This story was published in partnership with LOOKOUT<\/a> News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Rumors were spreading<\/span> for weeks in the spring of 2022. At Arizona State Prison\u2013Marana, the talk centered on an employee of Management and Training Corporation, or MTC, the Utah-based for-profit prison company that ran the facility. A clerk at the commissary, Alicia Simmons, had been carrying on an illicit sexual relationship with an incarcerated person.<\/p>\n In April, the situation exploded onto the radars of top prison officials. A fight broke out between two prisoners that two former MTC employees who spoke to LOOKOUT and The Intercept later said was over Simmons. After the fracas, according to a state-level investigation, Simmons admitted to having sex, sometimes four times a week, with an incarcerated person. She was let go by MTC and served with a search warrant for her phone and car. The Arizona Department of Corrections Special Investigations Unit conducted an official probe.<\/p>\n According to an internal report on the sexual abuse allegations filed at the prison in the wake of the affair, a high-ranking prison guard at the detention facility prepared a \u201cPREA packet,\u201d an initial recitation of allegations and evidence made in compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.<\/p>\n The PREA packet cleared the way for information about the allegations to become public: Its existence would be noted the following year in a legally mandated PREA audit. The audits must be published by all carceral facilities covered by the law at least once every three years and must list all incidents and allegations of sexual contact between staff and incarcerated people.<\/p>\n The whistleblower said that he had direct conversations about the sexual abuse allegations with the warden.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n And yet, a year later, Marana\u2019s PREA audit said nothing about the allegations against Simmons.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no reported incidents of sexual abuse or sexual harassment reported within the last 24 months,\u201d according to the final October 2023 PREA audit.<\/p>\n Now, a former employee of MTC who worked at the Marana prison is speaking out for the first time about what top officials at the facility knew ahead of the PREA audit\u2019s publication. The whistleblower, Alex Randall, told LOOKOUT and The Intercept that he had direct conversations about the sexual abuse allegations with the warden, other officials, and Simmons herself. Randall said he was not the only MTC employee the warden discussed the matter with.<\/p>\n \u201cI was sitting in with my manager, me, and the warden when the warden told us all about what happened,\u201d Randall said of the day Simmons was issued a warrant and let go from her position.<\/p>\n Randall\u2019s account \u2014 including of what prison leadership knew about the allegations \u2014 was corroborated by another former employee at Marana with direct knowledge of the warden\u2019s conversations. The second former employee spoke to LOOKOUT and The Intercept on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. An Arizona Department of Corrections Information Report prepared by a prison staffer on the day of the incident also said information about allegations of sexual contact between a staffer and an incarcerated person was provided to the warden.<\/p>\n The incarcerated person denied having sex with Simmons, according to a later Department of Corrections investigation, and Simmons was not referred to outside law enforcement for criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n Despite widespread knowledge of the allegations and the official paper trail, the warden at the time \u2014 Jeremy Casey, who is listed as the primary contact in the audit \u2014 verified in the published report there were no reported incidents of sexual abuse or harassment. (Simmons, MTC, Casey, and the Arizona Department of Corrections did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There were at least two other incidents of sexual abuse reported during the period covered by the 2023 PREA report, according to Arizona Department of Corrections investigative reports obtained through public records requests. One was from August 2022 about an employee allegedly kissing an incarcerated person and having an email correspondence with him that was \u201csexual in nature.\u201d In another case, just weeks before the 2023 PREA audit was conducted, the corrections department\u2019s Criminal Investigative Unit conducted interviews about an allegation that a prison guard had encouraged an incarcerated person to perform oral sex. Those allegations also should have appeared on the subsequent PREA audit but did not.<\/p>\n In 2023, Arizona State Prison\u2013Marana was closed and languished in dormancy until it was sold to back to MTC in 2025 \u2014 just as the Department of Homeland Security was looking for more bed space to detain immigrants.