FILE - Mississippi Auditor Shad White speaks at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., July 28, 2022. White said Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, that a private prison company, Management & Training Corporation, has returned $5.1 million to the Mississippi Department of Corrections because of understaffing at one of the prisons that the Utah-based company operated in Mississippi. A Utah-based private prison company has returned $5.
The auditor's office started investigating MTC — based in Centerville, Utah — in 2021 when allegations arose that the company was not providing the correct amount of prison staff required under a contract with the state. The auditor's office ultimately found MTC failed to provide enough workers to ensure the safety of inmates and prison employees, but the company was still paid by the state as if it had.
MTC communications director Dave Martinson said in November that the company paid vacancy penalties under the terms of the Marshall County Correctional Facility contract, which was amended by the state in December 2017. Martinson said the penalties were deducted from the company’s monthly invoices to the department.
Lawhead said the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated staffing challenges in prisons and the department gave MTC permission to use staffing money to increase wages, pay incentive bonuses and for “other alternatives to deal with the situation.”
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