CoreCivic, the second largest private prison company in America, is seeking to reactivate a shuttered facility in Leavenworth as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center . As a private prison CoreCivic had a long and troubled history of mismanagement and unsafe conditions before closing in 2021 with the cancellation of their private prison contract.
CoreCivic’s record speaks for itself. In 2017, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson described conditions at its Leavenworth facility as “an absolute hell hole .” A federal audit found that 25% of staff positions were unfilled, leaving inmates unsupervised while guards scrambled to monitor multiple units at once. Weapons and contraband were commonplace.
The company’s failures weren’t just administrative — they were violent. William Rogers, a former CoreCivic employee, was stabbed and had his head split open because of short staffing. Another guard was beaten and stabbed so brutally she required 16 surgeries —only for CoreCivic to cut off her health insurance while she was on worker’s comp. She now lives in poverty but still came out to testify of CoreCivic’s negligence and mismanagement, to the Leavenworth City Commission…