Firm picked to run northwestern Arizona prison hit by riots

A Florida-based private prison company will assume the operation of the Arizona state prison in Golden Valley on Dec. 1.

The Arizona Department of Corrections selected the GEO Group to assume the contract that had allowed the Utah-based Management & Training Corp. to run the prison near Kingman.

A history of problems at the prison facility, punctuated by inmate rioting that caused more than $2 million in damage in early July, prompted Gov. Doug Ducey's decision to transition the operation to a new vendor. The GEO Group is one of five private prison firms that expressed interest in the contract.

"Upon completing a thorough evaluation and substantive negotiations, GEO's offer and assignment was acceptable to the Department,'' the prisons agency said in a news release Tuesday. GEO will be compensated at the same per diem rate per inmate that was the case under the contract with MTC.

The agency said repairs to the Cerbat unit of the prison are to be completed by Saturday. Repairs at the Hualapai Unit are scheduled for completion by Jan. 15..

More than 1,200 inmates were shipped out of the prison after the rioting left portions uninhabitable. Prisons spokesman Andrew Wilder said about 1,750 inmates are now housed in the 3,400-inmate prison.

Wilder said transporting inmates back into the facility should bring the population up to 2,000 in December. He said the prison should be loaded to capacity in the spring, likely in March.