The Leavenworth Detention Center was a privately run maximum-security federal prison located in Leavenworth, Kansas. The facility was owned and operated by CoreCivic formerly named Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the United States Marshals Service.[1]
When originally constructed as a 460-bed private prison, it was the first correctional facility under direct contract with a U.S. federal agency.[2] In May 2008 the facility underwent its fourth expansion to increase capacity to 1,126 inmates.[3] It held both male and female prisoners.[4]
In January 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14006, which prevented federal agencies from renewing contracts with privately run prisons.[5] In September of 2021, the ACLU of Kansas coordinated a letter to the White House and Leavenworth County Commission, signed by ACLU affiliates and federal public defender offices in four states, to close the Core Civic Detention Facility in Leavenworth, amidst reports of horrendous living conditions and deadly violence,[6] and publicly pushed for the facility's closure.[7] CoreCivic campaigned heavily for the facility to remain open, but the facility's contract was allowed to expire on schedule, without renewal.[8] As of August 2022, the facility is listed as inactive.[9]
Leavenworth prisons
The Leavenworth Detention Center was one of five state, federal and military prisons in the Leavenworth / Lansing area. The remaining four are:
- Lansing Correctional Facility, operated by the Kansas Department of Corrections
- United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth (USP) and its satellite prison camp, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons
- United States Disciplinary Barracks, the U.S. military's only maximum-security facility
- Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, another U.S. military facility
Notes
- ^ "CoreCivic: Better the Public Good".
- ^ Leavenworth Convention and Visitor's Bureau. "Prison city".
- ^ City of Lansing. "our Partners". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2013-07-24.
- ^ "CoreCivic: Better the Public Good".
- ^ "Executive Order on Reforming Our Incarceration System to Eliminate the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities".
- ^ "WHITE HOUSE DOMESTIC POLICY COUNSEL OFFICE, LEAVENWORTH COU. COMMISSION RE: CORECIVIC LEAVENWORTH".
- ^ "ACLU continues push to close private Leavenworth prison".
- ^ "Biden vowed to close federal private prisons, but prison companies are finding loopholes to keep them open".
- ^ "Leavenworth Detention Center". Archived from the original on 2022-08-18. Retrieved 2022-10-26.