Mastodawn

Has #ICE renewed #TacomaWA #DetentionCenter contract? It won’t say

By Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks, Sep. 25, 2025

Excerpt: "The 10-year contract for the private company operating the #NorthwestICEProcessingCenter in Tacoma is set to end this month, but secrecy shrouds whether it’s been extended.

"#Immigration advocates and legal experts have heavily criticized the lack of transparency over the expected renewal of the contract between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and #GEOGroup, which owns and manages the 1,575-bed, jail-like facility.

"Neither GEO Group nor ICE officials have released information about a new contract for running the detention center. The current contract, inked in 2015 as a one-year contract with an option to renew each year for nine years, is set to expire Sept. 27. The contract awarded GEO Group a minimum of $700 million over 10 years.

" 'It not only puts a veil over people’s eyes, but also prevents people inside the detention center from knowing what the future of this detention center is going to be,' said Josefina Mora-Cheung, director of organizing at #LaResistencia a local #activist group advocating for the end of #MassDeportations and the closure of detention centers.

"GEO Group and ICE officials did not answer emailed questions about whether a new contract was signed or whether the existing contract has been extended. Officials did not respond to reporters’ requests to provide copies of the new contract, should it exist.

" 'We cannot confirm pre-decisional contract selections, but we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current requirements,' said ICE spokesperson Chrissy Cuttita in an email Tuesday."

#USPol #DetentionCenters
#ICEDetainees #ICESucks #PrivatePrisons #PrisonState #IndefiniteDetention #WashingtonState

DoomsdaysCW Sep 27

“Godsend” or “#ConcentrationCamp”? A Lucrative #ICE Deal Divides a #Colorado Town.

Trump has unleashed a gold rush among #PrivatePrison companies taking on #ImmigrationDetention. In #CashStrapped cities, residents aren’t sure the money is worth it.

Isabela Dias, November+December 2025 Issue

Excerpt: "[T]he prospect of a privately run #ICE facility has divided #WalsenburgCO. Some locals and public officials have welcomed the potential influx of money and jobs. 'It’s a godsend,' Mayor Gary Vezzani told a TV reporter in early July. 'If they use it for ICE or use it for a prison or use it for whatever they use it for, we really don’t care…It’s a pretty big paying customer for us. We’re not big enough, nor [is] anybody here big enough to stop it. So, we may as well take advantage.'

"The mayor’s comments sparked fierce backlash. At a July 15 county commissioners meeting, one resident succinctly shot back: 'We don’t want to be known as a town with a concentration camp.' At a city council meeting the same day, a speaker argued that 'what’s happening in Walsenburg isn’t just #corrupt. It’s #fascist. It’s a blueprint for #authoritarianism wrapped in barbed wire and dressed up as local revival.' "

#USPol #CORECivic #Colorado #DetentionCenters #ICEDetainees #ICESucks #PrivatePrisons #PrisonState #IndefiniteDetention

"Godsend" or "concentration camp"? A lucrative ICE deal divides a Colorado town.

Trump has unleashed a gold rush among immigrant-detaining private prison companies. In cash-strapped cities, residents aren’t sure the money is worth it.

Mother Jones

DoomsdaysCW Sep 27

Private Prisons: An Exceptionally Niche Asset Class Meets Its Moment

The #Trump administration’s #crackdown on foreign residents has investors and operators mulling new options

By Patrick Sisson, September 9, 2025

Excerpt: " 'I think the liability they’ve [#ForProfitPrisons] experienced is that at different times in their #corporate history, if the demand for #PrivatePrisons decreases, then they have empty facilities sitting there, right?' said Shar Habibi, research and policy director of In the Public Interest, a nonprofit that has advocated against private prisons. 'That’s not good.' "

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/v2EZr

#USPol #TrumpSucks #PrisonState
#SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters #ICESucks #Corporatocracy #authoritarianism #PrivatePrison #GEOGroup #CoreCivic

Private Prisons: An Exceptionally Niche Asset Class Meets Its Moment

The Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign residents has investors and operators mulling new options.

Commercial Observer

DoomsdaysCW Sep 27

Fight to allow #ICE detainees: Federal government joins #PrivatePrison , #CoreCivic, against City of #LeavenworthKS

By Gabe Swartz
Published: Sep. 23, 2025

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (KCTV) - "In a Topeka courtroom Wednesday, September 24, CoreCivic, with the support of Washington D.C.’s Department of Justice went before a judge along with attorneys representing the City of Leavenworth.

