the costs of its expansions, the Walnut Grove Correctional facility was the most costly private prison in the state, according to the Jackson Free Press. Cornell Companies was awarded the state contract to operate the prison in September 2003. It also received contracts to operate East Mississippi Correctional Facility, intended to provide intensive treatment for prisoners who were mentally ill, and Marshall County Correctional Facility. Although the state increased the number of prisoners held at WGYCF, Cornell Companies did not adjust staffing appropriately. A state audit in 2005 showed the guard to prisoner ratio was 1 to 60, which was believed to contribute to the high rate of violence and abuses reported there. According to the Council for Juvenile Correctional Administrators, a ratio of 1 to 10 or 12 is more common. In addition, prisoners were aging; by 2006 prisoners up to age 21 were housed there to complete sentences. The state assigned older prisoners in their early 20s to WGYCF following expansion of the prison to increase its capacity. These changes made conditions more harsh for the younger inmates. By 2006, the town of Walnut Grove annexed the prison site, resulting in an apparent, and dramatic, increase in the city's population, from 488 to 1,424. As of 2006 the prison housed 950 prisoners ages 12 to 21. The 200 prison guard jobs helped employ townspeople who had been laid off by closure of a local garment manufacturing plant. Walnut Grove received payment in lieu of taxes from the prison corporation; these monies made up 15% of its annual budget. In 2009, William Grady Sims, mayor of Walnut Grove since 1981, was appointed by the Mississippi Department of Corrections as director of the independent Walnut Grove Transition Center, despite his lack of any correctional facility experience. This halfway house for up to 150 prisoners, both male and female, was set up in buildings that MDOC leased from Cecil McCrory, a businessman, consultant to numerous prison management and related companies, and former state legislator. The MODC operated the transition center directly with its own staff. Sims also profited from the revenues of the 18 vending machines he had installed at the youth prison. By 2009, Walnut Grove Correctional Facility had 1,225 prisoners. Cornell Companies operated the prison until August 12, 2010, when Cornell was bought by GEO Group, based in Florida. Mental and medical health services were provided by Health Assurance,