Read on Twitter
Prisons across the country—public & private—are struggling w/ staff shortages. But there’s a perverse financial incentive unique to private prisons: While fewer workers = more danger, it can also = more profits. A thread on my latest with @josephcneff: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/12/09/no-show-prison-workers-cost-mississippi-taxpayers-millions
In Mississippi’s private prisons, which are run by Utah-based Management & Training Corp. (MTC), it is not unusual for just half a dozen officers to show up for shifts requiring 30+ workers. But was the state actually paying the company for those dozens of missing workers?
Shockingly, the answer is yes. Even though, contractually, MTC is supposed to pay back MS taxpayers for the wages of absent staff, they usually don’t. According to our analysis, MTC owes the state around $8 million (big shout out to the fantastic @eads for crunching that data).
This story relies heavily on public records, which, as you might suspect, we had to fight for. MTC went to court 2x seeking to hide info. (We’re suing.) And so, we gathered other docs that allowed us to estimate how much MTC pocketed that, contractually, should've been refunded.
Pre-Covid, @josephcneff and I spent months knocking on the doors of current & former MTC officers. We heard their stories about PTSD, depression, and prayers said in prison parking lots, asking God to let them get through their shift alive.
Throughout this year, we kept in touch from afar to track what was happening in Mississippi’s prisons, including the story of Darrell Adams. He was beaten unconscious while working a night shift that required 19 officers; he and others said he was one of six on the job that night
For almost 2 yrs we have tried to illuminate the plight of overlooked people in MS prisons: the prisoners beaten or killed, the staff who suffer physical & emotional injuries, & now, the company profiting handsomely as those in its care try to survive. We hope you will read/share
