Company that once operated Marshall County’s prison faces $1.9M audit over staffing issues

MARSHALL CO., Miss. (WMC) - A private company that once operated Marshall County’s prison is now facing one of the largest audits by the state of Mississippi.

Management and Training Corporation (MTC) is facing a $1.9 million audit by the state of Mississippi.

MTC has been hit with a civil demand, for failing to meet staffing obligations for a 3-year period.

MTC no longer operates the Marshall County facility, but a past lack of staffing has had a big impact on the people working there.

It was a scary situation when a Marshall County prison guard was attacked inside the prison in 2019.

“According to this guard, there were only 6 on duty that evening and so a tragic incident happens again, you need a sufficient number of prison guards to maintain a safe prison--both for the inmates and the prison guards who do show up for duty,” Mississippi State Auditor Shad White said.

However, even before that incident, Auditor White had already begun investigating Management and Training Corporation.

“We learned a while back that, MTC, this company had allegedly been supplying a smaller number that is necessary of prison guards under their contract with the state,” White said.

White says his office wants that taxpayer money returned to the state.

“If you’ve got a thousand prisoners in the Marshall County prison, which is about how many you would expect in the given years that we looked at, MTC estimated that they might need 19 or so prison guards but they fell far below that in many different instances,” White said.

In a statement, MTC said:

“MTC paid vacancy penalties pursuant to the terms of the Marshall contract, as amended by MDOC in December 2017. The calculations in the State Auditor’s demand are inconsistent with the terms of the amended contract.”

White says his office has been plowing through thousands of documents and timesheets with one goal.

“Our goal in the state auditor’s office is to make sure that every single dollar that is owed back to Mississippi’s taxpayers is identified and as much of that, as can be repaid, is repaid,” said White. This is not the only prison in Mississippi that MTC operates, so there’s the Marshall County prison, but there’s two other prisons in the state, so this really is not end of our work on this issue, this is the beginning of our work on this issue.”

Auditor Shad White tells Action News 5 MTC has 30 days to repay the money it owes the state.

If MTC doesn’t pay the money, White says the files will be turned over to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, which could take MTC to court.

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