One month after a federal court ordered sweeping changes at a troubled juvenile prison in rural Mississippi, the private company managing the prison has announced it is pulling out of the state. A report by the Justice Department describes "systemic, egregious and dangerous practices" at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility.

As those words imply, the official report is scathing.

Federal Judge Carlton Reeves wrote that the youth prison "has allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate, the sum of which places the offenders at substantial ongoing risk..."

On February 25, a small crowd gathered outside the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, to push for the release of sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, who are serving two consecutive life sentences apiece for a 1993 armed robbery in which no one was injured and the take, by most accounts, was about $11. Supporters of the Scott sisters have long tried to draw attention to their case, as an extreme example of the distorted justice and Draconian sentencing policies that have overloaded prisons, crippled state budgets, and torn families apart across the United States. But in recent months, their cause has taken on a new urgency, because for Jamie Scott, an unwarranted life sentence may soon become a death sentence.

Jamie Scott, 38, is suffering from kidney failure. At the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Pearl, where Jamie and Gladys are incarcerated, medical services are provided by a private contractor called Wexford, which has been the subject of lawsuits and legislative investigations in several states over inadequate treatment of the inmates in its care. According to Jamie Scott's family, in the six weeks since her condition became life-threatening, she has endured faulty or missed dialysis sessions, infections, and other complications. She has received no indication that a kidney transplant is being considered as an option, though her sister is a willing donor...

An inmate's death in Mississippi has raised concerns for California's prison medical czar about an arrangement to send thousands of prisoners to do their time out of state.

In a letter to the Corrections Corporation of America, receiver J. Clark Kelso's top aide said his office wants to talk to the firm about the "long-term viability" of its $115 million contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The company houses 3,904 California inmates on its out-of-state contract in six prisons located in Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arizona. California's deal with CCA calls for it to house nearly 8,000 prisoners over the next three years…

When Bill 3175 became law Monday, it helped to secure jobs and economic prosperity for the future of Adams County. The bill signed by Gov. Haley Barbour allows the Adams County Correctional Center, under construction by the Corrections Corporation of America, to house both federal and state inmates.

"This new facility is not only helping to fill a need for more prison beds but is also enhancing the economy of southwest Mississippi by providing at least 300 new full-time jobs," Barbour said.

CCA marketing director Steve Owen said now that the facility has the OK to house federal inmates the prison can pursue contracts to house federal prisoners…

The Columbia Training School - pleasant on the outside, austere on the inside - has been home to 37 of the most troubled young women in Mississippi.

If some of those girls and their advocates are to be believed, it also is a cruel and frightening place.

The school has been sued twice in the past four years. One suit brought by the U.S. Justice Department, which the state settled in 2005, claimed detainees were thrown naked in to cells and forced to eat their own vomit. The second one, brought by eight girls last year, said they were subjected to "horrendous physical and sexual abuse." Several of the detainees said they were shackled for 12 hours a day…

More than 1,300 California prisoners already are in a private prison in Mississippi. About 1,300 more could be on the way to the same facility. More inmates are expected to be transferred to the Tallahatchie County Correctional Center in Tutwiler, a maximum-security prison operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America. Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps has said his office will send a monitor to make sure security classifications are correctly followed for the inmates. "The 2.9 million citizens of Mississippi can be assured that safety will be maintained for California inmates," Epps said. In October, CCA announced a new contract with California to house up to 7,772 of its inmates…