Management and Training Corporation is hiring staff to reopen the shuttered Marana prison as an ICE detention center for up to 1,300 people, and opponents say it could open in under 60 days.

MTC’s online job listings show the company hiring facility administrators, security staff and other employees for the nonoperational facility as of early October 2026.

A Tucson Spotlight reporter who went to the prison Monday was turned away by a person posted at the open gates. Vehicles were visible on the grounds through the fence, and the sound of metal shearing could be heard.

The contract, worth more than $400 million, was awarded to MTC to provide more space for the Department of Homeland Security’s severely overcrowded detainee population. Independent reporting earlier this year showed that DHS intends to more than double the former correctional facility’s capacity. The plan would use nearby floodplains that are considered unsuitable for expansion.

MTC was awarded the contract despite reports that detailed its troubled record.

“This is happening as deaths in ICE custody reached record levels,” U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva said during an Oct. 6 press conference. “And as the agency fails to provide even the most basic care for the people already in its custody.”

Daniela Ugaz, an attorney working with Pima Resists ICE (PRICE), which organized the press conference, spoke to Marana’s mayor and council during the meeting that followed.

“In under 60 days, DHS plans to open this detention center with capacity to hold 1,300 people,” she said.

Ugaz’s timeline suggests the facility will be operational by late November or early December.

“This is the company the federal government is entrusting with the lives of hundreds of people here in Marana,” Grijalva said. “And they are moving fast.”

Marana leaders have said they have no power to stop the facility, but they will do everything they can to make sure it is regulated and held to a high standard.

For some, that promise is not enough.

Pima County Supervisor Jen Allen, whose District 3 includes part of Marana, sent a statement that was read during the press conference.

“I am outraged. Both MTC and ICE have well-documented histories of corruption, neglect and abuse,” Allen wrote. “ICE facilities are notorious for their inhumane conditions, deliberately used as a strategy to force people into agreeing to deportation. The detention center opening in Pima County will become part of the strategy of dehumanization.”

Ugaz warned attendees of MTC’s plans for the town.

“This company intends to use and abuse Marana, and offer nothing in return,” she said. “MTC’s plans include lighting that will disrupt the dark sky that Marana is so rightfully proud of.”

Residents have already expressed concerns that the facility would create light and noise pollution, damage roads with more commercial traffic, take water from a private well and discharge wastewater into an open pond north of the parcel with no accountability or plans to provide a benefit to Marana.

And according to PRICE, MTC has asked for direct payments from Marana to operate in place of a tax agreement.

“Town officials need to be looking into all of this,” Ugaz said. “There are so many developments here, but they keep repeating their same refrain, ‘there’s nothing they can do. They work for Marana, not MTC.’”

Ugaz said the council has authority over zoning and business licenses, which she said it could use to regulate how MTC operates.

Alex Randall, a whistleblower who worked at the former Marana prison, also attended the Oct. 6 press conference and said at least three instances of sexual abuse went unreported to federal auditors while MTC operated it.

“They couldn’t even pass a federal audit when they were a prison,” Randall said. “Once I learned they were reopening it as an ICE detention center, I did some digging to see if there was any news or indication that was recorded, and I didn’t see one.”

Randall said DHS has essentially told him it doesn’t care about the allegations, and he believes the only real change will be that “government” employees, rather than private ones, run the facility.

MTC has run other prisons in Arizona. The company operated the Kingman prison during a three-day riot that required a SWAT team to intervene.

After a full review, former Gov. Doug Ducey canceled the state’s contract with MTC. The review found that neglect, disregard for safety standards and a lack of staffing at Kingman led to the riot.

Three prisoners also escaped the Kingman facility while MTC ran it, and some of them later killed an elderly couple in New Mexico. The company has faced accusations of sexual abuse, safety violations, escapes, neglect, fraud and riots at its prisons in Arizona, across the U.S. and in Australia.

Quentin Agnello is a University of Arizona alum and freelance journalist in Tucson. Contact him at qsagnello@gmail.com.

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