A Second Chance For Prisonville

An ailing Texas town cheers the reopening of a privately run detention facility for immigrants.

- Kartikay Mehrotra

Joel Hernandez was promoted to sergeant by private prison operator Management & Training Corp. days before a riot broke out in 2015 at the Willacy County Correctional Center in South Texas where he worked. He escaped with his life—but not his job. Within months of the fiery uproar, the facility, a prison in Raymondville for immigrants awaiting deportation, was shut down. About 400 MTC employees, or 6 percent of the town’s entire workforce, lost their jobs. Less than a month later the Obama administration promised the federal government would stop contracting immigration detention to private operators, including MTC.

The decision was a severe blow to this remote area of the Rio Grande Valley, the poorest pocket of Texas. For two decades, first as a resident of Raymondville and then as its mayor, Gilbert Gonzales had witnessed neighboring counties build roads, schools, and housing, while his own economy foundered amid floods, illicit gambling, rampant drug use, and fleeing industries.

Three years on, Willacy County’s 11 percent jobless rate is almost triple the state average. Its farmers face the worst drought in decades. The two other prisons in Raymondville—known in the region as Prisonville—remain the biggest employers in a town excited about the prospects of a new Tractor Supply Co. store. But change is coming: President Trump and his hard-line immigration agenda have revived the Willacy County Correctional Center.