State auditor orders company to pay millions for understaffing prison

MARSHALL COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A private company that operates prisons in Mississippi is being ordered to pay up for understaffing.

The State Auditor’s Office has issued a demand letter for nearly $2 million to Management and Training Corporation, also known as MTC, for failing to have enough people on duty at the Marshall County Correctional Facility.

Under its contract with the state, MTC was supposed to maintain minimum staffing numbers at the prison.

According to State Auditor Shad White, MTC had nearly 12,000 unfilled shifts between 2017 and 2020, and they failed to inform the Department of Corrections of those shortages.

The Auditor’s demand covers the cost of the shifts, plus interest and investigative costs.

If MTC does not make payment within 30 days, the case will go to the Attorney General’s Office, which could sue the company.

Marshall County Correctional opened in 1996 and was run by private companies until it was taken over by the state in September 2021.

MTC still operates prisons in Meridian and Woodville.

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