East Texas

By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer

HENDERSON — Barely a year old, a privately owned correctional facility on Henderson’s Industrial Drive has added a major expansion and another could be on the way.

Management & Training Corporation, owner and operator, submitted a bid last week for a new Texas Department of Criminal Justice contract to house about 500 more state inmates and plans to construct three more structures at a cost of $8 to $10 million to accommodate them if awarded the contract.

Warden Michael Bell expects it could be up to four months before the department decides which bidder will get the contract.

Construction of MTC’s original complex, valued at $16 million, started in mid-2006. The facility opened in late March 2007 with 1,160 beds and carried out its first expansion early this year by adding 560 beds, also at a cost of $8 million.

The current proposed expansion — if it materializes — would bring investment in structures to approximately $35 million and increase capacity to 2,240 offenders from all over the state.

MTC should be able to build two more dormitories and a second support building and put the addition into operation within nine months after being notified if the department of criminal justice accepts the company’s bid, according to the warden. With the expansion, the facility would be almost 250,000 square feet.

It would create 125-130 more jobs, bringing total employment to approximately 500 — not just correctional officers. Since the facility specializes in treatment and education of offenders, approximately 100 staff members are geared toward providing those services.

The facility employs substance abuse counselors, clerical support, teachers, librarians, finance and resource officers, administrators and medical staff, including a doctor, psychologist, dentist, registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses. The annual payroll is about $12 million.

Inside each single-story dorm are 10 pods, each housing 56 offenders. A support building contains offices, classrooms and interview rooms. A central building houses administration, visitation, education, in-take department, a commissionary, mail room, laundry, food service/dining hall and special individual cells for offenders who don’t get along or get into trouble.

“It’s a large, little city,” Bell said. It is a sprawling, minimum-security corrections facility bordered by high fences topped with strands of barbed wire.

MTC decided to build its own facility when it became clear the area was in need.

“We put together a good package (of incentives for MTC building in Henderson). They accepted it and we landed them,” said Sue Henderson, HEDCO general manager.

The city and county gave tax abatements, although MTC still pays $200,000-$225,000 in school taxes annually. HEDCO gave the company 41 acres of property for the corrections facility, $200,000 to help with infrastructure costs and entered into an incentive agreement for creation of jobs.

Additional incentives were for initial employee hires, but the area is reaping — without providing additional incentives — the benefit of the extra jobs MTC created for its first expansion and those planned for the second expansion.

“All of this is just icing on the cake,” Ms. Henderson said of the expansions.

Once the initial phase of construction was complete, MTC moved out of the Gregg County jail and moved to Henderson. The company had a history of working with the community after formerly operating the Bradshaw State Jail there from July 1995 until January 2004.

Open about 15 months, MTC’s corrections facility in Henderson has undergone a name change from East Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility to East Texas Treatment Facility.

The facility serves two types of populations for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — driving while intoxicated offenders and substance abuse felony punishment offenders.

The DWI intervention program consists of six months of treatment. Substance abuse offenders also go through a six-month program. There is a slightly longer relapse intervention treatment program.

“Everything we do is for short-term incarceration. Everything we do is geared toward treatment of offenders …” Bell said. “Our company doesn’t believe in just warehousing people, as we think we need to try to give them tools to work with and that’s the reason we scout for these type of bids.”

MTC’s treatment programs are licensed through the Texas Department of State Health Services and the facility is licensed through the department to run the programs. It is the largest licensed treatment facility in the state.