"There, a judge scheduled a date for the two sides to meet again on #November25. In that hearing, CoreCivic will be allowed to present arguement that a Kansas court’s decision barring CoreCivic from housing #ICEDetainees should be overturned.

"The United States Department of Justice [#DOJ] filed a statement of interest on September 22 to address what it called 'an aggressive and unlawful effort' by the City of Leavenworth to interfere with federal immigration enforcement.

"The U.S. District Court was filed against the City of Leavenworth, Mayor #HollyPittman, Mayor Pro Tem #NancyBauder, and city commissioners Griff Martin, Jermaine Wilson, and Edd Hingula.

" 'The United States has a strong interest in countering state and local efforts to harass federal contractors, in the proper application of the Constitution and its Supremacy clause,' the DOJ said in its statement of interest, 'and in the foundational principles that protect the Federal Government from unconstitutional state and local interference.' [Back at ya, FEDS!]

"In March, the City of Leavenworth adopted a resolution preventing CoreCivic from using the former federal prison as an immigration detention center. It then filed a lawsuit asking a judge to block the private prison operator’s attempt to open the facility without its approval.

"The City opened its complaint with a testimonial describing the detention center as an 'absolute hell hole.' It stated that during CoreCivic’s 30 years of operation, there were 'multiple widely publicized scandals resulting from its gross mismanagement of the Facility,' which burdened the City in 'countless ways.' "

#USPol #TrumpSucks #PrisonState
#SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters #ICESucks

Fight to allow ICE detainees: Federal government joins private prison, CoreCivic, against City of Leavenworth

In March, the City of Leavenworth adopted a resolution preventing CoreCivic from using the former federal prison as an immigration detention center.

KCTV 5

DoomsdaysCW Sep 27

#PrivatePrison Companies Set to Make Billions Reopening #Jails for #ICE

“There’s a private interest behind the #detention and the incarceration of our community,” said an #activist #protesting the facilities.

by Sophie Hurwitz, March 6, 2025

Excerpt: "Late Wednesday afternoon, private prison company CoreCivic announced it would be reopening a notorious family detention center in South Texas, under an amended contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The facility, first built in 2014, will house up to 2,400 people, including children. It had been shut down last year to save costs, after years of reports suggesting poor treatment, including a report of one toddler who died due to a lack of medical care.

"The reopening is part of a trend. CoreCivic isn’t the only company bringing back facilities. We are at the beginning of what looks like a private prison boom, as the groups profit off President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation. They are set to make billions. As the Washington Post reported, the GEO Group and CoreCivic stand to benefit in particular from #Trump’s immigration plans—the companies hold at least 16 vacant facilities that can be reopened within months for mass detention and deportation.

"The GEO Group announced in late February that it would be reopening #DelaneyHall in #NewarkNJ, as a “massive” immigration detention center with 1,000 beds. In California, ICE is considering repurposing and reopening the women’s prison #FCIDublin, closed last year due to mass #SexualAbuse, for #ImmigrantDetention. In Baldwin, Michigan, ICE and the GEO Group have expressed interest in reopening #NorthLake Correctional Facility, a former private prison shuttered in 2022. (A Biden administration order directed the Department of Justice to allow contracts with private prison groups to expire.) In #LeavenworthKS, CoreCivic looks likely to partner with ICE to reopen yet another shuttered private prison, documents obtained by the #ACLU revealed.

"As of February 27, ICE held 43,759 detainees, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data-gathering organization. Trump is putting pressure on ICE to increase the number of arrests per day. His administration has already fired one ICE director, ostensibly for not deporting enough people.

"In the communities surrounding these new jails for migrants, activists and politicians are fighting back. In Newark, where the GEO Group stands to make $1.2 billion by reopening Delaney Hall, the immigrant rights organization Make the Road is planning a rally against the jail March 11."

#USPol #TrumpSucks #BigUglyBill #BigBeautifulBill #PrisonState #SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters #CoreCivic #GEOGroup #ResistICE #Resistance

Private prison companies set to make billions reopening jails for ICE

“There’s a private interest behind the detention and the incarceration of our community,” said an activist protesting the facilities.

Mother Jones

DoomsdaysCW Sep 27

The #PrivatePrison Industry Looks Forward to Soaring Profits Thanks to #Trump’s Budget

The $45 billion for immigration #detention in the "Big, Beautiful Bill" represented a long-sought win for #PrivatePrisons.

by Matt Sledge, July 10 2025

"The private prison industry saw its influence wane under Joe Biden, but it remains dominant in the business of immigration detention. So when President Donald Trump signed the so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill' on July 4, dedicating $45 billion to immigration detention with a goal to double or triple the population behind bars, it was a huge payoff.

