/No-show prison workers cost Mississippi taxpayers millions

No-show prison workers cost Mississippi taxpayers millions

Darrell Adams was one of six officers who guarded approximately 1,000 prisoners when he arrived at Marshall County Correctional Facility, rural Mississippi. Adams stated that Adams thought this was normal. Only half-a-dozen prison guards showed up every night over the three months Adams had worked at the prison. It is managed by Management & Training Corporation. Adams didn’t realize that the MTC contract required at least 19 officers. Adams was sent to escort a nurse who delivered medicine to a unit that held the most dangerous prisoners in isolation confinement. A sergeant and officer were required to be present at all times under the contract. Adams and the nurse stated that Adams was the only guard at the unit and also covered for six officers absent from three buildings. Adams was about to leave the unit when a prisoner sneaked out of his cell and ran up behind him. He then smashed his head against the steel door frame. The nurse was horrified when the prisoner pulled Adams into the cell block and closed the door. Both public and private prisons in the United States are experiencing staff shortages. The circumstances surrounding Adams’ attack show a perverse financial incentive that is only available to private prisons. While less staff can mean more danger to prisoners and staff, it can also create more profit for companies such as MTC. Mississippi is a prime example of this problem. State officials failed to enforce penalties for short staffing. Instead, they paid MTC salaries of ghost workers and absent employees. MTC is required to have a certain number of guards at each shift in its Mississippi prisons. If a position becomes vacant, MTC must pay the state wages and a 25% penalty. The company made some payments to the state over several years at the prison where Adams was assaulted. MTC invoices reveal that these repayments fell from more than $700,000.000 in 2017 and to $23,000 in 2018. This despite the fact that staff vacancies rose. According to records examined by The Marshall Project, MTC did not repay any money in its two Mississippi prisons from 2013 to 2019. This was despite having understaffing. It allowed the company to take millions of taxpayers’ funds for ghost worker’s pay. MTC and other prison corporations have been forced by other states to repay millions of dollars for vacant posts and other contractual violations. These were discovered after MTC and other prison companies were criticized for their staffing shortages. MTC and state officials refused to discuss the amount that the company owes for vacant shifts. The Marshall Project requested the monthly invoices of the company through public records requests. The Marshall Project also obtained data about vacant positions MTC submitted from 2013 to 2019. MTC should have paid $6 million to Wilkinson County Correctional Facility and $950,000 to East Mississippi Correctional Facility. Marshall should have received $800,000. Issa Arnita, MTC spokesperson, declined to comment on our analysis. According to a state law, private prisons must cost 10 percent less than public facilities to operate. He also cited the low wages of staff due to a shortage in personnel. Andrea Morales, The Marshall Project. Arnita stated that trying to connect staff shortages with profit is dangerous and unwise. “Our goal is to always have all vacancies filled.” The Mississippi Department of Corrections stated that it has begun withholding payments to the company in recent months after eight years of contracting for MTC. This was due to the company not meeting staffing requirements. Burl Cain, Commissioner of Corrections, declined to interview._x000D
He stated that his department had withheld $208,000 from MTC since June, when he assumed office. MTC is the third-largest private prison firm in the country, but it doesn’t have the same public profile or notoriety as its bigger publicly traded competitors CoreCivic, GEO Group, and GEO Group. MTC, which is based in Centerville, Utah and managed by the Marquardts, a prominent Utah family. The family members declined to comment through the company spokesperson. MTC was established in 1987 to run federal job training centers. In 1987, MTC became a private prison operator. MTC now has 20 prisons in the United States, two overseas and five immigrant detention centers. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the company’s annual revenues were $667 million. MTC has a history of not meeting contractual obligations in its prisons. In some cases, this led to severe consequences. The company constructed what was at the time the largest immigration detention center north of Brownsville, Texas in 2006. According to human rights groups, it was not adequately staffed. There were also complaints about poor medical care and nutrition as well as allegations that detainees were subject to physical and sexual abuse. MTC’s spokesperson said that those allegations were “not true” and could not be substantiated. In 2015, federal agents closed the facility after prisoners took control of the building for two days. Then, they declared it unsafe. Similar events occurred at Kingman prison in Arizona in which MTC was appointed to manage in 2004. Prison officials claimed that MTC’s understaffing had violated their contract two years later. The dysfunction at Kingman was only discovered in 2010, when a group escaped from Kingman and kidnapped and killed a couple. The state investigators blamed the broken alarm system, untrained staff, and unsecured doors. Between 2006 and 2013, Arizona prison officials assessed nearly $2 million for understaffing. The deficiencies did not disappear. A three-day riot brokeout in 2015; 16 people were hurt and the facility was severely damaged. Officials from the state described the culture as “disorganizational, disengagement, disregard” and shortly after that, MTC’s contract was cancelled by Governor George W. Bush. The company contests the state’s findings. MTC staffing issues in Mississippi were raised at a 2018 trial. This was after civil rights groups brought suit over poor prison conditions. Pelicia