Arizona cuts ties with private-prison operator over Kingman riot
Gov. Doug Ducey announced Wednesday he's terminating the contract with the private-prison operator of a facility near Kingman in the wake of a July 2 riot that badly damaged the facility and injured 16 people.
Ducey based his decision on an investigative report that said Management and Training Corporation, operator of the facility in Golden Valley, had “a culture of disorganization, disengagement, and disregard of Arizona Department of Corrections polices and fundamental inmate management and security principles.”
Problems at the Kingman-area prison began Wednesday when a small group of inmates tried to harm another inmate in the adjoining minimum-security Cerbat Unit. The next day, inmates in the medium-security Hualapai Unit were “non-compliant and caused significant damage” in two housing areas. On July 4, inmates in the remaining three Hualapai housing units caused additional disturbances and damage, according to MTC.
The report also found:
- MTC failed to conduct critical staff training that was required under its state contract, and hid the failures and deficiencies from DOC.
- MTC did not “promptly and effectively quell the riots,” allowing them to last longer than they should have and resulting in more damage to facilities.
- Inmates did not direct their anger at each other but at prison staff, and focused the destruction on MTC property, suggesting “that the riots were more likely precipitated by inmate dissatisfaction with MTC’s operation of the prison than by anger among the inmates themselves.”
- More than a third of MTC performance problems identified five years ago, when the escape of three inmates resulted in a murderous rampage through several states, were again identified in this summer’s investigation.
The report details findings of a DOC “assessment team” sent in by Ducey immediately after the riots, which forced the transfer of 1,202 inmates to other prisons and county jails while repairs were undertaken. The team conducted roughly 300 interviews with MTC staff and another 400 interviews of inmates, the report said. The team also reviewed “thousands of pages of MTC documents.”
Gov. Doug Ducey, seen here examining a destroyed shower facility, toured the Management & Training Corp. facility on Sunday.
Ryan on Wednesday provided more details on what triggered the rioting.
He said racial tensions among inmates began creating problems July 1 in the minimum-custody unit. That led to a riot in which at least five officers were assaulted.
The next day, a riot in the medium-custody unit was triggered by a confrontation between a guard and an inmate over a Ramadan religious ceremony.
Four county jails — Apache, Pinal, Navajo and Santa Cruz — and two private prisons have temporarily housed evacuees. MTC is paying the extra housing costs for the prisoners and for repairs.
Inmates interviewed earlier this month and others with knowledge of the melee previously said it was a culmination of weeks of inmate mistreatment by MTC guards.
The MTC facility’s previous high-profile security breaches figured into the investigation.
In January, an inmate serving time on drug convictions was beaten to death. In 2010, three inmates escaped. Two of them killed an Oklahoma couple traveling in New Mexico.
“This is not the first time we have had problems. But this is the last time we will see problems,” Ducey said. “This is about accountability. Our actions send a loud warning shot to all (private) prison operations. Fail in your job, and we will hold you accountable. Risk public safety, and we will end your relationship with the state of Arizona.”
However, the state had warning signs during the past year that the Kingman facility was having problems retaining employees. MTC has the second-lowest entry-level salary for correctional officers among Arizona’s 10 public and six private prisons.
A lack of adequate staffing can place employees and prisoners in danger because it makes it more difficult to respond to inmate disturbances.
Records obtained by The Arizona Republic show that DOC withheld $851,372 in payments to MTC this past fiscal year because the Kingman facility was understaffed. The state, as part of its contracts with three companies that operate private prisons, can withhold payments due to understaffing.
The levy imposed upon MTC for a lack of staff in Kingman accounted for 78 percent of the roughly $1.1 million in understaffing assessments charged to the three private prison operators last fiscal year.
Last year’s staff vacancy penalty imposed on MTC was the second highest annual amount withheld from the company in the previous five years, records show.
The largest penalty came in fiscal 2011, the year when inmates escaped from the Kingman facility. That year, DOC withheld $889,003 from MTC.
After the escapes and murders, it took eight months and a formal threat by Ryan to terminate MTC’s contract before the company shored up security to the department’s satisfaction at Kingman.
DOC would not disclose how many employees MTC was short in Kingman this past fiscal year or in prior years. Officials also would not disclose how many of those vacancies are guards.
“The Department of Corrections has failed at every turn to hold them accountable, except to take some money away from them,” Isaacs said.