Inmate advocates say Montana's reliance on private prisons comes at a cost

TUTWILER, MISSISSIPPI — The cotton is just beginning to bloom. It’s late August in the Mississippi Delta, an alluvial plain formed by soil deposited from the Missouri, Ohio and Mississippi rivers over thousands of years. The temperature sits around 85 degrees. The white cotton bolls sprout from green shrubs that cover the fields, which are broken only by tree lines — signaling the presence of bayous, rivers and cypress swamps — and a tall, barbed-wire fence running alongside U.S. Route 49.

The fence encloses the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, a privately managed prison operated by CoreCivic, the largest prison-operating company in the country with nearly $2 billion in annual revenue. A water tower adjacent to the prison welcomes drivers to town: “Where The Blues Was Born.” T