Mississippi Doctor Sentenced to Prison for Bribery of Former Corrections Commissioner

Jackson, Miss – Dr. Carl Reddix, 59, of Jackson, was sentenced today for paying bribes and kickbacks to former Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner (MDOC) Christopher B. Epps in exchange for receiving contracts involving the MDOC and its operations, announced United States Attorney Mike Hurst and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Freeze.

Reddix was sentenced to serve 72 months in federal prison followed by 2 years of supervised release. He was also fined $15,000 and ordered to forfeit $1,266,438.00.

Reddix was a part owner of an inmate health care services provider known as Health Assurance, LLC. Reddix began paying bribes and kickbacks to Epps in 2012 to obtain contracts for Health Assurance to provide inmate health care services at East Mississippi Correctional Facility and Marshall County Correctional Facility. In 2013, Health Assurance obtained an additional contract to provide inmate health care services at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility. Reddix paid monthly bribes and kickbacks to Epps for these contracts and other potential contracts. When the scheme was discovered, Reddix had paid Epps a total of $187,500 in kickbacks. In return, Reddix and his company, Health Assurance, had obtained over $22 million in contracts with the MDOC.

"Today, justice was served. Dr. Carl Reddix personally bribed MDOC Commissioner Chris Epps at least 36 times over an approximately three-year period for numerous contracts worth millions of dollars. This wasn’t a mistake or a one-time occurrence. Sadly, it was simply greed, coupled with callousness for our government, public institutions and the criminal justice system," said U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst. "Those who allow greed and rapacity to corrupt our system of government and rule of law will be held to answer for their crimes and wrongdoings. Today’s sentence illustrates that the illegal sale of our jails will end in a jail cell."

FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Freeze applauded the investigators and prosecutors, whose hard work and determined efforts revealed these additional participants in this conspiracy of public corruption and led to the sentence announced today.

Reddix is scheduled to report to prison on January 29, 2018.