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MDOC issued the following statement.
Commissioner Burl Cain announced that the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) has suspended or dismissed five employees, including the chief of security, a warden, and a corrections commander, and banned five others from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in an ongoing effort to root out wrongdoing.
60-year-old Corrections Commander Carl Arnold has been suspended without pay and is currently the only person formally charged. MDOC arrested Arnold, head of the K-9 unit, Tuesday on an embezzlement charge, after a 25-year career with MDOC.
“We are working with all law enforcement agencies to clean up the Mississippi Department of Corrections,” Commissioner Burl Cain said. “We are the ones who are supposed to be protecting society from the criminals, not be the criminals. So we will not tolerate bad behavior of any kind. Inmates, correctional officers, and the public deserve that.”
Arnold is charged with taking state-owned copper and stainless steel and selling the items to a private business for personal profit for almost a year. He joined MDOC in 1995.
For legal reasons related to personnel issues, Commissioner Cain said he cannot discuss why the chief of security and one of the wardens were terminated. Nor can he give reasons for suspending without pay a director and an associate warden. A sixth employee resigned effective immediately and can no longer come on prison grounds. The other four people, who are not state employees, have also been banned from the Rankin County prison.
“We continue to actively work with other state and federal law enforcement agencies to ensure the integrity of the department and remain committed to being transparent and open to the people of Mississippi,” Commissioner Cain added. “As our investigation continues in conjunction with other agencies, we will announce charges at the appropriate time.”
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