Why Residents of a Prison Town Are Fighting to Keep CoreCivic Out
In Leavenworth, Kansas — a place historically known for its embrace of incarceration — a surprising grassroots uprising is taking shape. Despite being home to one of America’s oldest federal penitentiaries and a population that heavily backed Donald Trump in 2024, many local residents are drawing a hard line against a powerful private prison company’s plan to reopen a detention center for immigrants.
At the center of the controversy: CoreCivic, one of the largest for-profit prison companies in the U.S., and its bid to reestablish operations at a facility that has long been a symbol of dysfunction and abuse.
The Town Where Prisons Are Big Business
Leavenworth, just 30 miles from Kansas City, is a place where prisons are a major employer — second only to the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs. For decades, incarceration has helped fuel the local economy.
But the town’s relationship with prisons is complicated. The local culture has long intertwined patriotism, law-and-order politics, and economic dependence on corrections. Until now.
A Community Pushes Back
On a warm May evening, locals packed into the Leavenworth public library — not for leisure, but to strategize. Their goal: stop CoreCivic from reopening the Midwest Regional Reception Center, a facility once used to detain pretrial federal prisoners and now slated to hold immigrants under new ICE contracts.
Over homemade cookies and sweet tea, they talked about writing letters to the editor, organizing polite pressure campaigns, and preparing for a drawn-out legal battle.
One attendee, Rick Hammett, a local organizer, made the stakes clear:
“To be profitable, private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled. Which is how you end up with a scare tactic over migrants to drum up a reason to put people in jail.”
Trump’s Mass Deportations Fueling a Detention Boom
As the Trump administration aggressively expands deportation operations, private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group are riding a wave of profit. In early June 2025, ICE reported the highest single-day number of arrests in its history — more than 2,200 people.
That surge in detainees has created a lucrative business opportunity for private prison operators. CoreCivic’s stock is soaring, and so is the scrutiny.
CoreCivic’s Troubled History in Leavenworth
From 1992 to 2021, CoreCivic operated the now-infamous detention center just six miles from the federal prison. But memories of that period are grim.
Federal audits and court records describe:
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Understaffing and unsafe conditions
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Injuries to guards during inmate attacks
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Multiple suicides, stabbings, and sexual assault allegations
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Leavenworth police being blocked from entering the facility to investigate crimes
The facility closed in 2021 following a shift away from private prison contracts under the Biden administration. But now, CoreCivic wants back in — and locals are saying no.
A Legal Battle Over Permits and Power
Leavenworth’s city council had the foresight to amend local ordinances after the closure, requiring any new prison operator to obtain a permit. When CoreCivic applied for a permit in February 2025, public backlash was swift.
The company later argued in court that the facility had never truly closed, since it retained some staff on-site. Therefore, they claimed, they didn’t need a permit.
City leaders weren’t buying it. They sued CoreCivic in both federal and state courts, accusing the company of attempting to “repopulate an absolute hell hole” without oversight or approval.
An editorial in the Kansas Reflector captured local sentiment:
“CoreCivic has repeatedly shown that it is incapable of running a humane facility. Now, the company flouts city approval to move forward with an ICE center based on false promises.”
Old Values, New Resistance
This is not just a legal fight — it’s a clash of values. Despite its prison-heavy legacy, Leavenworth has a deeper history of progressivism. In the 1850s, Kansas fought to enter the Union as a free state, and the “Leavenworth Constitution” was the first to assert that “all men are by nature equally free and independent.”
Today, monuments to Abraham Lincoln, Lady Liberty, and women’s suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony still stand proudly in the town. And in that tradition, residents are again choosing principle over profit.
Faith Leaders Join the Fight
One of the most vocal opponents of the ICE detention plan is the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, a Catholic community that has lived in the city since before Kansas was even a state.
Organizer Ashley Hernandez explained their opposition:
“The nuns understand the history of injustices that have gone on in that prison, and they’ve never been OK with that.”
CoreCivic, she noted, tried to paint the resistance as the work of “outside agitators.” But the room full of locals told a different story.
“They’re the outside organization,” Hernandez quipped.
Even Trump Voters Are Skeptical
Mike Trapp, a local writer and activist, says he’s seeing a surprising shift among his neighbors. Even Trump supporters who back deportation policies don’t trust CoreCivic to run the facility properly.
This skepticism reflects growing national awareness about the problems of for-profit incarceration — from staff abuse and neglect to lack of accountability and transparency.
What’s Next for Leavenworth?
While a federal judge deliberates over whether CoreCivic needs a permit to reopen the prison, the citizens of Leavenworth are preparing for what may be a prolonged fight.
They’re organizing teach-ins, contacting officials, publishing op-eds, and building coalitions that defy easy political categorization.
Whether or not the court sides with the city, one thing is clear: Leavenworth’s residents are no longer silent partners in the prison industry.
What’s happening in Leavenworth is part of a broader national reckoning over immigration, incarceration, and privatization. The community’s response offers a powerful reminder that even in places built around prisons, people can — and do — say enough is enough.
CoreCivic may have underestimated the town it once quietly operated in. But this time, Leavenworth is watching, organizing, and fighting back.