ICE Revives Former “Hellhole” Prison — And Hires the Same Company To Run It
At Leavenworth, former workers say CoreCivic made conditions dangerous, which led to a near-death attack. The post ICE Revives Former “Hellhole” Prison — And Hires the Same Company To Run It appeared first on The Intercept .
On February 6, 2021, Marcia Levering, a prison guard at the former federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, narrowly escaped death. A high-risk prisoner, released accidentally by an overwhelmed colleague, approached her face-to-face with an eerie green grin before she was sprayed with boiling water. The facility, notorious for overcrowding, understaffing, and violence, was closed later that year under a Biden executive order.
However, under the Trump administration, CoreCivic, the private prison company, acquired the prison and announced plans to reopen it as an immigration jail. In March 2025, the city of Leavenworth finalized a deal with CoreCivic, agreeing to pay $238.4 million for the facility. CoreCivic claims the allegations of medical neglect, inadequate food, and prolonged lockdowns are false, describing the situation as "profiting off of people being put in cages."
The ACLU of Kansas's Esmie Tseng echoed similar sentiments, stating that contracting out the facility is "profiting off of people being put in cages."
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