CoreCivic Sold Its Leavenworth Prison to ICE on August 5, 2026
CoreCivic sold the Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on August 5, 2026. The Nashville-based company will continue to operate the facility, but the sale transferred ownership to the federal government, voiding months of local negotiations over detention conditions and community oversight.
Leavenworth City Commissioner Holly Pittman had warned this would happen. She agreed to a special use permit in March 2026 only after CoreCivic accepted binding conditions, including staffing ratios and a community oversight committee. The permit was the product of contentious public hearings and a legal fight city officials pursued specifically to protect detained immigrants.
The Oversight Committee and $400K in Annual Payments Are Now in Jeopardy
That oversight framework may now be unenforceable. Federal buildings typically do not pay property taxes, which means Leavenworth County stands to lose that revenue stream entirely.
CoreCivic had agreed to pay $250,000 per year as a general community impact payment and an additional $150,000 per year directly to the Leavenworth police department. The first lump sum of $1.5 million was paid before the sale.
$400,000 in annual payments CoreCivic owed Leavenworth each year, now in jeopardy after the federal sale
Future payments are no longer guaranteed. The federal government is not bound by CoreCivic’s private contractual commitments to the city.
The Facility Was Shut Down in 2021 for Inhumane Treatment
This is not a new facility. The Midwest Regional Reception Center closed in 2021 after reports of inhumane treatment of prisoners. The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth actively opposed its reopening and called the sale a “significant development” in a statement released the same day. Their Office of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation called for full transparency about what the sale means for people detained inside.
Now that ICE owns the building, the community oversight committee negotiated into the special use permit has no federal counterpart. There is no federal requirement that ICE accept conditions set by a local zoning board.
“I was concerned that was going to happen, so now we’re just working through what it means for us, what it means for the special use permit, what it means for property tax revenue, what it means for the oversight committee.”
Holly Pittman, Leavenworth City Commissioner, Kansas Reflector, August 5, 2026
CoreCivic also sold the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota, to ICE in the same transaction. The pattern: CoreCivic transfers federal detention work off its own balance sheet, retains operating contracts, and leaves local governments holding the accountability gap.
What You Can Do Now
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Call the Kansas Governor’s office at (785) 296-3232 and ask Governor Laura Kelly to direct the Kansas Department of Corrections to formally clarify whether the CoreCivic special use permit remains enforceable after the ICE sale. The oversight committee’s status is currently unresolved.
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Contact the Leavenworth County Commission at (913) 684-0430 and ask commissioners to request a written legal opinion on whether the $250,000 annual impact payment and $150,000 police impact fee survive the transfer to federal ownership. The first full payment was already missed.
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Contact your Kansas state legislators at (785) 296-2149 (Kansas Statehouse switchboard) and urge them to hold a hearing on state-level oversight gaps when private detention facilities are sold to federal agencies. Ask them to support legislation requiring community impact agreements to bind successor owners.
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Track the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth’s JPIC office at sclservices.org for updates on detention conditions. Their advocacy triggered the 2021 closure and they are monitoring the facility’s reopening.
Update, August 8, 2026: CoreCivic and GEO Group reported a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue for April through June 2026, according to NPR. Those figures do not include $1.6 billion in net proceeds CoreCivic received from selling four detention facilities to the Department of Homeland Security, at an average of $307,000 per bed.
CoreCivic’s total quarterly revenue reached $684.9 million, a 27% increase over the same period last year. Patrick Swindle, CoreCivic’s President and CEO, told investors the company plans to continue operating the sold facilities and pursue additional construction to support the Trump administration’s target of 100,000 simultaneous immigration detentions. The U.S. is currently holding nearly 66,000 people in immigration detention, approaching record levels, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
GEO Group reported $732.1 million in quarterly revenue, up 15% from the prior year. Former GEO Group executive David Venturella now serves as acting ICE director and told lawmakers he has divested his GEO Group stock. A Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington analysis found that President Trump’s brokers executed 29 trades in CoreCivic and GEO Group stocks since he returned to office, with the first purchases made on the 10th day of his second term.
Sources
Kansas Reflector: CoreCivic Sells Leavenworth Prison, Leaving City With Oversight Questions