US private prisons operator MTC to be paid $790m to hold 100 people on Nauru in quiet expansion of contract

Source: The Guardian

US private prisons operator to be paid $790m to hold 100 people on Nauru in quiet expansion of contract

A sixteenfold increase in the original contract without public notification raises allegations of ‘gross mismanagement’ and a process ‘run out of control’

Sarah Basford Canales and Ben Doherty
Sun 28 Sep 2025 16.00 BST
Last modified on Sun 28 Sep 2025 16.01 BST

A US private prisons operator will receive $157m a year to run Australia’s offshore processing regime in Nauru – currently holding just over 100 people – after the government quietly expanded its contract by more than $350m to three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars.

The two-year extension without prior public notification, or scrutiny of the contract, has raised allegations of “gross mismanagement” and a process “run out of control” from parliamentarians and government integrity experts.

MTC Australia is a subsidiary of US-based Management and Training Corporation, which runs hundreds of for-profit prisons in the US and UK. A previous Guardian investigation reported historical allegations in civil suits of “gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures relating to two US facilities, and a US$5.2m (A$8m) settlement in 2019 over a Mississippi state government bribery scandal.

In September 2022, MTC Australia won a contract through limited tender to provide “reception, garrison and welfare services” for asylum seekers held on Nauru, for $47m over two months.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/29/us-private-prisons-operator-paid-790m-to-hold-100-people-on-nauru-in-quiet-expansion-of-contract