Don’t bring ICE abuse to Leavenworth by reopening CoreCivic prison | Opinion

The city of Leavenworth is in negotiations with private prison company CoreCivic over terms of a special use permit to reopen its 1,050-bed prison for people rounded up by Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement troops. With its bleak history of abusing inmates and guards, many doubt that CoreCivic is able to comply with the requirements of the permit.

CoreCivic’s Midwest Reception Center closed in 2021. Its history included dangerous understaffing, exposing guards to life-threatening attacks, neglecting inmate medical attention, and staff listening in on attorney-client interviews. It was also accused of providing inmates bad food and irregular fresh air or exercise. The situation was so bad that a federal judge called the prison “an absolute hell hole.”

Of course, that was then. Now CoreCivic says it will treat our neighbors whom ICE plans to arrest with respect and care, and will hold people for only around 51 days before they are either released or deported. Leavenworth is attempting to negotiate a strong special use permit to prevent a repetition of CoreCivics’ previous history. Last month, the Leavenworth Planning Commission recommended a permit requiring CoreCivic to obey the law, seek accreditation with the American Correction Association and comply with ICE’s National Detention Standards. These rules govern safety, security, order, programs and activities, justice, administration and management. This sounds good — but remember, these are ICE standards.

Besides, the special use permit says: “The city would not and does not intend to actually or substantially control how CoreCivic provides immigrant detention services on behalf of ICE.”

The permit requires that CoreCivic grant the city and especially the police reasonable access, something the company refused to do before closing the prison in 2021. It promises not to house children under 18 years old and that it will provide a list of inmates. The permit sets staffing levels at a little less than one worker for every three inmates, but it’s unclear how many of that number are guards. The planning commission approved all this and set the length of the permit to three years. Now the mayor and city commissioners are trying to make provisions stronger.

Here’s the rub: Despite their good intentions to hold Core Civic accountable, Leavenworth’s leaders are banking on a leopard to change its spots. As of last November, CoreCivic had $680 million in ICE contracts. The company’s focus is on the bottom line, not adequate food or medical care, or even safety of guards and detainees.

Take a look at current complaints, from CoreCivic’s Dilley, Texas, jail for families or its Florence, Arizona, facility — both charged with measles outbreaks, unsanitary conditions and poor and delayed medical care. Examine its California City prison not far from Death Valley, where sick detainees worry they’ll either be deported or die from lack of medical care.

In these and other ICE jails, whether private or public, there’s an unspoken directive to make incarceration so miserable, so long and so hopeless that detainees will sign up for their own deportations. The abuse is systemic, but it’s also exacerbated by the profit motivations of operators such as CoreCivic.

So however well-intentioned the Leavenworth city commissioners, are or how threatened they feel by an inadequate set of zoning laws that gives them little leeway to act on their conscience, in approving the special use permit, they will be complicit in opening a substandard prison. The addition of over 1,000 beds will certainly bring an upsurge of ICE kidnappings in this area, along with the misery of children left without parents.

Judy Ancel is president of the Kansas City-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit Cross Border Network for Justice and Solidarity.

This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 5:03 AM.