WALNUT GROVE, Miss.–Last week’s prison riot at the privately-run Walnut Grove Correctional Facility was because contraband did not make it into the prison, said Chris Epps, commissioner of the state Dept. of Corrections. News Mississippi affiliate 98.3 The Groove reported that 11 footballs, filled with knives, cigars, cell phones and pot, were intercepted.
About 30 minutes later is when the riot broke out. That was Thursday night.
Nine people were stabbed in the riot and Walnut Grove Police arrested the man they think brought the footballs to the game, Marcus Warnsley of Forest.
The contents of the footballs were described as a regular convenience store, with the marijuana along side razors, the phones, the chargers and headphones.
The Associated Press reported that Warnsley denied being the one with the footballs and that he was on his way from work at the Nissan plant to pick up a cousin who works at PECO, when he broke down and pulled into the prison parking lot.
As of now, police are not buying the story.
And just how the inmates learned that the contraband-filled footballs were intercepted, that’s also being looked into.
Management and Training Corp. runs the Walnut Grove prison on behalf and under the direction of the Miss. Dept. of Corrections.
