CORECIVIC OPPOSITION GROUP LV,KS

Horrible track record:

Based on its profit-driven track record, CoreCivic cannot be trusted to safely manage the Leavenworth facility and ensure staff and detainees’ safety (see Background section).

This has implications for the community of Leavenworth, which is the local employment pool and site for serious potential harm. 

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There are huge concerns for conditions enabling sexual assault for detainees, especially minors, held in CoreCivic facilities, and there will be little community or other oversight. 

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Across its facilities nationwide, CoreCivic has a clear pattern of understaffing its facilities to the point it creates dangerous conditions for everyone. This was true in Leavenworth.

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As a private institution, CoreCivic has a habit of creating poor conditions, ignoring or concealing problems in detention in the pursuit of higher profits. Previously, CoreCivic cut off visitation for detainees with their lawyers and families.

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Impact on local resources:

There will likely be significant drains on local police, hospital, and other community resources.

 

CoreCivic’s Lansing facility is already understaffed, as are multiple other agencies in the Leavenworth area. 

Detainees with significant needs for medical care that exceed the facility’s capabilities must receive it locally.

Local law enforcement will likely be required to respond to calls for service, and if violent or other crimes occur within the facility, local law enforcement may be involved in investigating. 

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Additionally, the DHS PREA requirements may include using local resources and services for detained migrants who are victims of sexual abuse and assault in an ICE facility (ICE).

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In its filings, the City discusses the stress on local city infrastructure, notably issues with wastewater.

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Clear community opposition:

The community of Leavenworth has previously raised significant opposition to the ICE detention facility. 

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County officials voted unanimously in 2023 to halt discussions over whether to convert the facility.

A petition opposing the facility re-opening has garnered nearly 2,000 signatures. (Link)

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Leavenworth can be more than a prison town. With plenty of prison facilities already, Leavenworth has an opportunity to imagine itself as something more.

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There is a path to a just transition away from economies that are dependent on detention centers. (Detention Watch Network, 2021). 

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Against our values:

We oppose private prisons, and we believe in a humane and fair approach to immigration policy.

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Once a private facility is established, it drives interests that want to keep it full. “If you build it, ICE will fill it” (Detention Watch Network, 2022).

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Private facilities are not subject to “sunshine laws” like the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) as governmental agencies are, even though they are conducting business for the government.  They are also protected from litigation through complicated contractual arrangements with the government.

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Detention is wholly unnecessary. The vast majority of undocumented and documented immigrants are hard-working people who have lived and worked here for years who can successfully navigate their immigration cases in the community. 

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Detention should not be punishment. But ICE detention, especially CoreCivic’s brand of detention, is unsafe, cruel, and inhumane, and sometimes even deadly.

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Deportation is a civil process, not a criminal one. Deportation does not constitutionally guarantee a lawyer if you can’t afford one, but it also does not include sentencing or punishment such as incarceration. 

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Detention is stated as a way to ensure that a detainee will appear in court or comply with the court’s order. However, this also means that ICE detention facilities are ill-equipped to deal with long-term detainees –  and there is often very little programming available such as work, educational, and training activities (CoreCivic itself stated an average expected length of detention to be 51 days).

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A former CoreCivic Leavenworth officer raised the concern that CoreCivic officers in the Leavenworth facility already treated English-speakers “like dogs” – and they fear how racism will factor into the treatment of people for whom there is a language barrier or different country of origin.

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Adding a private institution and another layer of bureaucracy between ICE and the detainee adds to the difficulty in addressing problems in detention.  Access to detainees by family, legal counsel, clergy and others is essential to the health and rights of people in detention.