Hall (the corrections commissioner at that time) testified and was asked if MTC had ever repaid the state for ghost employees. Hall stated, “I don’t know of that.” The Marshall Project did not reach her. Hall and other prison officials did not impose financial sanctions on MTC even after their court appearance. This was because the prisons were becoming more dangerous due to low staffing. Wilkinson prison, which held 950 inmates, was so violently overstaffed that the prison’s former Warden confessed to an internal audit in 2018 that he had given control of prison gangs. MTC invoices reveal that Wilkinson was a high-security prison for 950 men. It was so violent and understaffed that its former warden admitted in a 2018 internal audit that he had given control to prison gangs. MTC was paid $87 million by the state to manage the prison during this time. MTC found that Wilkinson failed to fulfill two or three of the mandatory positions on every shift in an internal audit. The worst was the overnight shift. Twelve officers told The Marshall Project that Wilkinson was often manned by five to six guards, despite the contract calling for at least 30. Markus Chatman, 31, was working at Wilkinson for two month when he was attacked in the most dangerous section of the prison. Chatman and his colleagues were taking men to the showers when a prisoner grabbed a knife and demanded his keys. Chatman claims that the two other officers fled while Chatman fought with the prisoner. He stabbed Chatman in the back, collarbone, and cut his arm. Chatman estimated that only 12 guards showed up at work on the day of the attack. The contract calls for 43 officers. Chatman was able to return to work, but he quit just a few weeks later. He said that the prison was “very understaffed.” He said that people fail to show up for their shifts so often that it was hard to believe they still have a job there. Chatman’s claims were not addressed by MTC. It is difficult to give an exact dollar figure on the amount MTC owes state for ghost workers. The Marshall Project estimates are conservative and are based on MTC invoices as well as monthly vacancy reports. An ex-manager claimed that Wilkinson owed more to the state than The Marshall Project estimated at $6 million. Shift rosters could have provided more precise numbers, but Mississippi officials refused to release those records to The Marshall Project. Although payroll data is more precise than the state’s, they are not available to the public as they are kept by MTC. The single largest cost to run a prison is employee pay. MTC went to court to try to redact staffing patterns from contracts that have been posted for years on the website transparency.mississippi.gov. The Marshall Project is seeking weekly reports from state officials who monitor the prisons. Prior to MTC’s intervention, the corrections department agreed to release these records. This was due to security concerns. Shahrzad Habibi (research and policy director at In the Public Interest), said that private prison companies always try to reduce their operating costs because this is how they increase their margins, and revenue. Habibi has examined dozens of private prison contracts across the country and found that understaffing and subpar wages are common ways to increase profits. She stated that this is taxpayer money that could be used to improve the system. According to Dr. Amy Woods at Marshall prison, inadequate staffing led to a decline in medical care. She said that prison officials refused to transport injured prisoners to the hospital to receive the necessary medical care. Woods was employed by Centurion, a private healthcare provider that was contracted by the corrections department. Although she declined to talk with The Marshall Project, her story is detailed in the federal lawsuit she filed against MTC and Centurion after she was fired last year. MTC declined to comment on the matter. Woods’ lawsuit claimed that the warden in April 2019 delayed her order to transport a prisoner who claimed he had been raped to a hospital to be evaluated. However, DNA evidence must still be collected as soon possible. According to Woods’ lawsuit, two months later, a nurse informed Woods that a prisoner had cut off large chunks of the ear of another man. Woods ordered that the victim be taken to the nearest hospital, fearing that he would die. Woods requested that the victim be transferred to Jackson’s medical center, as the severity of the injury was not suitable for treatment there. According to the lawsuit, Woods accepted. Woods was told by a prison captain that not enough guards were available, and that he should be returned to prison. Woods recalls her reply to Woods: “If his ears rot off and he sues somebody, it’s going be you and not me.” Prison officials finally agreed and sent the man to Jackson that evening. According to her lawsuit, Woods was accused of telling a local legislator about the short staffing issues. Woods denied the accusation. State Rep. Bill Kinkade was the one who denied it. Kinkade testified during a deposition in Woods’ case that Marshall was dangerous for both staff and prisoners because of his insufficient staffing. Kinkade stated that he raised his concerns with top state corrections officials but that the staffing shortages continued. Woods was fired by Centurion even though her security clearance was revoked by the warden. MTC and Kinkade, both the warden, declined to comment on Woods’ case. Woods is due for trial in January. Centurion didn’t respond to requests for comment. Andrea Morales from The Marshall Project. The consequences of a short staffing in MTC prisons can be severe. Adams, the Marshall corrections officer who was beaten last year, claimed that he doesn’t recall being attacked. He said that he fell in and out of consciousness while being taken on a helicopter to Memphis’ trauma center. There, doctors diagnosed him with traumatic brain injury. Six thin metal strips were used by surgeons to connect his broken eye socket, cheek, and jaw. Adams never returned home to Marshall. He now drives a towtruck. He said that the throbbing pain in his right cheek is a reminder of three months as a correctional officer.