The Management & Training Corporation (MTC) is the US based private prison operator currently running Nauru Regional Processing Centre. The $69 million contract held by MTC equates to approximately $750,000 per day to oversee the detention of just 111 refugees and asylum seekers.

The auditor-general is considering an investigation into a $69 million four-month contract granted to MTC Australia, to run "garrison and welfare services" for asylum seekers in Nauru. Its parent company has been accused of gross negligence, fraud, and has settled multiple cases where it was accused of being responsible for deaths.

MTC is the third-largest US operator of private prisons, running 21 corrections and immigration detention centres. But an investigation by the Guardian in October 2022 uncovered a litany of security breaches and custodial failures within MTC-run places of detention.

MTC remains before the courts over its allegedly unlawful detention of a US citizen for more than 14 months – the vast majority in solitary confinement. And it paid more than $8m (US$5m) to settle a bribery case filed by the state of Mississippi, over a scheme that allegedly involved MTC paying bribes to state officials in exchange for contracts with the department of corrections.

NSWCCL believes that Australia should be offering immediate resettlement in Australia to every refugee and asylum seeker still stranded on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea.

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