"The victory was in the works for years. A private prison company handed consulting and lobbying gigs to Trump’s allies, its political action committee was the first to max out its donation to Trump, and industry executives had already made plans to reopen shuttered prisons — laying the groundwork for what they promised investors would be an incarceration bonanza.

"In the 2024 election cycle, employees and PACs affiliated with the publicly traded industry behemoths #GEOGroup and CoreCivic contributed overwhelmingly to #Republicans and Trump.

"Republicans received 92 percent of $3.7 million in contributions affiliated with GEO Group and 96 percent of the $785,000 in contributions affiliated with #CoreCivic, according to #OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group that tracks official disclosures. When Trump won, the two companies gave $500,000 each to his #inaugural committee."

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/t6cYB

#USPol #TrumpSucks #BigUglyBill #BigBeautifulBill #PrisonState #SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters

The Private Prison Industry Looks Forward to Soaring Profits Thanks to Trump’s Budget

The $45 billion for immigration detention in the "Big, Beautiful Bill" represented a long-sought win for private prisons.

The Intercept

Miguel Afonso Caetano Dec 21, 2022

#USA #PrisonState #PoliceState #CarceralSystems #Inequality #Racism: "In our sample, median CRI was -0.59 (IQR -0.64, -0.45), with only seven cities exhibiting positive CRI values. This indicates that most large U.S. cities spend more on carceral systems than on health and supportive services, combined. Adjusted polynomial models showed a convex relationship between the CRI and ICE-Education, and ICE-Race(White vs. Black)+Income, with quadratic terms that were positive and significant at p<0.05. After controlling for age, the strongest prioritization of carceral systems was observed in cities where the proportion of low-income Black residents approached or exceeded that of high-income white residents."

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276818

Prioritization of carceral spending in U.S. cities: Development of the Carceral Resource Index (CRI) and the role of race and income inequality

Background Policing, corrections, and other carceral institutions are under scrutiny for driving health harms, while receiving disproportionate resources at the expense of prevention and other services. Amidst renewed interest in structural determinants of health, roles of race and class in shaping government investment priorities are poorly understood. Methods Based on the Social Conflict Model, we assessed relationships between city racial/ economic profiles measured by the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE) and budgetary priorities measured by the novel Carceral Resource Index (CRI), contrasting investments in carceral systems with funding for health and social support across the 50 most populous cities in the United States (U.S.). Bivariate correlations, and unadjusted and adjusted polynomial regression models were used to assess the relationship between budgetary investments and population concentration at extremes in terms of income, racial/ethnic composition, and education, controlling for other demographic characteristics. Results In our sample, median CRI was -0.59 (IQR -0.64, -0.45), with only seven cities exhibiting positive CRI values. This indicates that most large U.S. cities spend more on carceral systems than on health and supportive services, combined. Adjusted polynomial models showed a convex relationship between the CRI and ICE-Education, and ICE-Race(White vs. Black)+Income, with quadratic terms that were positive and significant at p<0.05. After controlling for age, the strongest prioritization of carceral systems was observed in cities where the proportion of low-income Black residents approached or exceeded that of high-income white residents. Conclusions Municipal prioritization of carceral investments over health and social support is pervasive in the U.S and exacerbated by racial and economic disparities. The CRI offers new opportunities to understand the role of government investments as a structural determinant of health and safety. Longitudinal research is warranted to examine the relationship between budget priorities, structural racism, and health outcomes.

Doc Edward Morbius ⭕Jun 17, 2022

Much mass incarceration happens with appeals to the values that everyone shares. Injustice can happen under the mask of values.

-- Jason Stanley, on the New Books Network, discussing How Propaganda Works

#JasonStanley #NewBooksNetwork #Values #Injustice #PenalReform #MassIncarceration #PrisonState #RacialJustice

Xamanismo Coletivo Nov 1, 2019

"I wonder whether our complacency about living in this dystopian #prisonstate isn’t traceable—along with its convenient elimination of competition for employment—back to our drug education,which depicted drugs as a bad thing thatwe should choose not to do"
https://humanparts.medium.com/i-do-drugs-39e7b30c891b

I Do Drugs

It’s time to revise our puritanical, all-or-nothing approach to substances