JEFF AMY and EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The leader of Mississippi's underfunded prison system was pleading with lawmakers for money to hire more guards and pay them better in 2012 when he warned, "I see trouble down the road."
Christopher Epps, a longtime Mississippi Department of Corrections employee, would later go to prison himself for collecting $1.4 million in bribes. But during budget hearings in October 2012, he said keeping salaries for guards the lowest in the nation would only work "as long as we don't have an uprising."
The uprising arrived last week when five inmates died at the hands of fellow prisoners and two of the state's largest prisons were rocked by what corrections officials called "major disturbances" between gangs. Some observe
