2 Central Texas prisons will return to state control from private prison contractor

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or TDCJ, will take control and staff two prisons in Central Texas later this year thanks to a legislative funding allocation, according to an email TDCJ spokesperson Monday.

The facilities are the Kyle Correctional Center in Hays County and the Gregory S. Coleman Unit in Caldwell County.

"This legislative session, the funding was provided to TDCJ to assume operations of the Bradshaw, Bridgeport, Coleman, Kyle, Linsey, Moore, and Willacy Units. This means these facilities will no longer be privately operated," said the spokesperson in an email.

On June 24, the private prison contractor Management & Training Corporation, or MTC, issued Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notifications (WARN) for the facilities. Those go into effect August 31.

The WARN notices state that the Hays County facility will see 98 layoffs and the Caldwell County facility will see 135 layoffs. The majority of these layoffs were correctional officers.

Statewide, 900 MTC employees will be affected by this change. TDCJ said they had already been notified about the change.

However, the spokesperson said that TDCJ hopes the former MTC employees choose to become TDCJ employees. TDCJ also sent recruiters and is holding "virtual transition seminars" for the employees. Employees who remain will gain state employees' benefits and salaries.

MTC said that it expects the state will retain many of the workers, according to the WARN notices.

"This decision was strictly a business decision and was a result of state budgetary considerations. It does not reflect on the quality of care MTC delivers to the state. MTC will continue to provide treatment programming to select TDCJ facilities throughout the state. MTC and TDCJ are working hard to provide a transparent and smooth transition for the employees affected by this change," MTC said in a statement.

TDCJ also took over operations at the Bell, Diboll and Estes Units after the 2023 Texas Legislative Session. Those units increased staffing, the spokesperson said.