in May 2017, there were three
auditors, on this audit there were six.
The Wilkinson County Correctional Facility (WCC), located in Woodville, Mississippi, was initially opened
in 1998. The facility is a Minimum/Medium/Maximum custody level prison, owned by the Wilkinson
County Industrial Development Authority. The adult male offender population is from the Mississippi
Department of Corrections. MTC was awarded the contract to operate the facility effective July 1, 2013.
WCC houses medium and maximum custody, as well as long-term segregation and protective custody
inmates. 98% of the population is maximum or close custody.
The facility is located on a 97.5 acre site and has 17.7 acres within the secure perimeter fence, which
includes a 14 foot interior stun fence and seven rolls of razor wire on a 14 foot external fence. The
physical plant is a 198,000 square feet structure providing a 950 bed capacity. It holds primarily high
custody offenders and has a total of 8 cell type housing units and one Restrictive Housing Unit. The
buildings have smoke detectors and sprinklers in all areas for fire protection. There are 165 cameras in
operation throughout the facility.
The institution Administration is severely burdened with the constant demands created by a staff
turnover rate that is about 89% over the last twelve months. Currently, the makeup of the security staff
at this all male facility is 76% female and down 36 positions. Turnover impacts all facets of the
institution operation and diminishes the ability to comply with expectations detailed in policy and
procedures. For example, a huge burden is placed on roster management, as policy requires that prior
to an offender being removed from a special housing unit cell for any reason, they must be strip
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 searched, and that the strip search must be conducted by a same sex person. If there are no males
assigned to each of these special housing units, strip searches are not completed, or an activity doesn’t
happen. The number of new staff has also limited the ability to select a tactical team. Currently, there is
none.
Another staffing issue is WCC’s inclination to place inexperienced staff, (staff who have been on the job
for less than a year) into positions in the Long Term Housing units. Staff with as little experience as
these staff possess should not be placed in the most volatile positions. Staff should spend their first year
on the job moving from one position to another, learning and growing as they go. These staff should
only move into positions of greater responsibility once they have demonstrated the ability to handle
such responsibilities.
The following is an excerpt from the Security Audit conducted at Wilkinson in May 2017:
“The management of offenders through the classification system is inefficient. The ability to get support
from MDOC to manage this volatile offender population is critical yet appears to be only occasionally in
play. The perceived approach by MDOC to classify the offenders based on available bed space leads to
placement in facilities which are not able to meet offender security needs. A number of offenders at
WCCF have been waiting for MDOC action for months; slow classification decision making hampers
progress and adversely impacts the ability to deliver sound correctional outcomes. Under the current
system of classification, offenders have learned that a rule violation during the pendency of a reduction
in custody to be a time when acting out has little consequence, since they will not receive a classification
change for about six months (i.e. they have nothing to lose). The audit team continues to believe that
MDOC could enhance success with the High Risk Incentive Program by enabling the facility to move
inmates into/out of the program. Internal movement between EMCF and WCCF as agreed to by the
wardens’, also should, in the opinion of the audit team, be something MDOC should summarily approve,
but that is also not something which is happening. The general conclusion reached by this audit team is
that the Classification system, to include Red Tags, is inefficient, outdated and the ability of assigned
staff to manage it shows more resources are desperately needed.”
This audit team believes this statement to still be applicable today.
The need for a new roof and hardening of the cells is paramount. Both areas create major safety
problems throughout the facility. A memo from John Sprayberry, MDOC Deputy Administrator-Facility
Planning, dated November 26, 2018 claims that the roof project is ready for bid (whatever that means).
He further states that the cell hardening project has made no progress towards fruition. These areas are
repeat deficiencies from previous audits. Additionally, water around the facility cause issues with the
buildings and sink holes as the institution struggles to get the drainage away from the buildings
themselves.

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 Several audit sections that were reviewed, were in as bad, or worse shape than during the audit of 2017;
i.e., count, use of force, restrictive housing, PREA. Some examples of the concerns in these areas are as
follows:
Review of video illustrated that count is not being accomplished as per policy. The review indicated that
food slots were not closed, double counts were not accomplished, cell windows were covered making it
impossible for staff to see into the cells, some staff did not even look towards the cell doors as they
passed, and on one unit, staff never even entered the pod to attempt a count.
