Report points to problems at Arizona prison where melee occurred

KINGMAN, Ariz. — Arizona is essentially firing the private company that operates a Northwest Arizona state prison that has struggled with high-profile problems such as an inmate escape that led to a double-homicide five years ago, the murder of an inmate in January and extensive rioting.

Gov. Doug Ducey held a news conference in Phoenix Wednesday afternoon, shortly after a 116-page report was released detailing an investigation into four days of unrest and rioting in July that injured at least a dozen people at the 3,400-inmate facility in Golden Valley.

Ducey said what happened at the prison operated under state contract by the Utah-based Management Training Corporation, or MTC, is "frightening, disturbing and completely unacceptable." Ducey has instructed the Arizona Department of Corrections to sever ties with MTC and negotiate a transfer of the contract to a new prison operator.

Ducey said the investigation revealed a "culture of disorganization, disengagement and disregard for state policies by MTC, failure by MTC to conduct staff training and withholding these failures from the Department of Corrections and their monitors, failure by MTC to promptly and effectively quell the riots that allowed inmates to rampage and property destruction potentially putting Arizona citizens at risk."

The report, based on interviews with more than 300 MTC employees and more than 400 inmates, identified violations of agency policy and the Arizona-MTC contract. One conclusion: problems identified five years ago continue at the facility.

The corrections department issued a cure notice to MTC to correct security and operations deficiencies noted when a 2010 escape of inmates from the Golden Valley prison led to the murders of an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico. The new report concluded that there are ongoing contract compliance failures in 11 of 31 areas identified for corrective action in 2010.

The report noted that the investigation found misconduct on the part of a corrections officer who killed himself at his Bullhead City apartment on July 15. Jon Kemp, 30, shot himself as officers responded to his wife's 911 call that her husband was suicidal. The report said that Kemp used excessive force when he pepper-sprayed a prisoner in front of other inmates escalating the July unrest.

Reporters at the press conference questioned why the blame is going solely to MTC, and not the corrections department. Ducey said that MTC encouraged its administrators to be less than forthright with corrections department monitors, interfering with their ability to accurately observe and report.

"Our action should send a loud warning shot to all prison operators — fail in your job and we will hold you accountable, risk public safety and we will end your relationship with the state of Arizona," Ducey said.

MTC issued its own statement Wednesday.

"While we take full responsibility for the initial incident, we have significant issues with ADC's involvement in the management of the disturbances," an MTC news release said. "We take significant issue with the conclusions in this report. ADC took staff and inmate allegations as facts and drew conclusions from them without giving us an opportunity to respond."