In Mississippi, a damning investigation by Mississippi Today and the New York Times has revealed that Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey allegedly exploited incarcerated workers—known as trusties—for the benefit of his family and associates. Over the course of his 13-year tenure, Sheriff Bailey reportedly directed incarcerated workers to clean out chicken houses, haul gravel, craft cabinets, and even install flooring on his family farm and in deputies’ homes.

Mississippi law bars elected officials from using their positions for personal financial gain or using public resources for private business. Sheriff Bailey has declined to comment.

“The way the sheriff’s trusty program is, you’re his property.”

This chilling quote by a former incarcerated worker underscores the deep imbalance of power in trusty programs like Rankin County’s. Inmates assigned to this program receive special privileges in exchange for labor but are also vulnerable to coercion. In some cases, they signed contracts agreeing to serve the maximum sentence for their crime if removed from the program for any reason.

More than 20 former trusties told reporters the sheriff or his deputies regularly drove them—sometimes the sheriff himself—to perform work for the Bailey family. Former deputy Christian Dedmon, now serving a federal sentence for torturing two Black men, told investigators he used county equipment and vehicles on the sheriff’s farm and received instructions to haul gravel from government stockpiles.

The New York Times reports,

The sheriff often took two or more trusties to the farm in the afternoons to complete small tasks, like spraying weeds, sorting tools or cutting grass. Work sometimes stretched past midnight, and several inmates said they were told to keep it secret.

Some trustees said they were paid in cash or meals. Others said they received nothing. No formal pay system appears to exist, raising serious questions about transparency, consent, and legality.

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