The company running the Santa Fe County jail is calling it quits. Management and Training Corp. announced Thursday that it will stop operating the jail because of challenges in providing adequate medical services. Now, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano is advocating the county take over jail operations rather than hire another private contractor.

Solano said he expected MTC to bail out because it reported losses of about $1 million last year, but the termination of the contract came sooner than he thought it would. Still, he said he believes the county is ready to run the jail without a for-profit prison manager. The contract would have expired in August 2006, but the company wants to leave as soon as it can.

County commissioners had considered taking over the adult jail, as they did with the county's juvenile lockup more than a year ago, but ruled in August to keep MTC on the job. Most county officials said money was the reason they opted for a private contractor.

The county expected to pay about $7.5 million for jail operations this fiscal year and had budgeted about $9.4 million for fiscal year 2006 under the MTC contract. County Finance Director Susan Lucero said she's starting to evaluate the fiscal impact of the county's running the jail itself. When it offered the contract for proposals last summer, MTC was the only company that responded.

Solano argues that the county's thinking of the jail as a moneymaker or as an attractive contract service needs to change. "We have to stop looking at that facility as being any kind of profit center or even that it will break even," he said. "We need to just have the best facility for the best cost for the taxpayers. It's just like sewer, water and fire (protection); we don't look to make a profit on any of those things. We have to get in that mode in our thoughts on the jail."

Utah-based MTC began operating the jail in 2001 and has experienced a litany of problems with the facility that serves as the primary detention spot for Santa Fe city and county and neighboring jurisdictions. The 650-bed jail also houses more than 100 state inmates.

A few months after MTC took over from another private contractor, an inmate hanged himself while jail officers were allegedly monitoring him as a potential suicide case. The family of dead inmate Tyson Johnson sued MTC, the county and several individuals who worked at the jail.

The case was settled last year, but the death and other complaints also prompted a federal audit that showed problems with the way inmates were treated.

The federal Department of Justice and the county agreed on ways to improve the jail, but MTC officials say those changes made it "impossible to cover the cost of operating the jail at the reimbursement rate allowed by the county," according to a news release.

Several other occurrences have prompted policy changes at the detention center: An inmate was murdered in June; a man claimed in October that two corrections officers had beaten and kicked him earlier at the jail; a bartender objected to the jail's routine strip searches, which had already been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court; and most recently, an attorney told a state District Court judge that her client's life-threatening medical conditions have been ignored at the jail.

The jail's medical services, provided by Correct Care Solutions, have come under fire. Complaints also surfaced when Texas-based Physicians Network Associates ran the medical ward as a subcontractor to MTC.

Physicians Network pulled out of the facility before the county renewed MTC's contract in August. Correct Care told MTC earlier in the week that it wanted out of its obligation to work at the jail, MTC officials said.

Many have complained that even simple jail services such as answering incoming telephone calls and releasing inmates at prescribed times have been inadequate.

MTC is prepared to stay at the jail for another six months, as provided in the contract, but officials indicated they would leave earlier if the county desired.

Solano said he hopes an existing community medical provider such as St. Vincent Regional Medical Center or Presbyterian Medical Services will partner with the county to provide health care for inmates. He noted many inmates are indigent and do not get medical services before being incarcerated.

While neither St. Vincent or PMS will commit to helping, officials at St. Vincent said Thursday that they were willing to work with the county to meet the community's challenges.