Management & Training Corporation or MTC is a contractor that manages private prisons and United States Job Corps centers, based in Centerville, Utah. MTC's core businesses are corrections, education and training, MTC medical, and economic & social development. MTC operates 21 correctional facilities in eight states. MTC also operates or partners in operating 22 of the 119 Job Corps centers across the country."Mission", Management & Training Corporation They also operate in Great Britain, under the name MTCNovo.
Education and training MTC contracts with the U.S. Department of Labor in operating or partnering in operating Job Corps centers in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Minnesota, Idaho, California, Utah, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Hawaii, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi.
Corrections and Immigrant Detention
MTC is the third-largest private prison operator in the U.S. with the capacity to detain more than 31,000 people.Obituary Dr. Robert L. Marquardt, Salt Lake City Tribune, January 15, 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2016. Twelve MTC correctional facilities have earned American Correctional Association accreditation, meaning the facilities exceed national standards and implement state-of-the-art safety and security policies and procedures. Ten MTC correctional facilities exceed Correctional Education Association (CEA) standards for educational programming. Various MTC facilities are also accredited by the Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Facility organization, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, and The Joint Commission.
On August 18, 2016, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates announced that the Justice Department intended to end its contracts with for-profit prison operators, because it concluded "...the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services..." than the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In response, MTC's spokesperson, Issa Arnita, said, it was "disappointed" to learn about the DOJ's decision. "If the DOJ's decision to end the use of contract prisons were based solely on declining inmate populations, there may be some justification, but to base this decision on cost, safety and security, and programming is wrong."
Yates said in a memorandum,
...[for-profit] prisons served an important role during a difficult period, but time has shown that they compare poorly to our own Bureau facilities. They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department's Office of Inspector General (O.I.G.), they do not maintain the same level of safety and security. The rehabilitative services that the Bureau provides, such as educational programs and job training, have proved difficult to replicate and outsource and these services are essential to reducing recidivism and improving public safety.Reducing Our Use of Private Prisons , United States Department of Justice, Sally Q. Yates, August 18, 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
A Bloomberg News journalist questioned the findings,"The Justice Department used Shaky Statistics to Drop Private Prisons", Bloomberg News, Paul Barrett, August 19, 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016. as did the National Review,"The DOJ's Misguided Withdrawal from Private Prisons", National Review, Sasha Volokh, August 25, 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016. For-profit prison operators, including MTC, said that the DOJ report lacked objectivity. The O.I.G.'s report noted some difficulties with its conclusions, to wit: "Moreover, we were unable to compare the overall costs of incarceration between BOP institutions and contract prisons in part because of the different nature of the inmate populations and programs offered in those facilities." "We note that we were unable to evaluate all of the factors that contributed to the underlying data, including the effect of inmate demographics and facility locations." Yates's decision was reverted in 2017 by Attorney General Jeff Sessions under the new President Donald Trump administration.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in December 2016 that the MTC-operated South Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility would be closed and inmates will be relocated,"...in light of the declining offender population because of the success of the agency's treatment and diversion initiatives." It employed about 115 people."Downtown Houston lockup slated for closure transferring offenders, cutting jobs this month", Houston Business Journal, Olivia Pulsinelli, December 12, 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
MTC Medical MTC Medical provides medical and dental care to prisoners at 14 facilities: Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility, Marana, Arizona (and is now being opened as an ICE facility) Taft Correctional Institution, Taft, California Otero County Processing Center, Chaparral, New Mexico Otero County Prison Facility, Chaparral, New Mexico North Central Correctional Complex, Marion, Ohio East Texas Treatment Facility, Henderson, Texas Bridgeport Pre-Parole Transfer Facility, Bridgeport, Texas Gadsden Correctional Facility, Quincy, FL Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility, Post, Texas West Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility, Brownfield, Texas South Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility, Houston, Texas Willacy County Correctional Center, Raymondville, Texas Imperial Regional Detention Facility, Calexico, California
Economic & social development MTC created its Economic & Social Development division in 2004. MTC has provided technical assistance in multiple locations around the world. Work has included vocational assessments, small and medium-enterprise development, training for marginalized populations including women and youth, executive training, national skill set development, technical vocational education and training system design and implementation, among many others. Projects have included work in China, Haiti, Iraq, Palestine, South Sudan, Mongolia, Jordan, and Tunisia.International Development Projects , MTC Trains
Background MTC was founded in 1981 by Robert L. Marquardt, (1925–2012) when Morton Thiokol decided to divest its Job Corps training division. Marquardt, who worked for Morton, and his partners, borrowed $3.5 million to purchase the spin-off.
