Before becoming a U.S. Virgin Islands senator, Franklin Johnson had other roles, including as a Little League umpire. That’s where he met N’Kosi Parris. The boy came from a big family, and Johnson was a classmate of his aunt.
Their paths crossed again when Johnson heard the now 34-year-old had been stabbed to death 1,700 miles away in a Mississippi Delta prison.
Parris was among the nearly 200 inmates sent away from the Virgin Islands to prisons across the United States. He wound up in the privately run Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler.
On April 9, Parris was fatally stabbed during a brawl between prisoners, as first reported by the Charleston Sun-Sentinel.
His death came months after Johnson visited the prison and tried to check on the inmates from the Virgin Islands being housed there. Parris’ death has motivated him to voice concerns about the treatment and safety of prisoners at Tallahatchie Correctional.
Franklin D. Johnson is serving his third term in the U.S. Virgin Islands Senate as an Independent, representing the District of St. Croix. Credit: Courtesy of Franklin D. Johnson
“I hope that someone will take a look at the facility if it’s not being managed properly to get our prisoners out before more of them get hurt,” said Johnson, who worked for the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections for over 20 years before serving in the legislature.
At least five other people, three of them from out of state, have died between February 2024 and September 2025in the 2,672-bed prison operated by CoreCivic, one of the two largest private prison companies in the United States.
Parris received a 35-year sentence for murder and other charges had already served at least 10 years in prison, Johnson said. More than a decade earlier, Parris had survived a stabbing at a Virgin Islands detention facility while awaiting trial.
Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs for CoreCivic, acknowledged that Parris died from a stabbing. He said the safety, health and well-being of all at Tallahatchie Correctional is a top priority, and the prison operates under strict oversight and accountability measures from its government partners.
“We are deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of anyone in our care,” Gustin said in a statement.
In addition to the Virgin Islands, CoreCivic contracts with three state prison systems, two federal agencies and two Mississippi counties– Tallahatchie and Hinds.
Johnson did not know how long Parris had been in the Mississippi prison, but he said Parris was among inmates who had been moved from other facilities that the Virgin Islands contracts with.
Johnson estimates at least 200 prisoners from the islands are held in facilities across the United States, including in other CoreCivic facilities. More than half are at Tallahatchie Correctional, he said.
While he worked for the prison system, Johnson said the practice of sending prisoners away was mostly for dangerous people who posed a safety threat. Under the current prison leadership, he said more people including those with shorter sentences have been sent to other prisons.
Officials provided limited information about what led to Parris’ death and what comes next.
Gustin, the CoreCivic spokesman, said his death remains under investigation. He referred additional questions to the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections. That spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Johnson said Parris was stabbed by another person from the Virgin Islands because those from the territory’s prison system are housed in the same area at Tallahatchie Correctional.
“Some of these guys have problems with each other, and if they were doing a proper classification, they would not have done that,” Johnson said.
CoreCivic did not respond to questions about how it houses prisoners with known conflicts among themselves.Since Parris’ stabbing, Johnson has been told that people from the Virgin Islands have been separated within the facility.
The senator’s office also learned that Parris was stabbed multiple times, and a homemade shank was discovered in a shower drain. Johnson said that indicates not enough contraband searches are happening.
Gustin said contraband is a nationwide challenge for all corrections systems.
“We work as one team with our government partners, and local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies on investigative and intervention efforts to remove, detect, and prevent the introduction of contraband at all our facilities, including (Tallahatchie Correctional),” he said in the statement.
Contractor CoreCivic operates the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, which has housed inmates from in and out of state. Credit: Courtesy of CoreCivic
CoreCivic also has a zero tolerance policy for the introduction of contraband, Gustin said.
In December, when Johnson came to Biloxi for a conference of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, he made a five-hour trip to Tallahatchie Correctional to meet with some of the Virgin Islands prisoners.
He planned to tour the prison and see where the prisoners are housed, but Johnson said he was only taken to a hallway outside the living quarters. He was not able to talk with the inmates because the warden said a headcount was underway. Johnson told Mississippi Today he did not see signs that count was happening, and several inmates later told him they were put under lockdown the day of his visit.
The senator also asked to attend a Virgin Islands Parole Board hearing for prisoners who are being held in Mississippi. Johnson said had been invited to sit in by some members, but prison staff said no because he lacked approval from the Virgin Islands corrections director, even though Johnson said he reached out before the trip to receive it.
“I really wanted to go see them face to face about some of the hardships they were going through,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, the legislature of the Virgin Islands has to appropriate the money to send these prisoners. I wanted to see how we were spending our money.”
Details on how much the Virgin Islands is paying CoreCivic were not available by publication time.
Parris’ death is not the only instance of violence at the facility, Johnson said..
He said Virgin Islands prisoners have contacted him about other stabbings in the Mississippi prison, including several that happened in recent months in one cluster.
They called him the week Parris was killed and shared various stories about what happened. He also said family members have started reaching out, sharing that they fear for their loved ones’ safety at Tallahatchie Correctional.
Previous deaths Mississippi Today reported on at the prison were not attributed to violence. Three were ruled as accidental drug overdoses, one was a suicide and one was a natural death due to seizure disorder, according to records from the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
“Something is wrong about what’s going on,” Johnson said in response to Mississippi Today’s reporting about Tallahatchie prison deaths.
