Management & Training Corporation, a Utah-based prison firm, has signed a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate a detention facility in Marana, according to a statement from the company on Wednesday afternoon.
The contract was signed on Sept. 29, 2026. MTC said it anticipates the facility will begin operating within two months. The statement described a facility with a 775-bed capacity and a staff of about 338 full-time employees.
Many details of the contract remain unclear. An entry on SAM.gov, a federal database, describes a more than $355 million contract with MTC for "comprehensive housing, transportation and medical services." An additional delivery order allocates more than $25 million for the same task. Another federal database that catalogs government contracts, usaspending.gov, lists the two agreements, but does not provide additional information.
In July 2025, MTC purchased the land parcel — a shuttered prison once operated by the same firm — from the Arizona Department of Administration. The purchase, along with murmurs of an imminent detention center, has drawn scrutiny and ire among residents and immigrant rights advocates, who have pointed to concerns over human rights and rising death rates in ICE detention facilities.
In February 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a performance work statement on a federal database, outlining a potential agreement between ICE and MTC.
But for months, a contract was not signed. As recently as mid-September, AZPM inquired about the contract’s status.
“We don’t have any updates to provide at this time,” a company spokesperson said in a Sept. 17 email.
As the contract appeared dormant in the public eye, members of Pima Resist ICE (PRICE) said they observed regular activity at the site, such as “trucks that work for plumbing companies and just general contractors,” PRICE member Bennett Burke told AZPM.
“We don't have any official notice of anything, but the work is happening,” Burke said earlier this month. “So we know that they're proceeding with getting the facility ready.”
For months, PRICE has pushed back against the planned detention center, often urging the Marana Town Council to take the same stance. The council has repeatedly declined to pass a resolution opposing the facility.
“We aren’t done fighting this thing. Not by a long shot,” said Kristin Downing, another member of PRICE, in a statement Wednesday. “We have been talking with legal experts, doing research, building alliances, and exploring creative ways to make sure this camp never opens. We care too much about our community to just give up.”
A years-long history in Arizona##
Management & Training Corporation, or MTC, has a years-long history in Arizona.
The site of the detention center — an expanse of land near the Marana Regional Airport — was once a private prison operated by MTC through a contract with Arizona’s Department of Corrections.
The minimum security prison held approximately 500 male inmates. At the end of 2023, Gov. Katie Hobbs ended the state’s contract with MTC, citing financial reasons. That decision shuttered the facility.
In its statement announcing the new contract Wednesday, MTC cited its nearly 30-year history in Marana, adding that the company would focus on “operating the facility safely and professionally, meeting and exceeding ICE’s National Detention Standards (NDS), and providing compassionate care to the people entrusted to us.”
The firm, however, has received criticism in past years — including a state-led review under Republican leadership.
In 2015, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey terminated a separate agreement with MTC after riots broke out in a Kingman prison operated by the firm. A state review reported that the prison was understaffed, that inmates held hunger strikes and that employees were “poorly paid,” NPR and KJZZ reported at the time.
A recent investigation from The Intercept and LOOKOUT News reported that when MTC operated the Marana prison in 2022, the company failed to report sexual assault allegations.
Note: This story has been updated to include comments from PRICE and details of the federal government's contracts with MTC. This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.
