Three Mississippi prisons needed more employees to ensure safety for incarcerated people. But the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, Marshall County Correctional Facility and Wilkinson Correctional Facility received no new help despite Management and Training Corporation receiving a contract worth $7.4 million in taxpayer money with the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Mississippi State Auditor Shad White alleges in a Monday press release.
“I don’t care how big of an out-of-state company you are or how many campaign donations you make to the other politicians, if you owe taxpayers money because you failed to live up to a contract with government, we will demand you pay it back,” he said in the press release. “No free rides on the backs of taxpayers.”
White said auditors began investigating the company after hearing allegations that MTC was not fulfilling its contractual obligations with MDOC and had not provided any additional employees for the prisons. Investigators determined that MTC had not provided the “minimum mandatory staff to ensure the safety of inmates and prison employees but were paid as if they had,” the press release noted.
As a result of MTC’s alleged misspending of taxpayer money, White has issued civil demands to the company for not providing staff for the three correctional facilities. The Mississippi Department of Corrections received invoices from White’s office of $6,002,027.92 for the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, $462,299.32 for the East Mississippi Correctional Facility and $959,240.06 for the Marshall County Correctional Facility.
The auditor said he referred the demand to the Mississippi Attorney General Office to enforce in court.
“This is one of the largest civil demands made in the history of the Auditor’s Office,” White said in the press release. “We’re now turning this case over to the AG’s Office for enforcement to ensure accountability for taxpayers, and I hope they will litigate the case immediately.”
MTC is a contractor that manages private prisons, immigration detention facilities, job corp training facilities, community release centers, treatment programs and outpatient behavioral health programs. Based out of Utah, the for-profit company provides staff, treatment programs, and health care services across the U.S. and in England and Australia.
The Mississippi Free Press reached out to Emily Lawhead from the communications department at MTC but did not receive a response by press time.