<\/p>\n Randall\u2019s insider account of the lapse in PREA reporting and other conditions are resurfacing Marana\u2019s checkered history at a critical moment for the prison.<\/p>\n Last year, after selling the prison back to MTC, the Marana facility is slated to reopen as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. Federal officials, according to government documents, want to nearly triple the prison\u2019s capacity to roughly 1,300 beds, according to a Department of Homeland Security floodplain notice<\/a>. It is unknown when the prison is set to reopen.<\/p>\n \u201cICE is pursuing all available options to expand detention bedspace capacity, including partnerships with state and local governments to house detainees at existing facilities,\u201d Fernando X. Burgos, a public affairs officer for ICE, told LOOKOUT and The Intercept.<\/em><\/p>\n The plan is facing significant oppositions from local residents and officials who say they are being cut out of any oversight for reopening the prison.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole business model is taking an inherently expensive proposition and skimming a profit off the top.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Critics of the plan say the failure of MTC to properly deal with the sexual abuse allegations and other problems, including those stemming from what insiders say were staffing and resource issues, raise serious questions about the company\u2019s future running a massive immigration detention center at the same location. By their nature, private prisons<\/a>, which cut costs for the sake of their bottom lines, are predisposed to the types of conditions that can lead to abuses like sexual misconduct and encourage shoddy reporting by officials, critics of the Marana facility argued.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole business model is taking an inherently expensive proposition \u2014 the care and feeding of thousands of people, the running of a small city \u2014 and skimming a profit off the top,\u201d said Caroline Isaacs, the executive director of Just Communities Arizona, a nonprofit working on criminal justice reform; she is also a member of Pima Resists ICE, known as PRICE, which opposes reopening the prison as an ICE camp.<\/p>\n Isaacs pointed to wider allegations about other MTC facilities<\/a>, including in Arizona<\/a>, and said local activists are \u201cvery familiar with the terrible track record of MTC.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, \u201cIt\u2019s baked into the business model of for-profit incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n Randall, who took the job as an accounting clerk at the Marana prison in June 2021, said Simmons exhibited odd behavior as soon as he met her. He said he saw her emerge from the commissary area \u201csweating bullets,\u201d even during cool months, despite having no obvious physically straining work to account for it.<\/p>\n Then, in April 2022, Randall said he was standing outside alone when Simmons came rushing toward him.<\/p>\n \u201cShe goes, \u2018Holy shit, I\u2019m fucked,\u2019\u201d Randall said.<\/p>\n Simmons disappeared into a manager\u2019s office, according to Randall, and in short order, two other guards ran toward the commissary area. Randall said he later learned two incarcerated men had gotten into a fight there.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the guards were saying, \u2018Well, this isn\u2019t the first time this has happened here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n According to Randall\u2019s account, Casey, the warden, later told Randall and his manager what had happened: Simmons was suspected of having sexual contact with multiple people held at the prison. The fight allegedly stemmed from jealousy between two of the men who were said to have had sexual relationships with Simmons. (The man at the center of the April 2022 allegation later denied having sex with Simmons; in a follow-up interview with the inspector general\u2019s office, he said he was gay. Simmons later denied the second affair, according to an Arizona Department of Corrections investigation.) Both men were placed in segregation and interviewed by prison officials; one was ultimately transferred to a different facility, Randall said.<\/p>\n Simmons was let go the same day, according to Randall and a Department of Corrections investigation. Randall said that nearly all employees of the prison knew about the allegations.<\/p>\n Randall said, \u201cA lot of the guards were saying, \u2018Well, this isn\u2019t the first time this has happened here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n According to Simmons\u2019s own account, she repeatedly had sex with an incarcerated person.<\/p>\n Arizona law<\/a> says that all sexual contact between incarcerated people and prison staffers or contractors is considered felony sexual abuse because people behind bars cannot legally give consent.