East Mississippi Correctional Facility at Lost Gap on Highway 80 West will be coming under new leadership as Management and Training Corporation (MTC) prepares to take over the reigns of the prison from the GEO Group.

    According to Issa Arnita, director of corporate communications for MTC, the keys to the minimum, medium and maximum security prison will take place July 19.

    Arnita said officials with MTC are working closely with those with GEO to ensure a smooth transition.

    “Our first priorities include the training of new staff which includes guards, to assess the prison and make adjustments as we see they are warranted and to ensure the safety of both the staff and inmates during this time of change,” said Arnita. “We have been meeting with community leaders, law enforcement agency personnel, and officials with the City of Meridian. The reason we do this is whenever we come into a new facility we become part of the community and we want to be known and active in the communities we join.”

    MTC currently operates 16 state and six federal correctional facility contracts in 22 states and the District of Columbia, said Arnita. In total, MTC has an inmate capacity of 29,159 people. MTC is scheduled to take over two other facilities in Mississippi. Walnut Grove Correctional Facility on July 2 and Marshall County Correctional Facility August 13 are the other two state facilities MTC will oversee.

    MTC, whose corporate offices are located in Centerville, Utah, began as a job corps management provider in 1981 and expanded to correctional facility management in 1987.

    Frank Shaw, who began his correctional facility career 30 years ago as a correctional officer, has been tapped by MTC to head the facility at Lost Gap. Shaw is currently overseeing staffing and transition operations as well as the hiring and training of correctional officers.

    “MTC’s correctional officers will go through the same pre-service training that all state correctional officers receive,” Shaw said. “Our goal is to take over operations with a well-trained correctional staff.”

    The facility will carry about 250 staff members. EMCF currently houses 1,125 inmates. Arnita said some GEO correctional officers will be included in those new staff positions although he didn’t know the exact number who had qualified.

    Arnita said because of the strong job corps programs MTC has developed and implemented over the years, inmates will be given the opportunity to take advantage of educational and vocational services.

    “We believe that many of these inmates will take advantage of this golden opportunity to get their GED or to learn a trade or find a career path so that when they are released they can be prepared for the real world and not end up in prison again,” Arnita said. “We have over the years accumulated an untold number of success stories where inmates have gone on to achieve great things outside of prison.”

    Twelve MTC correctional facilities enjoy accreditation from the American Correctional Association which measures all aspects of facility operations. Nine MTC facilities have earned Correctional Education Association accreditation while two others have been recognized by The Joint Commission.

    The contract for EMCF is for a 10-year period.