A private prison firm wants to detain immigrants in this Kansas town. Its residents are pushing back

Local organizer (and cookie baker) Rick Hammett suggested to the crowd that political and corporate interests had stirred fears of immigrants ahead of the 2024 election cycle to benefit private prisons. 

"To be profitable, private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled," Hammett said. "Which is how you end up with a scare tactic over migrants to drum up a reason to put people in jail."… 

"Scandals plagued the facility during its final years of operation – beatings, stabbings, suicides and alleged sexual assaults, according to court records. Leavenworth police said they were blocked at the gate from investigating crimes inside. The facility finally closed in 2021 as the Biden administration shifted away from private prison contracts…"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/01/kansas-leavenworth-corecivic-prison-immigrants

 

Biden directs DOJ to phase out use of private prisons | TheHill

... Criminal justice reform advocates say the move is an important first step in reducing reliance on private prisons, which critics argue have little accountability and whose models are incompatible with efforts to rehabilitate offenders...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/535973-biden-directs-doj-to-phase-out-use-of-private-prisons

Trump’s falsehoods about Biden’s plan for prisons - The Washington Post

Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president, says he would end the federal government’s use of private prisons and increase funding for halfway houses and transitional programs for former prisoners.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/21/trumps-falsehoods-about-bidens-plan-prisons/

Private prison executives claim to Congress they have no idea about abuses at their facilities

I’ve been aware that guards at private detention prisons have pepper-sprayed detained immigrants protesting their ongoing detention amid the novel coronavirus pandemic because I’ve written about it. Many Daily Kos community members have been aware that guards at private detention prisons have pepper-sprayed detained immigrants because they’ve read about it here and elsewhere. It’s happened. We know this. It’s fact. Yet Mother Jones reports that two executives from two private prisons where a number of incidents have been reported—and in at least one instance confirmed by the company itself—claimed to Congress that they had no knowledge about any of that ....
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2020/7/14/1960670/-Private-prison-executives-claim-to-Congress-they-have-no-idea-about-abuses-at-their-facilities

Nevada senators call for DHS watchdog probe into private ICE facility following shocking report

U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada are calling on the Homeland Security inspector general to open a probe into a for-profit, private prison contracted to jail immigrants in the state, following a recent report revealing that the facility employs a captain who posted at a neo-Nazi site and at one time tried to start his own chapter of a white nationalist group. ...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/13/1911214/-Nevada-senators-call-for-DHS-watchdog-probe-into-private-ICE-facility-following-shocking-report

California will end use of for-profit prisons - The Hill

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday signed legislation that will effectively ban for-profit prisons, putting at risk several facilities that house both criminal offenders and detained immigrants being held by federal authorities.....
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/465452-california-will-end-use-of-for-profit-prisons

It's a Disgrace that Private Prisons Are Earning Millions

We have a racist criminal justice system that costs us billions of dollars, ruins lives and allows private prisons to profit off of human misery. The private prison racket has got to end.....
https://youtu.be/-pDN5nqCNfU

Following donations, private prison group is getting a say in Trump administration matters - Daily Kos

Following GEO Group's generous donations to the Trump campaign (the company "gave $225,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC before the election," per OpenSecrets), the private prison profiteer is getting plenty of say in administration matters. ....
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1818265

First Step Act Could Be a Big Gift to CoreCivic and the Private Prison Industry - theintercept.com

"...The 2014 report on the “treatment industrial complex” issued a prescient warning against expanding the kind of alternatives to incarceration enshrined in the First Step Act. Community confinement may be preferable to a prison cell, but the increased use of electronic monitoring can risk putting “more people on stricter forms of supervision than is necessary, for longer than is warranted.” The report also urged readers to be wary of allowing companies like CoreCivic to influence legislation. “The role of for-profit prison corporations in these important policy discussions could mean the difference between reforms that truly address human needs and a destructive ‘widening of the net’ that only serves to increase the level of control and surveillance at the expense of public safety..."
https://theintercept.com/2018/12/22/first-step-act-corecivic-private-prisons/

Why are for-profit US prisons subjecting detainees to forced labor? | Azadeh Shahshani - the guardian

Private prisons have for years enriched themselves by exploiting detained immigrant labor. They must be held accountable ....
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/17/us-private-prisons-forced-labour-detainees-modern-slavery

Private Prison Company Made Detainees Work For Toilet Paper, Lawsuit Alleges - The Daily Beast

CoreCivic, the nation's largest private prison company, is being accused of human trafficking.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/private-prison-company-made-detainees-work-for-toilet-paper-lawsuit-alleges

Republicans Say Forced Labor Is Good for Detained Immigrants in Letter Defending Private Prison - The Daily Beast

Private-prison companies that force undocumented immigrant detainees to work for little or no money have a powerful new group of advocates: Eighteen members of Congress. The members, all Republicans, sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Department of Labor, calling for them to help private-prison company GEO Group defend itself in lawsuits by former detainees.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-say-forced-labor-is-good-for-detained-immigrants-in-letter-defending-private-prison