A Rankin County, Mississippi Sheriff is facing scrutiny after a joint investigation found that inmates from the county jail were used to perform labor on his family’s farm, sometimes under his direct supervision while using public resources.
McLain Farms, a 38-acre property in Puckett, Mississippi, has housed approximately 10,000 chickens annually for Tyson Foods. In a New York Times and Mississippi Today investigation, the land is owned by Sheriff Bryan Bailey’s family. Inmates with special privileges, known as trusties, were reportedly sent to the farm to complete manual labor, including cleaning chicken houses, repairing vehicles, spraying weeds, and performing construction tasks.
For this article, the outlets spoke with 20 former inmates and reviewed more than 1,000 pages of county financial records.
According to the reports made by the New York Times and Mississippi Today, several former trusties and former deputy Christian Dedmon—one of five former officers who pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges in 2023—said Bailey directed or participated in transporting inmates to the farm. Dedmon told reporters he worked on the property while on duty and used equipment purchased with taxpayer funds.
“I hid everything for him. I done everything for him,” Dedmon said. “I know now I was just a tool to be used during a certain time like everyone else.”
Dedmon also said he used a $97,000 skid steer, originally purchased by the sheriff’s department in 2019 for search and rescue efforts, to till soil and clear land at the farm. He claimed that county-purchased items, including weed killer, brooder lamps, and poultry supplies, were also used there.
Photographs shared by Dedmon’s ex-wife show trusties working in civilian clothing on personal projects, such as building a deck at Dedmon’s home in 2020. Several individuals in the image were identified as trusties who were incarcerated at the time.
Mississippi law prohibits public officials from using government resources for personal gain, and the Times reports that violations of this law may result in fines or prison time. The Mississippi Code of Ethics also bars elected officials from using their position for the benefit of themselves or businesses associated with their relatives.
Despite these restrictions, the report details how Bailey allegedly used a county dump trailer and disguised county vehicles by placing magnets over official logos. Dedmon said the sheriff had magnets made for a fictitious business name, “Cazell’s Welding,” to conceal the vehicle’s association with the sheriff’s office.
County Records Show Thousands in Farm-Related Purchases
Since 2018, county records show that more than $50,000 has been spent on attachments for the skid steer, and nearly $10,000 has been used for weed killer. Additional purchases included poultry netting and other items commonly used in chicken farming.
In the New York Times, Bailey declined to comment through the department’s attorney, Jason Dare, who stated that the office would no longer respond to questions from the reporting outlets.
Trusty Program Raises Ethical and Legal Red Flags
Many of the trusties interviewed praised the program overall but said they felt pressured to comply with requests to work on the farm. Trusties in Rankin County agree to forgo payment for their duties in exchange for lighter sentencing and special privileges within the jail.
“The way the sheriff’s trusty program is, you’re his property,” one former inmate told Mississippi Today.
The U.S. Department of Justice is already investigating Rankin County after five deputies, including Dedmon, were charged in 2023 with torturing two Black men in their home. Those charges followed allegations that some members of the sheriff’s department had carried out violent acts against civilians over a period of nearly 20 years.
Angela English, president of the Rankin County chapter of the NAACP, said the latest revelations raise new concerns about abuse of power.
“When you provide someone with that much authority and they don’t have to answer to anyone,” English said to the New York Times, “you’re asking for trouble.”
The Mississippi State Auditor’s Office has launched a formal investigation into whether public funds or inmate labor were improperly used for personal benefit.
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