Thursday, November 27, 2014

Prisoners are money. Keefe: $40.4 million, G T Enterprises: $3.2 million

Time for some MDOC porn. JJ obtained the contracts and payments to Keefe Commissary Network and G.T. Enterprises through a public records request. Keefe earned over $40 million and G.T. over $3 million in gross revenue through MDOC inmate services.


The Keefe contract began on November 5, 2008 and has been renewed several times. It was last renewed in 2011 and will expire on August 31, 2015. Each contract was signed by then-Commissioner Chris Epps. Keefe is responsible for the following services:

*Processing inmate deposits
*sale of prepaid debit cards and processing of inmate trust funds
*Exclusive right to sell music players (MP3) to inmates. $115 and sales tax. MDOC receives $15 per player sold.
*Exclusive right to sell song downloads. Price to inmate: $1.70 per song. MDOC receives $0.10 per song.
*Exclusive right to sell commissary items such as food, personal hygeine products, tobacco, and other items. Keefe paid a commission rate of 29.4% for sales at state-operated prisons and 24% at private-operated state prisons. Keefe also deducted 10% of total sales amount for all "visitation bags" sold each month.

G.T. Enterprises was owned by Cecil McCrory until he sold the company to Keefe in 2008. The MDOC contract began on June 1, 2006 and was amended in 2007. The contract gave GT the right to sell commissary products such as those mentioned above at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. Mr. McCrory's management company operated the prison as well. The company withheld 20% and 24% exclusive of sales tax from sales to inmates. Thee amount increased to 28% in 2007.

GT Enterprises received $3,225,475 in 2007 and 2008 from MDOC. Keefe received $40,434,989 from 2008 to 2014. Mr. Epps and Mr. McCory have been indicted for 49 counts of fraud and bribery by a federal grand jury.





Posted by Kingfish at 7:26 AM

7 comments:

Victor Fleitas said...

Prisoners are money? Keep the private prison system and they'll be food next. See Soylent Green. Come to think of it, our State government will eventually move in that direction without any prompting from the prison industrial complex.

You know, take care of world hunger and reduce the burden on the public fisc without needing to raise taxes. Waiting for the Governor to propose this fix in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1.

November 27, 2014 at 8:36 AM
Anonymous said...

Cecil McCrory's other company is Mississippi Correctional Communications, Inc. with over 20 inmate telephone contracts with county jails all over the state, starting with Rankin County. Those contracts could be hard to service from behind the walls of Club Fed. don'tcha think?

November 27, 2014 at 11:34 AM
Anonymous said...

inmates need no services beyond basic nutrition, basic health care, and quarterly visitation. it supposed to be a friggin prison devoid of pleasurable life. I had times when I had to do without nice food, tobacco, alcohol, family contact, music, and a comfy bed, and I never have raped, murdered, stole, or cheated someone. What in the hell are we thinking?

November 27, 2014 at 7:23 PM
Anonymous said...

7:23
Apparently your eyes just opened up to the big boogey man known as ' the government contractor'.
Make no mistake: it adds to the deficit and politicians would rather cut grandma off of social security rather than charge these folks a REASONABLE rate.
Nationally, the latest public bondoogle was CGI federal in how it handled the ' obamacare' website.
This begs an overbearing question- since these deals seem to be just the tip of the iceberg, what do we not know about that you and I are expected to pay for in largesse to combat the national deficit that is most assuredly being affected on a grand scale in regards to wasteful government spending via ' government contractors'?

November 27, 2014 at 9:51 PM
Don't Call ME said...

You goobers axe for transparency. This gov contract shit has been transparent for decades and you whistle as you walk past it.

November 28, 2014 at 7:49 AM
Anonymous said...

The government contractors all use the connected consultants to do their bidding in the meetings behind closed doors. Without the right person to do this the chance of participation is greatly diminished. There is no way to know what the costs are to the taxpayers but my guess would be at least 10% of all contracts are for payoffs,commissions,consulting fees,campaign donations,ect. There are so many ways to spread the money around.

November 28, 2014 at 1:35 PM
Anonymous said...


Universal Music all shook up over jailhouse rock, sues

Universal Music has mounted a legal challenge against a company that produces so-called care packages for prisoners, including mix tapes featuring some of Universal's artists.

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2015/0108/Universal-Music-all-shook-up-over-jailhouse-rock-sues

"As the world remembers Elvis Presley on what would have been his 80th birthday, another music giant, Universal, is all shook up over alleged intellectual property theft by a company that produces mix tapes for America's prisoners.

Based in Massachusetts, the Keefe Group furnishes the incarcerated with personal items like candy, sneakers, toiletries, electronics, and mix tapes, that is a CD with recordings from many different artists, usually aimed to set a specific mood."

Lawsuit linked here-
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/pirated-music-infiltrating-us-prisons-record-label-says/

"Universal Music claims in a federal lawsuit that the Keefe Group and its associated companies are selling "contraband" CDs to prisoners. According to the labels' federal suit (PDF) filed in Los Angeles"

January 11, 2015 at 9:12 PM

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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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