Three Use of Force videos were reviewed. The two Planned Use of Force videos had major issues that
requires re-training of staff, especially supervisors. These type of mistakes, especially the common
sense ones, should not be occurring in an institution that has as many use of force incidents as this
facility does. It is unbelievable that a supervisor would stick their entire arm holding a gas canister
through a food slot into a hostile inmate’s cell. It is just as unfathomable that a supervisor would allow
an unrestrained inmate to wander around the pod while a use of force situation was on-going with a
different inmate. Also, a supervisor that takes the role of the #1 staff member on the use of force team
is no longer a supervisor at that point, leaving no one ‘in charge’ of the situation.
The documents that the institution submitted as the individual activity logs of the Long-Term
Segregation inmates in H-J-K pods were neat and completely filled out (NOV). The logs indicated that
the inmates had been offered some rec and showers, but less than the required three showers and five
hours of rec per week. Videos reviewed indicated that none of the rec that was reflected on the
November logs actually occurred except for H-pod’s one day of rec on Nov 5. On that day MDOC had
brought in the drug dogs to search the unit. The inmates of H-pod were placed on the rec yard at 8:50a
and left there until 4:00p. Once October’s records were requested and reviewed, the numbers were
worse and the logs were less than 50% completed. As a result of the audit review of the inmate activity
logs and available video footage, it has been determined that inmates in J-K pods have not been offered
any rec for the last 60 days, and H pod received only that one day of rec as a result of the search of their
pod. Showers range from only 6 to 9 a month for each inmate. Several reasons were given for these
discrepancies; staffing shortages, weather, lockdowns. None of these possible reasons were indicated in
the records, even though there is an icon for ‘weather’ as part of the log. It needs to be noted that the
institution has been totally lockdown free only 46 days so far in 2018. This figure includes state
mandated lockdowns and days when one or more pods in the institution are locked down due to
pod/unit misconduct.
After review by the audit team, showers were given to the inmates in H-J-K unit on Wednesday night
(Nov 28), and rec was offered on Thursday (Nov 29) of the audit week.
As far as outside recreation for the open inmate population, it is hard to tell when that was last
accomplished. Inmate interviews and staff input put the date as being in August. I have no information
to contradict those assertions. Furthermore, I believe that use of the gym for indoor recreation is nearly
as rare.
In the last couple of years the Long Term Segregation pods cell door locking devices were changed from
an electric closure to a turnkey operation. As a result, staff have begun carrying the cell keys on their
person. There have been at least three instances where inmates have assaulted staff and taken the
keys. These situations are exacerbated by the facts that staff do not carry the keys on a key chain
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 attached to their body; that a single key opens EVERY cell on the unit; staff are operating shorthanded,
necessitating the officer with the key be next to the inmate, escorting him; and shoddy appliance of
hand restraints by staff.
During showers on 11-9-18 in J-pod, inmate Hampton assaulted staff and grabbed the keys from one of
the two officers supervising him. The staff vacated the unit while the inmate freed five other inmates
from their cells. The six inmates then barricaded the door into the pod with an unsecured table that
was in the common area. This action defeated staffs’ attempts to enter the pod. The inmates then took
the keys and opened the cell door of inmate Johnson, who they removed from his cell and repeatedly
stabbed. As a result of a lack of gas ports into the unit, it took staff 9 minutes to drop gas into the pod
from the roof, and a total of 27 minutes before they were actually able to breach the door and enter
into the area. Six armed inmates had the cell keys and complete freedom within the pod for 27 minutes.
Only a lack of desire kept these inmates from killing/assaulting other inmates within the pod.
These type of conditions lead to frustration and lashing out from the inmate population. This is
illustrated quite clearly in the institution incident board maintained for 2018. 24 of the 26 serious
incidents that have occurred at this facility this year, occurred in the pods housing the Long Term
inmates.

Approximately 30 inmate interviews were conducted by the audit team. These inmates were selected
randomly from a complete list of the inmates at WCC. During interviews with Long Term Segregation
inmates they claimed that they were not receiving hygiene supplies, state issued items, or cleaning
supplies on a regular basis. Audit team members talked to inmates who displayed that they did not
have any sheets or blankets. (Whether this was as a result of their never receiving such items, or
whether they were sold or taken from them is unknown). Two complete pods of inmates claimed that
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