Jerry Mitchell

The Clarion-Ledger

Families have paid thousands of dollars in "protection money" to inmates, gangs and guards to keep their loved ones from being harmed or killed behind bars.

Days before last Christmas, Janet Stewart got a telephone call, asking if she wanted to see her son alive again.

The caller wanted $400 and identified himself as an inmate at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility — the same prison where her son was serving time.

She took the threat seriously. Gang members had already beaten her son Dec. 1.

"When somebody says he has your kid for ransom, you're going to pay," she said. "You're going to do everything you can to keep them alive."

She sent $400 to the inmate by way of Green Dot, a prepaid credit card service that inmates use.

Days later, gang members stabbed her son anyway.

Upset, she texted the inmate and asked why.

He texted her back: "Those are just growing pains."

Three days later, the family sat around a tree, minus the yuletide cheer. "My kids did without Christmas," she said.

Sabrina Clanton, whose young son was behind bars for several years, said her mother sent up to $350 a month to inmates through Green Dot cards. "It was to pay these gang members off so he could stay alive," she said.

Her family had every reason to fear.

After her son arrived at Walnut Grove Correctional Facility at age 17, gang members stabbed him 32 times, leaving him blind in one eye, she said. "I cried for a week."

Three more assaults followed, including another stabbing, this one at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.

With each threat, Clanton felt more helpless, her family having to pay a ransom by a deadline or "he would be killed," she said. "His family and friends were all sending money."

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said when claims are substantiated, his department takes action and refers cases for prosecution.

Clanton said she tried to report the extortion but wasn't able to get through to anyone. She told The Clarion-Ledger her son was going to be killed, which the newspaper reported to Epps, who moved her son to protective custody.

None of the families wanted their imprisoned relatives identified for fear of gang retaliation.

In a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center against East Mississippi Corrections Facility, Matthew Naidow, a correctional officer there, acknowledged some inmates extort other inmates and their families, saying, "We're going to kill you or stab you or beat you up or whatever if you don't have your family send in some Green Dot money."

Brenda Moreno, whose son, Clifton Majors, was murdered behind bars last year, said she paid $200 to a correctional officer, who telephoned her and promised to keep her son safe at the State Penitentiary at Parchman.

She quit paying after learning the officer was collecting money from multiple families, she said.

Days before her son was released from prison, Diane Mathis spoke with The Clarion-Ledger.

During his time behind bars, she received repeated threats through texts or calls to her cell phone that they would harm her son in the State Penitentiary if she didn't pay them.

One text warned her if she didn't pay they would "beat the f--- out" of her son.

Over a two-year period, she was forced to pay between $2,000 and $2,500, she said.

The amount put her deep in debt, but she had no other choice, she said. "(People) say it's a con game, but what if it's not? They'll kill my son."

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.