A former prison slated to become an immigration detention center in Marana could reopen in the next 60 days, according to an email shared Wednesday by Emily Lawhead, director of communications for MTC.
That email announced that a contract was signed Tuesday, Sept. 29 between Management & Training Corporation, or MTC, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate the Marana facility.
The capacity for the center is expected to be 775 beds, according to Lawhead, and will employ 338 full-time workers.
That’s 50% more than the 513 people the center held when it was a state prison.
A public statement made this summer by the federal government stated an aim to push the number in the facility even higher, to nearly triple the capacity of the former prison, moving the building to 1,300-bed capacity through the use of temporary beds.
“We are outraged that this is happening,” Bennett Burke, with the organizing group Pima Resists ICE, told Arizona Luminaria.
The timeline for reopening comes amid a range of concerns about MTC’s management history.
A story by Lookout and the Intercept published this week alleges that multiple sexual assault allegations were kept quiet, against federal rules, under MTC’s management of the building as a state prison in 2022 and 2023.
And watchdog groups have raised concerns about conditions at other MTC facilities, including medical neglect, lack of clean water and sexual assault.
“As preparations move forward, MTC’s focus will be on operating the facility safely and professionally, meeting and exceeding ICE’s National Detention Standards (NDS), and providing compassionate care to the people entrusted to us,” Lawhead, with MTC, said in the company communication.
The question of who would hold the detention center accountable when it opens has dogged the plans. Town and county leaders say their authority is limited. Oversight could fall to federal agencies, congressional scrutiny and community organizing.
That’s where organizers say they are putting some of their effort right now.
“We expect the town of Marana to do oversight, we expect them to be critics of the facility,” Burke said, suggesting town officials should conduct inspections and send letters as part of their efforts to protect people inside.
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