Sheriffs: Mistreatment of prisoners caused Kingman riot

• Two lawmen say mistreatment of prisoners may have prompted riots at a Kingman private prison
• Gov. Doug Ducey’s Office said there is an ongoing state investigation into the riots’ cause
• Inmates from the Kingman facility say guards routinely pepper-spray prisoners for minor violations

A private-prison riot last month near Kingman that destroyed living quarters and injured 16 people was ignited after weeks of guards mistreating inmates, those with knowledge of the melee alleged in interviews with The Arizona Republic.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and Navajo County Sheriff Kelly “KC” Clark said in separate interviews that state inmates who were removed from the private prison and housed temporarily in their jails complained of poor treatment at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Kingman.

Clark and Babeu have criticized the state for wanting to house more inmates in Arizona private prisons. Both have expressed interest in their jails housing state inmates for compensation.

“What we are hearing is, they were mistreated en masse,” said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose jail holds more than 300 Kingman prison evacuees. “From what I understand, there was a lack of professionalism in how they were treated.”

Two inmates evacuated from Management & Training Corp.’s Kingman facility told The Republic that the rioting over Fourth of July weekend began after a guard refused to allow an inmate to attend a Ramadan ceremony and then pepper-sprayed the inmate when he became agitated.

“The guard said, ‘To hell with you,’ and pepper-sprayed him. During the last couple of months, we were all getting pepper sprayed,” said James Butcher, a 54-year-old inmate from Yuma serving time on drug charges.

Jensen Thomas, 42, another Yuma inmate and drug offender, said at least six of the private-prison guards acted as “bullies” who were “quick with the pepper spray” at the MTC prison in Golden Valley.

The Arizona Department of Corrections and MTC, the Utah-based company that runs Arizona State Prison Complex-Kingman, have declined to specify what caused the riots.

The two inmates were interviewed at the Navajo County Jail in Holbrook. Neither had any disciplinary infractions listed in Arizona Department of Corrections records.

After an initial July 2 riot apparently sparked by the religious dispute, rioting continued through the holiday weekend. At least nine staff members and seven inmates were injured.

Before the Ramadan altercation, the inmates said, guards had used minor offenses as an excuse to revoke recreation time, reading and visitation — privileges that jails and prisons use as incentives to maintain order and safety.

They said the heavy-handedness and frequent use of pepper spray upset inmates and led to a release of pent-up anger after the July 2 incident. As rioting continued through the weekend, local law enforcement was called to the scene to guard the perimeter and ensure there were no escapes.

The state inmates interviewed in Navajo County Jail said a factor that prolonged the rioting was that inmates were upset after the prison fed them soggy, gray bologna sandwiches.

The Republic’s interviews with the sheriffs and inmates provided the first detailed discussion of what might have triggered the disturbances at the private prison.

An investigation ordered by Gov. Doug Ducey is ongoing. Corrections is handling the probe.

“The Department of Corrections is currently in the process of a full review and investigation, which will be public once completed,” said Daniel Scarpinato, the governor’s spokesman. “That review is taking a serious and careful look at what led to the riot and how the prison operator responded. Gov. Ducey wants all the facts. Once he has them, he will take whatever action is necessary to protect the public and prevent this from happening again.”

A Corrections spokesman referred questions to Ducey’s office.

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Last month, MTC said the initial rioting was caused by a medium-security inmate who had become aggressive with a correctional officer in the prison’s Hualapai Unit, but provided no additional information.

The riots were quelled after DOC sent in its special tactical support unit, which used teargas on the inmates.

Butcher and Thomas said the tactical units used pepper spray and grenades that, when exploded, shot black nylon BBs at the inmates to disperse them. They said inmates were restrained with zip ties and threatened with lethal force.

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Butcher said the special forces were brought in because MTC guards fled during the riots.

Issa Arnita, a MTC spokesman, declined Tuesday to respond to comments from the sheriffs or inmates, saying only that the state is conducting its investigation.

“It would be premature and speculative to comment on these allegations,” Arnita said.

Rioting caused extensive damage to the MTC facility, forcing the evacuation of 1,159 inmates. Another 289 inmates remain in the medium-security Hualapai unit. There are 1,782 inmates still housed in the adjacent Cerbat minimum-security unit, which was not damaged.

Four county jails — Apache, Pinal, Navajo and Santa Cruz — and two private prisons are temporarily housing evacuees. MTC is paying the extra housing costs for the prisoners and for repairs to its facility.

Clark, whose Navajo County Jail is housing about 50 Kingman inmates, agreed with Babeu’s assessment of the situation at the MTC prison.

“They (inmates) told me there was no respect,” Clark said. “A lot of people may say, ‘They don’t deserve it.’ But, for a lot of them, this is their home for 25 years. You need to give them respect or this is what you will get.”

The sheriffs said they conducted their own investigations to determine what occurred in Kingman by interviewing numerous evacuees. Their goal was to assure a similar problem didn’t reoccur in their own jails. Corrections also is interviewing inmates to determine what caused the rioting.

The sheriffs said they trusted the veracity of inmate accounts because many independently made the same allegations about what occurred in Kingman.

Navajo County Deputy Chief Ernie Garcia, a 21-year DOC veteran who retired from the agency in 2011, said inmates have told him they grew frustrated at the MTC prison.

“There was no consistency and rules were being enforced differently,” said Garcia, who was warden at Arizona State Prison Complex–Winslow from 2009 to 2011. “They (inmates) have an expectation of how to be treated based on their experiences at other prisons.”

Babeu and Clark also questioned whether MTC guards at the Kingman facility received adequate training. They said well-trained correctional officers know how to defuse problem situations.

“It’s not enough for us to say that in this profession these things happen and it’s part of doing business, because it is not,” Babeu said. “We took 380 of the prisoners without incident. ... Clearly, there had to be a pattern and series of events that had to take place.”

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said in a telephone interview that 24 MTC inmates who were transferred to his jail also have said they were not happy with their treatment at the private prison. But Estrada said he didn’t know if it had to do with the living conditions or problems with fellow inmates.

Calls to the Apache County Sheriff’s Office, which housed 30 MTC inmates, were not returned.

Butcher said he and other inmates were treated with more respect at state-run prisons and county jails than at the MTC facility.

State records show MTC guards at Kingman are among the lowest paid in Arizona, starting at a salary of $28,392 a year.

That is the second lowest entry-level salary among 10 public and six private prisons in Arizona. Only GEO Group Inc., another private-prison operator, pays less. At its Phoenix West private prison, annual salaries start at $24,960.

The entry-level wage at DOC is $32,916, while officers in rural areas make more. Despite having higher pay, DOC still struggles to fill correctional officer positions.