RAYMONDVILLE — A new state contract means Management and Training Corp. becomes the operator of the city’s three prisons — at least for now.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has contracted with MTC to operate the 1,000-bed Willacy State Jail, replacing LaSalle Corrections.
“MTC feels very fortunate to partner with TDCJ,” Vice President Mike Bell stated in a press release Thursday. “MTC now operates all of the contract correctional facilities for the state of Texas. We’ve had a long and successful relationship with TDCJ and we look forward to providing the same high standard of care at the Willacy State Jail that we provide at the other Texas facilities we operate.”
At the Willacy State Jail, the new contract, running from Nov. 1 through Aug. 31, 2025, means higher wages for its 250 to 300 prison workers in this farming county struggling with one of the state’s highest jobless rates.
“They’re big employers and they pay well,” Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said, referring to MTC. “The good thing about it is the employees will be making more money — more spending money.”
In town, MTC becomes the operator of the city’s three prisons employing a total of about 700 to 800 workers in this county of about 22,000 residents, Gonzales said.
Now, MTC operates the company-owned El Valle Detention Facility, which holds about 1,000 undocumented immigrants for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with the Willacy County-owned Willacy County Regional Detention Facility, which holds about 580 prisoners for the U.S. Marshals Service.
However, President Joe Biden’s order phasing out the Justice Department’s contracts with private prison operators gives MTC about five more months to operate the Willacy County Regional Detention Facility.
Last month, federal officials granted MTC a six-month contract extension to operate the prison.
The extension gives county officials more time to weigh options as they work to keep open the county-owned prison pumping about $400,000 into coffers every year, including turning over operations to Sheriff Joe Salazar.
Six days after taking office in January, Biden signed the executive order phasing out the Department of Justice’s contracts with private prison operators, including Marshals Service’s contracts.
“To decrease incarceration levels, we must reduce profit-based incentives to incarcerate by phasing out the federal government’s reliance on privately operated criminal detention facilities,” the order states.
The order won’t affect MTC’s new state contract because the Willacy State Jail’s a TDCJ-operated prison nor its contract with ICE at the El Valle Detention Facility.
