On Friday, the Mississippi Auditor's Office said it had launched an investigation into allegations that Rankin County Sheriff Brian Bailey had placed staff at his mother's commercial poultry farm, a prison inmate in custody.
The investigation follows an article published Thursday by Mississippi and a New York Times that described former prisoners and former aides working on the farm and used equipment and supplies purchased with taxpayer money.
“We're all aware of the report,” said Jacob Walters, communications director for state auditor Shad White. “We read this article and auditor White ordered an investigation that begins yesterday morning.
White's office can file a potential misuse of government resources and lawsuits to collect taxpayer money. Though he is not authorized to file criminal charges, Walters said the office warned federal prosecutors about the allegations.
Sheriff Bailey did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
In a statement issued to several local media late Thursday, sheriff's department officials confirmed that Sheriff Bailey sent prisoners out of Rankin County Jail to work on her mother's farm, but said the prisoners were always paid.
The department did not share today or Times statements with Mississippi. Several other news outlets announced it, reporting it came from Jason Dare, the sheriff's office's attorney. The statement said today's article in Times and Mississippi has a reputation for the sheriff “malicious, unreliable source and/or false claims in an attempt to change it.”
For more than six months, Mississippi reporters interviewed more than 20 former prisoners and three former deputies at Rankin County Jail today. He also reviewed more than 1,000 pages of county records. Reports show that for many years, special privileged prisoners known as trusts, were brought to the farm and performed a variety of tasks, including cleaning chicken feces and used bedding from chicken homes.
Dare's statement did not directly address many details described by the former Trust and Christian Dedomon, former Deputy Director of Rankin County, who serves federal prison terms to torture two black men in 2023.
For example, Dedmon said sheriff Bailey and others even bought mulch to spread gravel to the soil on the farm using a $97,000 skid steer that he purchased in 2019 with department funds. The statement did not address whether it was true or not.
Instead, the statement said the sheriff “owns skid steers that are identical to those owned by Rankin County and are generally confused.” In an interview before the article was published, Dedmon said sheriff had been using the county skid steer for years and then used it on the farm for years before purchasing his own skid steer and attachment.
Dedmon also said Sheriff Bailey took a large amount of gravel from the Rankin County government's storage yard and directed the gravel to Sheriff Bailey's family farm and spread it on dirt roads. Mr. Dedmon and his former trustee said they would sneak into the garden at night and use magnets to cover the departmental seals of the vehicles they used.
Dare's statement did not address these details. Sheriff Bailey said he had bought or donated gravel and crushed concrete from local businesses on the farm road.
“I'm sure he bought gravel at some point in his life, but I know we're taking a lot of things,” Dedmon wrote in an email to Mississippi on Friday.
Mississippi reported today that the department spent about $600 on skinned skin, chicken nets and heat lamps designed to keep chicks warm. These purchases were for prison chicken coops used by inmates to get fresh eggs, the statement said.
Dare did not respond to calls or emails from reporters in Mississippi who are seeking clarification about the statement.
Over the past few months, reporters have repeatedly asked department officials about the work the trust has done and the purchase of the department related to chicken farming. Dare refused to explain the purchase and said Rankin County government officials would not provide comment on the article.
Local news outlets have recently flooded with hundreds of comments about Sheriff Bailey, but Rankin County officials have largely avoided comments.
Some locals continued to support the sheriff, despite the series of revelations over the past two years, clouding his time. In 2024, five Rankin deputies, including Mr. Dedmon, were sentenced to decades in federal prison for roles in torture of two black men. Today's Mississippi State and the Times investigation reveals that decades of terrorist governance by sheriff's deputies called themselves the Goon Squad.
Grant Cullen, founder and CEO of Empower Mississippi, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group that addresses criminal justice issues, said the allegations are “latest in a series of gruesome and unforgivable actions.”
“Individuals are innocent until proven guilty,” Karen said. “But leadership is important.”
The Mississippi report for this article was supported by grants from the Center for Journalism and Civil Human Rights at Columbia University's IRA A. Lipman Center, along with Arnold Ventures, a nonprofit research foundation supporting journalism.
