On July 30, 2010, three inmates escaped from the Kingman Arizona State Prison, operated as a for-profit medium-security prison in Golden Valley by Utah's Management and Training Corporation. It was owned by the Mohave County Industrial Development Authority. A female accomplice assisted the escape. Over the next three weeks, local law enforcement captured prisoners Daniel Renwick in Colorado; Tracy Province in Wyoming; and finally, with the U.S. Marshals, John McCluskey in Arizona, along with the trio's accomplice Casslyn Welch.
In 2011 Renwick was sentenced to 48 years in prison in Colorado. McCluskey, Province and Welch were subsequently indicted for their parts in the carjacking and murder of a couple in New Mexico after they escaped from prison. They were extradited and tried in New Mexico. Province and Welch pleaded guilty in a plea bargain; in 2014 Province was sentenced to life and Welch to 40 years. A day later an ailing McCluskey was convicted of the murders and on June 3, 2014, he was sentenced to life plus 235 years after a jury was unable to agree on the death penalty. He died in the Florence, Colorado federal supermax prison on March 7, 2017.
The state investigated the escape, holding MTC responsible for numerous security failures. Following findings that the company had failed to control a riot at Kingman prison in July 2015, in August 2015 the governor terminated MTC's contract with the state.[1] It awarded the contract to GEO Group.
This prison management company had been forced out of a multi-facility contract with the Mississippi Department of Corrections in 2012 as part of settlement of a federal class-action suit over the mistreatment of prisoners and failure to provide adequate security at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility.[2] In 2017 the Mississippi State Attorney announced a civil suit for damages against MTC, GEO Group and numerous other contractors[3] in connection with a federal investigation of corruption known as Operation Mississippi Hustle, in which numerous individuals had been convicted and sentenced by the end of 2016.[4]
- ^ Craig Harris (August 27, 2015). Arizona cuts ties with private-prison operator over Kingman riot. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
- ^ Mohr, Holbrook "Associated Press, Groups Say Deal Reached in Juvenile Prison Suit[permanent dead link]," Sun Herald. 27 February 2012. Retrieved on February 28, 2012.
- ^ Mississippi AG files lawsuits in Epps bribery case, The Clarion-Ledger, Jimmie E. Gates, February 8, 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
- ^ "In Epps case, still unclear who else is implicated"[permanent dead link], Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Jeff Amy (AP), June 13, 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
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