In February of this year, Arizona sheriffs, including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Pinal Coounty Sheriff Paul Babeu were highly critical of Gov. Doug Ducey’s austere state budget proposal which cut funding for higher education and increased spending on private prisons. On Wednesday, Ducey announced that Arizona will sever its relationship with private prison operator Management & Training Corporation (MTC) at the Arizona State Prison Kingman Complex following riots there in July.
Ducey has also instructed the Arizona Department of Correction to assess operations at all private prisons throughout Arizona.
Following the riots, which caused significant damage to the Kingman complex and resulted in the transfer of more than 1,200 inmates, Governor Ducey toured the facility, met with officials on the ground and immediately asked ADC Director Charles Ryan to conduct a full review and investigation into the incidents. That report was released on Wednesday.
Among the report’s finding:
•A culture of disorganization, disengagement and disregard for state policies by MTC.
•Failure by MTC to conduct critical staff training, and withholding these failures from Department of Corrections monitors.
•Failure by MTC to promptly and effectively quell the riots that allowed inmate rampage and property destruction, potentially putting Arizona citizens at risk.
“I would describe this report as scathing,” Governor Ducey said. “The report verifies the troubling atmosphere I observed when I visited the prison in July. Now that I have the facts, it’s time for the state to take action. Based on these findings, it is my intention to sever the state’s relationship with MTC at this prison, and I’ve instructed Director Ryan to begin that process, which he has. That process includes negotiating with MTC to assign the contract to a new operator, approved by the state. We also expect MTC – not Arizona taxpayers – to pay for all repairs and expenses related to this riot.”
The state opened the prison nearly 11 years ago. The last riot was not the firt time the prison has had problems.
In their investigation, Director Ryan and his team conducted approximately 300 interviews with employees of the prison operator, MTC, and some 400 interviews with actual inmates, according to a statment issued by Ducey.
After the riot, Babeu revealed that Geraldo Beltran-Torres, age 20, from Mexico, was transferred to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Jail from the Kingman private prison. Beltran-Torres is currently serving a four year prison sentence for Possession of a Dangerous Drug.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Jail had 380 prison inmates that were transferred into their custody after the riot. During the transfer process, PCSO K-9s were used to detect any contraband coming into the jail as well as strip searches were conducted on each prisoner.
Days later, a Pinal County Sheriff’s Detention Officer was conducting routine check underneath the prisoner’s mattress and found a plastic baggie with 31 smaller plastic baggies inside of it. Inside of each of smaller bags was methamphetamines. The drugs weighed a total of 16.9 grams.
Beltran was transported to a local hospital to be treated for the possible ingestion of the drugs and then he was transported back to the Pinal County Jail.
According to Babeu, Beltran-Torres likely “ingested or had the drugs hidden inside his body when being processed” through Pinal County. The sheriff warned other facilities holding these prisoners to be on “alert for methamphetamine and other contraband possibly smuggled into their secure facilities.”