Utah doesn’t have any private prisons, but it is home to a company that manages them. As the U.S. Justice Department begins phasing out contracts with private prisons, Management and Training Corporation is preparing for possible cutbacks.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons started contracting with privately-operated prisons a decade ago to manage a rising prison population. Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced it would end that relationship. The department ordered the Bureau of Prisons to either eliminate contracts or to rework them. Issa Arnita is a spokesperson for Management Training Corporation or MTC in Centerville, Utah. The company runs a job corps program and also manages 26 prisons across the country, two of which are under federal contract.
“We just don’t know what that looks like yet but obviously if contracts are eliminated or reduced in size, than that would result in us having to lay staff off at those facilities,” Arnita says.
A report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General says private prisons don’t perform as well as Bureau-run facilities. The report shows they’re not as safe and secure, nor do they save much money. Arnita says the report was flawed and the decision to cut ties with private prisons was unwise.
“They talked about how they didn’t have the full story,” Arnita says. “Yet they drew some pretty stark contrasts between contract prisons and the publicly operated prisons that were unfair and wrong.”
Arnita says the two MTC-operated prisons in question are located in Post, Texas and Taft, California. Together they employ roughly 568 people. He says he’s not sure yet if employees at the Centerville corporate office will be effected.
