Arizona Town’s Probe on Sex Abuse Claims Could Block Prison Firm Building New ICE Camp

This story was published in partnership with LOOKOUT News.

An official from Marana, Arizona, is seeking clarification from the private prison giant Management and Training Corporation about its handling of sexual abuse allegations at the former state prison in the town, following an investigation from LOOKOUT and The Intercept.

In an October 28 letter, reviewed by LOOKOUT and The Intercept, Marana Finance Director and License Inspector Yiannis Kalaitzidis asked MTC Senior Vice President Mary Calvin for a written explanation of what the town official called an “apparent inconsistency” between state records and the facility’s 2023 Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, audit, a report required by the federal law.

The request is part of the town’s review of MTC’s October 1 application for a business license to “Operate Marana Detention Facility.” The company ran a former Arizona state prison in Marana and plans to reopen it imminently as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention camp.

The letter cites a September 29 LOOKOUT and Intercept investigation about how state records reference three allegations of sexual misconduct at the prison in 2022 and 2023. 

PREA audits — which are required for jails, prisons, and detention centers at least once every three years — must record all allegations of sexual misconduct at detention facilities, whether they are substantiated or not. Certified in December 2023, MTC’s report for the Marana prison, however, recorded none. 

Kalaitzidis noted in his letter that the audit says the finding of zero incidents was verified by the warden, chief of security, PREA compliance manager, and internal investigator. He also wrote that, despite the apparent reviews by several company officials, the report “does not appear to be certified or signed by any MTC personnel.”

The letter says the town of Marana is requesting the explanation as part of an investigation into whether MTC “made a material false statement in conducting the business” of the state prison facility, which would be grounds for denial of a business license according to the town’s code.

“The Town of Marana is currently reviewing MTC’s business license application,” said Andrea De La Cruz, the assistant town manager, told LOOKOUT and The Intercept by email. “As part of our review process and due diligence, the Town has contacted MTC to request additional information. The application remains under review, and no final determination has been made at this time.”

MTC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Changing Political Context

Local residents and officials say the state, the federal government, and MTC left them out of meaningful discussions about reopening the prison as an ICE camp, LOOKOUT and The Intercept previously reported.

For now, a town business license is among the few levers local officials have.

In an October 2 letter from the local group Pima Resists ICE, or PRICE, to a Marana official who specialized in licensure, organizers cited not only the discrepancies between state investigations into sexual abuse and the PREA audit, but also alleged violations involving an escape from an MTC prison in Kingman, Arizona, in 2010, as well as abuses in a New Mexico immigration camp run by MTC as revealed in a 2017 DHS Office of Inspector General report.

The inquiry comes as Arizona’s political landscape is shifting. The midterm election gave Democrats control of both chambers of the state legislature as well as the governor’s office — a historic change in state power. Republicans will be in the minority at the state Capitol for the first time in 60 years.

That has Democratic lawmakers talking about taking on one of the most contentious laws in recent Arizona history. Following protests across the state, Democrats took up the cause of repealing a controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law known as Senate Bill 1070. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down three of its provisions, leaving a requirement that police check the immigration status of people they stop under certain circumstances.

“I would absolutely love to see a repeal of SB1070,” state Sen. Analise Ortiz, a Democrat from Glendale, told LOOKOUT and The Intercept. “There are still parts of that law on the books that are enabling cities to collaborate with ICE to rip families apart, and that needs to stop.”

State Rep. Betty Villegas, D-Tucson, echoed Ortiz: “We already have bills aligned to focus on what other states have done to control ICE from coming into private property.”

Following the lead of neighboring New Mexico’s prohibition on local jurisdictions entering into contracts with ICE for immigrant detention camps, Villegas said Democrats in Arizona see an appetite for doing something similar in their own state.

Ortiz agreed, saying there is “likely an appetite” for something similar in Arizona, and that the Latino Caucus would address the issue.

Local nonprofits said lawmakers should also conduct a review of no-bid contracts like the one inked between the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, and MTC. 

“This was literally handed to them with no review and no public input,” said Caroline Isaacs, the executive director of Just Communities Arizona, a nonprofit working on criminal justice reform. “We do not want the Democrats to wait until things get bad to investigate conditions.”

“We want them to do this now, before people get hurt.”