have adverse economic effects in the town of Walnut Grove, which had been booming because of prison jobs and revenue. Other financial considerations are the state's obligation to pay off the balance of the bonds that were issued to build the Walnut Grove C.F. The full bond debt for Walnut Grove ($153.98 million) has to be retired by 2028. After the MDOC moved the last 900 prisoners elsewhere, it said that it was considering using the Walnut Grove facility as an alternative to prison, to house parole violators, or adapt it as a reentry facility. The state of Mississippi remains responsible for the remaining balance owed on bonds that had been initially borrowed for the construction in 2001, and adding more debt for its subsequent expansions. As it backed the bonds, the state made its first payment as scheduled on August 1, 2016. The state borrowed $93.6 million for Walnut Grove in 2010. The state refinanced $61.2 million in 2016, and paid off at least $2.6 million of the principal on Aug. 1. William Sims pleaded guilty to interfering with a witness and received a seven-month prison sentence, plus six months' home confinement. Due to the unfolding case, the sentencing of Chris Epps, who pleaded guilty and cooperated with the investigators, was delayed to May 24–25, 2017. He was charged with receiving an estimated $1.47 million in bribes and kickbacks related to his steering of state contracts worth $800 million to certain businesses. Judge Wingate rejected McCrory's request to withdraw his plea; on February 2, 2017 he sentenced McCrory to 8 1/2 years. The judge said his sentence and others may be reduced after other defendants were sentenced. State civil suit- 2017 On February 8, 2017, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood announced that he was filing civil suits against numerous contractors and individuals for damages and punitive damages, related to the contracts made by MDOC under Epps, as revealed in the federal investigation and convictions. The defendants included former Walnut Grove operators Cornell Companies, Inc., the GEO Group, Inc. and Management & Training Corporation, as well as providers of mental and physical health services, telephone, food and commissary services, and construction contractor AJA Management & Technical Services, Inc. as among companies from which he intended to seek recovery of the cost of state contracts, as required by state law. The state of Mississippi has been defrauded through a pattern of