NAURU (Commonwealth Union)_ A little over 100 detainees will receive “garrison and welfare services” from the private jail company in charge of Australia’s offshore processing program on Nauru for more than three quarters of a million dollars each day. The US-based Management and Training Corporation, a business that has previously been charged in US courts with “gross negligence” and “egregious” security violations, has been given a $47.3 million contract to work on the Pacific Island for just 62 days.
According to the most recent official statistics, 111 refugees and asylum seekers are now living on Nauru under Australia’s offshore regime. Over the next two months, MTC will receive $425,000 for each individual it retains on the island.
It was a contentious decision to take over the Nauru contract, which had previously drawn parliamentary scrutiny due to its stubbornly high operating expenses, despite the fact that the number of refugees and asylum seekers detained on the island had been drastically decreased.
Canstruct International, the previous contract holder, won a series of cascading, non-competitive contract tenders beginning in 2017, with a total cost surpassing $1.82 billion over five years.
Even though the number of persons using the system decreased by more than 90%, from over 1,100 to just over 100, the cost of administering the Nauru offshore regime remained constant throughout Canstruct’s leadership at $35 million to $40 million per month. The contracts have been the focus of in-depth parliamentary investigation.
MTC has previously been charged with “gross negligence” and “egregious” security lapses in the US, which are alleged to have contributed to the gang rape of a detained woman, the murder of two retirees by escaped prisoners, and the months-long solitary confinement of an American citizen wrongfully detained in immigration detention.
With 21 correctional facilities and immigration detention facilities, MTC is the third-largest private jail operator in the US. However, a Guardian investigation into MTC-run detention facilities showed a long list of security lapses and carelessness.
MTC is still facing legal action for the allegedly illegal incarceration of a US citizen for more than 14 months, the most of which was spent in solitary confinement. A bribery case brought by the state of Mississippi was settled for more than $8 million (US$5 million) as a result of a conspiracy in which MTC reportedly paid bribes to state officials in exchange for contracts with the department of prisons.