<\/p>\n \u201cThat staff member should have been referred for prosecution,\u201d Brenda Smith, a professor at American University\u2019s law school and the director of the Project on Addressing Prison Rape<\/a>, said of the Marana case, noting that such sexual contact may be considered a constitutional violation.<\/p>\n Though the law is clear that prison staff engaging in any sexual contact with incarcerated people is abuse, Simmons\u2019s case is complicated \u2014 and raises vexing questions. Simmons admitted to having sex with a person in custody, but she also told state investigators that she was coerced.<\/p>\n The details of Simmons\u2019s case were recounted in an April 2022 investigative report from an Arizona Department of Corrections Office of Inspector General, which was obtained by LOOKOUT and The Intercept through a public records request.<\/p>\n According to an interview with Simmons described in the report, she was asked if she had engaged in sexual activity with one of the incarcerated people and said yes. She had done so \u201cmultiple times,\u201d she said. Simmons, however, told investigators she was frequently threatened, including physically, into having sex with the incarcerated person.<\/p>\n According to the inspector general\u2019s report, \u201cMs Simmons said she was scared and felt she needed to keep having sex with inmate [redacted] or she would lose her job.\u201d<\/p>\n She complained to investigators that there were no cameras in the commissary room where the events took place.<\/p>\n Despite the threats related by Simmons to investigators, there were \u201ca handful of times she was okay with having sex with inmate [redacted] but not all the times,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n The inmate Simmons said she was having sex with, however, denied any sexual contact with her, according to the inspector general\u2019s report. That led the investigator to conclude that \u201cthere is not enough evidence to prove\u201d they did have a sexual relationship. The case was \u201csubmitted to administration for review and processing,\u201d according to the investigative report. (The Arizona Department of Corrections did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the status of the investigation.)<\/p>\n No criminal charges were filed in Marana, Tucson, or the relevant counties, according to an extensive records search. The Arizona Attorney General\u2019s Office confirmed that it received no criminal referrals on the matter.<\/p>\n Smith, the law professor, was not surprised that the incarcerated man denied the allegation of an illicit affair. There was little to gain, she said, by admitting anything. Spurring an investigation or prosecution could cause headaches at the facility or lead to potentially negative consequences for the man in custody.<\/p>\n \u201cHe gets moved. He might lose his job,\u201d Smith said, referring to jobs held in prisons by incarcerated people. \u201cAll of those things are really important for him to ultimately leave the facility with conditions that are favorable for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Denying such an incident, especially in a carceral setting, Smith said, is \u201cso common for vulnerable people who are victimized.\u201d<\/p>\n The Simmons case wasn\u2019t the only documented incident of alleged sexual abuse at the Marana prison. Enrique Olivares-Pelayo, who was detained in the prison for around 11 months in 2011, told LOOKOUT and The Intercept that he had a sexual relationship with a staffer at the prison. After rumors began circulating about them, he said, the employee was fired. (PREA standards were only fully implemented and mandated<\/a> by the Department of Justice in 2012.)<\/p>\n Manara\u2019s history goes well beyond unreported sexual misconduct, extending to broader concerns about the MTC facility. Randall; the second former MTC employee; Olivares-Pelayo; an Arizona Department of Corrections memo; and the inspector general report all made allegations about conditions at Marana \u2014 for imprisoned people and staff alike.<\/p>\n Two persistent issues revolved around the quality of food for incarcerated people and the high heat inside the facility. Olivares-Pelayo and Randall both said incarcerated people had to find ways to beef up their calorie intake because they were served substandard meals. Incarcerated people would sometimes fatten up squirrels with corn chips, Olivares-Pelayo said, and then cook them to eat for extra calories. He said the squirrel meat tasted \u201clike rabbit, kinda mid.\u201d A 2010 memo<\/a> from the Arizona Department of Corrections found that \u201cKitchen sanitation was substandard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Reopening as ICE Camp<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\u201cHoly Shit, I\u2019m Fucked<\/strong>\u201d<\/h3>\n
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The Admission<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Prison With Problems<\/strong><\/h2>\n