31 May 2013 (02:43 UTC-07 Tango)/21 Rajab 1434/10 Khordad 1391/22 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711
“All inmates report significant weight loss since arriving at EMCF, from ten to 60 pounds, and from my direct observation it is clear that all the men are much thinner, almost emaciated…..”–Terry A. Kupers, psychiatrist
The U.S. state of Mississippi is being sued by two civil rights groups over inhumane conditions at a private for profit corporate run prison for mentally ill convicts.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describe conditions that perpetually puts prisoners at “grave risk of death and loss of limbs”.
The East Mississippi Correctional Facility is run by Centerville, Utah, based Management & Training Corporation (MTC). MTC was founded by Mormon Robert L. Marquardt in 1981.
An 83 page complaint alleges that beatings, rapes and riots are common in the MTC run prison. Cells do not have working lights or toilets. Prisoners are denied medical care (one of the most common complaints about all privately run prisons). One prisoner went blind because he was denied his glaucoma medication. Another prisoner lost part of a finger after getting gangrene.
“I’ve been in prisons all around the country, and this is the worst I’ve ever seen!”-Gabriel B. Eber, ACLU
The lawsuit is targeted towards the state of Mississippi, as they were the ones who created the situation. MTC took over operations of the East Mississippi Correctional Facility in June 2012 (up ’till that point it was run by another evil corporate prison outfit known as GEO).
Here’s a snippet of MTC’s evil track record:
In 2001, the MTC run Borallon Correctional Centre, in Queensland Australia, was found to be full of illegal drugs. In Texas, at the MTC run Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility, prisoners filed a lawsuit claiming inadequate medical care, food, rehabilitation programs and legal supplies.
In 2003, MTC was sued by a prisoner after an MTC prison guard at the Bradshaw State Jail, in Texas, cut off two of the prisoner’s fingertips. And in California, an MTC run prison in Riverside County was the site of a huge race riot. 150 prisoners rioted for 90 minutes, two were killed. Somehow the prisoners had weapons made from barbecue skewers, meat cleavers, table and chair legs, two-by-fours, mop and broom handles. MTC prison guards had to wait for an officer to show up with the key to the guards’ weapons arsenal, before being able to put down the riot. The prison was permanently shut down.
In 2004, MTC so upset the prison guards at the Borallon Correctional Centre (Australia), that the guards began locking up prisoners and walking off the job. Prison guards said MTC did not pay them a living wage.
May 2004, it was revealed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) that Lane McCotter, an executive with MTC, was put in charge of Iraqi prisons, including Abu Ghraib. It was also revealed that McCotter was forced to resign as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997, after a mentally ill prisoner was killed (almost immediately after his resignation McCotter was hired by MTC). McCotter was part of a four man team of contractors sent to Iraq to oversee the U.S. operation of Iraqi prisons. They all denied any connection to what happened at Abu Ghraib under their watch.
Also in May 2004, a Senator from New Mexico, as well as the the New Mexico Corrections Department, accused MTC of denying medical care for inmates at the Santa Fe County jail. It turns out that the U.S. DoJ investigated New Mexico’s claims, and filed their own 36 page report documenting inhumane conditions caused by MTC and Lane McCotter (yet they still hired him to go to Iraq).
In 2006, Canadian officials declared the MTC run Central North Correctional Centre a failure and returned the prison to direct government control. The failure included the murders and ‘accidental’ deaths of prisoners, prison fights, computer system crashes, prison guards refusing to work, and failing security systems all under MTC’s watch.
Also in 2006, it was revealed that MTC “left town” when they bagged on their operation of the Hood County Juvenile Detention Center, in Texas. According to county commissioner, Charles Baskett, MTC lost $1.2 million USD!
November 2007, four MTC employees at the Willacy Detention Center, Texas, were caught smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S. using MTC vehicles!
July 2010, three prisoners escaped from the MTC run Arizona State Prison, in Kingman, because an alarm system between perimeter fences was not working, for nearly two years! The prisoners ended up killing two people.
June 2011, back at at the Willacy Detention Center, Texas, an MTC Security Officer was arrested for sexually assaulting a female prisoner.
According to a 2012 Associated Press (AP) investigation, MTC is one of three for profit corporate prison operators making big profits off increased illegal immigration detentions, and the U.S. taxpayer. Almost 50% of illegal immigrants being held by the federal government are housed in private for profit prisons. The AP investigation revealed that those corporate prisons are not saving taxpayers any money, they’re actually costing taxpayers more money.
MTC manages at least 16 private correctional facilities in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and Idaho. Here’s what MTC officials said about their inhumane operations: “MTC believes in rehabilitating inmates by providing them with educational opportunities. For nearly a quarter century we have helped inmates improve their lives and to reestablish themselves as successful members of society.”
MTC is also the largest Job Corp contractor in the U.S.
