NATCHEZ — Officials for the company that runs the Adams County Correctional Center said Tuesday they strongly disagree with federal investigators who say the prison remains plagued by the same deficiencies that existed when a 2012 prison riot led to the death of one of its correctional officers.

In a new report, U.S. Justice Department officials said they “were deeply concerned” by the significant deficiencies in health care and staffing levels at ACCC. In some cases, the former Corrections Corporation of America, now CoreCivic, appeared to overstate the prison’s staffing levels, the report said.

Click here for a copy of the Department of Justice report

“The staffing levels at the Adams County facility were frequently insufficient during the four years we tested, even though systemic staffing deficiencies were cited as a contributing factor to the riot,” the report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said.

An August report harshly criticized ACCC and other privately operated prisons housing federal inmates in regards to safety and security conditions in the facilities. ACCC is one of 12 private prisons contracted by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

A May 2012 riot, that resulted in the death of corrections officer Catlin Carithers appears to have prompted the August report and BOP’s announcement that it will begin phasing out the use of private prisons.ACCC is designed to serve up to 2,567 low-security non-U.S.-citizen male inmates.

The audit issued this week assessed CoreCivic’s performance between April 2012 and March 2015. The audit concluded that CoreCivic ‘s execution of the contract’s terms was inadequate.

“In 19 of the 38 months following the riot, we found CoreCivic staffed correctional services at an even lower level than at the time of the riot in terms of actual post coverage,” the report said.

CoreCivic Managing Director of Communications Steve Owen said in an email the company “strongly disagrees” with the report.

“(The report) relies on methodology that has never been used before and is not based on the contract with BOP staffing standards for its own facilities, or general correctional staffing best practices,” Owen said. “CoreCivic and the BOP have repeatedly objected to the OIG’s approach.”

In the report investigators noted that in July 2015, the facility’s inmate population consisted of approximately 2,300 immigrants, predominately Mexican nationals, but only four of the 367 staff members spoke fluent Spanish. The company offers “substantially lower pay and benefits” than comparable state or federal agencies, investigators noted further, adding that this contributed to “significantly higher turnover rates” and a corresponding lack of experienced staff.

The OIG also calculated staffing levels in a different way than the private contractor, leading to different results than had been reported to the Bureau of Prisons.

CoreCivic and BOP told investigators they interpreted the contract to allow calculation of staffing levels to be based on headcounts rather than the number of full-time equivalent positions recommended by the report. Determination of day-to-day staff assignments were at the discretion of CoreCivic, the report said.

“As a result, we found the staffing levels CoreCivic reported to the BOP reflected neither actual staffing at the facility nor staffing insufficiencies. Specifically, CoreCivic reported to the BOP simple headcounts of staff recorded on payroll records, regardless of the hours each employee actually worked. When we re-calculated correctional services staffing levels based on FTEs using time and attendance records, we found that, throughout the 4-year period we reviewed, staffing levels were lower than the levels represented by CoreCivic’s headcounts and were frequently lower than the BOP’s minimum staffing threshold,” the report said.

In response, Owen said investigators’ methods were unprecedented.

“The inappropriate staffing measurement methodology used by the OIG in the audit has never been used before and is not based on the contract, the BOP’s staffing standards for its own facilities, or general correctional staffing best practices,” Owen said.  “CoreCivic and the BOP have repeatedly objected to the OIG’s approach.”

Investigators also reported similar issues with health service staffing.

Owen said CoreCivic has been working in close partnership with BOP in order to place safety and security as the top priority at ACCC.

“Since the tragic May 2012 incident at Adams, complementary internal and external review processes have resulted in enhancements yielding significant year‐over‐year improvements in safety and security at the facility, including reducing violent incidents and inmate‐on‐inmate assaults by nearly 40 percent,” Owen said.

In its official response, BOP agreed with the report’s nine recommendations concerning the contracts and other observations.

CoreCivic said the company is continually working on improvements.

“Although we continue to work to meet certain requirements, significant progress has been made regarding the recruitment and retention of facility staff and facilitation of communication at the facility, including actively recruiting more Spanish-speaking staff,” Owen said.