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Private prisons and detention contractor corecivic has reached an agreement with the US immigration customs enforcement and has signed a contract to convert the 2,560-bed California urban facility into the state’s latest and largest immigration detention center. The company will receive $10 million in initial funds with a maximum of $31.2 million for six months starting in April, during which the parties will continue to negotiate long-term contracts.
Corecivic did not answer questions about when they would start housing detention.
California leased a comecivic facility for use as a state prison from 2013 to March 2024, ending private prisons and shutting down operations as part of an effort to reduce the population that was incarcerated.
2019, Gov. GavinNewsom has signed a bill banning the use of private prisons and immigration detention facilities. Just before it was set to go into effect in 2020, private prison company Geo Group and the Trump administration sued the state. The fate of the bill was finalised in 2023 when a federal court found it unconstitutional as applied to federal private detention agreements, alleging it was violated by federal authorities to enforce immigration laws.
As the ban remained in force for private prisons, California closed all remaining private prisons, including the city of California facilities, making it federal use.
Currently, ICE is funded 41,500 beds in approximately 130 detention facilities nationwide. The Department of Homeland Security has asked ICE to increase its detention capacity by 60,000 beds to a total of approximately 100,000 beds. Due to this urgent request, ICE claimed that the agency had no time to complete the full competitive process and instead entered into a non-bid agreement with the detention contractor to quickly meet this task.
California ranks third in the total number of immigrants detained with nearly 3,200 as of May 27th. But that’s with Texas, 12,500 and Louisiana almost 7,300, with Louisiana quite behind. Adding the City of California facility will increase the state’s capacity by 36%, bringing the number of beds available to 9,700.
When asked about efforts to increase detention space in California, Tom Homan, President Trump’s chief advisor on border policy, says they are considering their options among several possible detention facilities. He emphasized that national efforts do not hinder their work. “The less detention space we have in California, the more action we take to avoid helping us in detention beds, we simply move out of state.”
Private enforcement, detention and removal companies benefit from the current environment. According to recent financial statements, the number of ice detainees at corecivic facilities nationwide rose over 2,000 in the first quarter of 2025. CEO Damon Hininger told shareholders that Trump administration’s policies “we hope for the most important growth opportunities, perhaps the most important growth in the company’s history over the next few years.”
The company recently resumed operations at a 2,400-bed family detention facility in Dilly, Texas. After the funds ended due to high costs in August 2024, Corecivic reached an agreement with ICE in March, reopening its 1,033-bed old prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, so that the city is keeping the city from moving, but will not move from Kansas detention.
California City Mayor Malquette Hawkins recognizes the reopened facility as an economic boost to the area, and expects 150 support roles and 400 corrections officer jobs. However, he points out that concerns have been raised from minority communities, where 40% of residents are Latino. In his opinion, “Everyone should be treated fairly and given a legitimate procedure.”
Ice detention centres have a history of possible mismanagement, abuse and unsafe and unsanitary circumstances. Since 2023, the Northern California ACLU has tracked 508 complaints at its California facility, but ICE claims that only 47 have been established. Their complaints included issues such as dangerous situations, medical neglect and retaliation.
“This is exactly what we’ve been warning,” said Brian Caneda, deputy director of Californian United, a statewide coalition of more than 100 organizations that help close prisons. “Ice is looking for cages and California’s closed prisons are still funded and fortified, but they’re the ideal target unless Governor Newsom takes immediate action to close them forever.”
As prison population continues to decline, the state plans to close additional prisons by October 2026. Curb welcomes the announcement of the closure, but notes that the state has yet to completely close the recently closed prisons. The Duel Occupational Association, California Correctional Center and Chukkawara Valley State Prison continue to serve and maintain. The group claims they are making them vulnerable to federal acquisitions for use as immigration detention centres.
In addition to the new California city facility, four of the state’s seven immigration detention centers are once located in state prisons. They are all private.
“What is consistently missing from the story is the fact that most of our facilities are run by for-profit companies that have a business model for personal detention,” says Hamid Yazdan Pana, executive director of organizational immigration defense advocates. “Why should we, as a society, be at the mercy of private companies seeking to benefit from human detention?”
Pana explains the contract between ice and private prisons as she is creating an “island” in California, which exists in “black holes” other than regular state surveillance. But he says there is a way to get in the sun. “There’s a really meaningful opportunity for state and local officials to actually require certain minimum standards at these facilities, and it’s not violating the enforcement of immigration laws in this country.”
One opportunity to clarify what is happening at these facilities is through a 2017 law that requires the Attorney General’s office to consider and report the conditions of confinement. In a statement about the findings from the fourth report released earlier this year, Atty. General Rob Bonta says detention centers need to make “significant improvements” to ensure they comply with U.S. immigration and customs enforcement detention standards.
In 2024, the state passed Senate Bill 1132. The Geo Group filed lawsuits against the California and Kern County Public Health departments, challenging the law. The lawsuit will likely be dismissed. A lawyer representing Kern County Health Department Jeremy McNutt said Geo Group’s concerns were unnecessary and his clients were not intending to inspect the facility.
Mayor Hawkins was invited to the tour Tuesday along with two other councillors and community members. Representatives from Corecivic showed the group around the building and talked about plans for wraparound services as well as indoor and outdoor recreational activities. He was impressed by the professionalism of the corecivic team and has seen some members of the community, including former councillors.
Before running for office, he had the vision that the empty former prison would become an academy of trade skills such as HVAC, welding and even CAL fire drills. Corecivic considered his proposal, but told him he wanted to wait for the election outcome to see what the political situation would bring. Trump’s victory and Ice expansion meant that his training academy did not come to fruition, but after his tour he believes the new detention facility is “doing good things from very complicated circumstances.” However, he warns that it could change, and he promises, “his office will consider ways to do some surveillance regardless of what the coreciv and the federal government do.”
Andrea Castillo contributed to this story.
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