Reported incidents of violence, abuse and poor conditions California
On October 25, 2003, a 90-minute prison race riot erupted at the low-security Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility in Eagle Mountain, California. Some 150 mostly Latino prisoners attacked black inmates with meat cleavers, kitchen knives, broom handles, dust pans, rocks, pipes, crutches and fire extinguishers.
The private guards retreated, while state correctional officers were called in from distant state facilities. Two inmates were stabbed to death, seven others were critically injured, and dozens more were hurt. Eight short-term inmates were ultimately charged with and convicted of murder. The facility was closed by the end of the year.
Texas Willacy County In November 2007, four MTC employees at the Willacy Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas were charged for using company vehicles to smuggle illegal immigrants through checkpoints. They were allegedly caught smuggling 28 illegal immigrants through the U.S. Border Patrol's Sarita checkpoint, approximately north of Brownsville. The immigrants were from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
On June 22, 2011, MTC Security Officer Edwin Rodriguez was arrested, and subsequently charged with the sexual abuse of a female detainee.
On February 21, 2015, nearly 2,000 inmates at the Willacy County Correctional Center "tent" prison rioted over issues such as poor medical care. The prison was rendered "uninhabitable" according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which had contracted with MTC to manage 2,800 inmates."Willacy County Prison Taken Over By Thousands Of Inmates", Associated Press, published in Huffington Post, February 21, 2015. Retrieved 21 February 2015. Intervention by federal, state and local law enforcement was required to suppress the riot. The Federal Bureau of Prisons soon removed some 570 inmates."After riot, jailers remove 570 inmates from Willacy County tent prison", KGBT-TV, February 23, 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015. MTC informed the state that all its employees would be laid off by March 9, 2015."Prison company: Inmates in Willacy County may have planned riot", My SA, Aaron Nelsen. March 2, 1015. Retrieved 8 March 2015. In March, 2015, the bonds that paid for the construction of the prison were lowered to "junk" status by Standard & Poors.S&P Drops South Texas Private Prison to Junk, The Bond Buyer, Richard Williamson, March 25, 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2015. At the time of the closing, the bond debt balance was about $128 million, and the annual payments due for the bond debt were about $8 million a year.Goodbye to Tent city, Texas Observer, Daniel Blue Tyx, March 26, 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2017. Willacy County filed a federal lawsuit against MTC in December 2016 for "abysmal mismanagement" of this prison and terrible conditions. Prisoners had rioted in February 2015 (see coverage above.) The Federal Bureau of Prisons had originally contracted to house low-risk, non-U.S. citizen inmates at this CAR prison. In a lawsuit filed in early December, the county claimed MTC failed to properly "oversee, manage, and repair" the facility and "turned a blind eye to the enormous problems that plagued the Prison from its inception." The county had received revenues as high as $2.7 million a year from the prison operation, under its arrangement with the FBOP and MTC.
Before obtaining the CAR contract, the tent prison was an immigrant detention center that was alleged to harbor chronic sexual assault, physical abuse, and medical neglect. In 2011, months after immigration officials ended their contract with MTC, federal prison officials decided to send immigrants convicted of crimes (typically for criminal re-entry) to Willacy. The Texas ACLU had long alleged that private prison contractors running institutions such as Willacy cut corners in order to boost shareholder profits. That invariably led to medical under-staffing and extreme cost cutting, putting both prisoners and staff at risk. In 2014, the group documented complaints inside Willacy that caused it to be dangerous. A prisoner said,
They have a lot of people in here. Sometimes it smells. It's too many people. Some people even talk about burning this place down. They just don't have enough space for all of us here. Sometimes it makes me go crazy.
The suit pleadings said that inmates dealt with conditions so intolerable that some were forced to stay in solitary confinement. MTC posted only a solitary guard to oversee each housing pod on each shift. "The unacceptable conditions caused by mismanagement and its failure to take remediate them led to the riot on February 20, 2015." Ultimately, the BOP forced the prison to be vacated, declaring it "uninhabitable" due to MTC's failures. All 400 employees of the prison were discharged. The pleadings further claim MTC routinely failed to alert government officials about its problems there."South Texas Prison Riot Blamed On For-Profit Prison Company's "Abysmal Mismanagement", Michael Barajas, SA Current, December 12, 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
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