At least 12 people have died after a series of tornadoes ripped through the southern states of the US over the weekend.
Another 50 people were injured and some 200 families made homeless in Mississippi, authorities said.
The roof was blown off the single-story Bolivar County prison in Mississippi, but no inmates were injured.
"None of them escaped, either. They did a head count right away," a spokesman said.
After tracking the storm spawned by a fast-moving weather system across the state, Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove declared a state of emergency in the eight counties where the greatest damage occurred.
In the northwestern corner of Arkansas, two people were killed near Wilmot in Ashley County and one near Horseshoe Lake in Johnson County.
The storm system moved rapidly to the east-northeast last night, with tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service in a diagonal line across Alabama and into Tennessee.