FILE - Mississippi Auditor Shad White speaks at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., July 28, 2022. White said Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, that a private prison company, Management & Training Corporation, has returned $5.1 million to the Mississippi Department of Corrections because of understaffing at one of the prisons that the Utah-based company operated in Mississippi. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Utah-based private prison company has returned $5.1 million to the Mississippi Department of Corrections after an investigation found it failed to provide enough workers at prisons it was operating, state Auditor Shad White said Monday.

Management & Training Corporation sent the money to the department last week, he said.

“Every penny must be accounted for,” White said in a news release.

The auditor's office started investigating MTC — based in Centerville, Utah — in 2021 when allegations arose that the company was not providing the correct amount of prison staff required under contracts with the state. The auditor's office ultimately found MTC failed to provide enough workers to ensure the safety of inmates and prison employees, but the company was still paid by the state as if it had.

MTC communications director Emily Lawhead said in a statement Monday that the $5.1 million MTC sent to Mississippi last week resulted from the company’s internal audit of the two prisons it operates — East Mississippi Correctional Center near Meridian and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility near Woodville.

Lawhead said MTC has worked closely with the Mississippi Department of Corrections for the past decade “and has had an open and transparent partnership.” The the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated staffing challenges in prisons and the department gave MTC permission to use staffing money to increase wages, pay incentive bonuses and for “other alternatives to deal with the situation," she said.

“Because the contract states that funds for unfilled positions should be returned to the state, and despite previous understandings, MTC voluntarily returned the $5.1 million,” Lawhead said. “We will continue to work hard to provide the highest level of services to the State of Mississippi.”

In November 2022, White issued a $1.9 million demand to MTC, saying the company had nearly 12,000 unfilled mandatory shifts between 2017 and 2020 at Marshall County Correctional Facility. MTC had operated the prison in Holly Springs since August 2012 until the state took control of it in September 2021, according to the Department of Corrections.

White said MTC failed to tell the Department of Corrections that prison staffing had fallen below minimum levels required by contracts.

Dave Martinson, who was MTC's communications director in November, said then that the company paid vacancy penalties under the terms of the Marshall County Correctional Facility contract, which was amended by the state in December 2017. Martinson said the penalties were deducted from the company’s monthly invoices to the department.

Lawhead said Monday that MTC responded in March to the auditor's $1.9 million demand related to the Marshall County prison.

White said the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, which makes decisions on suing or prosecuting cases, has the auditor’s findings from the November investigation.

News from © The Associated Press, 2023