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The City of Leavenworth and CoreCivic share different definitions of how to go about the process necessary for CoreCivic to operate an ICE detention facility in the center formerly housing the Leavenworth Detention Center.
CoreCivic granted access to the inside of the facility to members of the media on Monday.
The tour included a look at housing units, the kitchen, recreation space and the medical center.
Monday’s tour followed a tour Friday with about 20 leaders from the city, county, and state level, although invitations went out to about 75 people.
The Leavenworth city manager says he instructed city staff not to attend, as they'll have "other opportunities to tour the facility" because of the city's direct contact with CoreCivic officials. He says, to his knowledge, no city commissioners attended Friday's tour.
Monday's tour was led by Misty Mackey, a CoreCivic warden in Lake Erie and Ohio. She was joined by Ryan Gustin, director of public affairs for CoreCivic.
Mackey began her career as an entry-level secretary for CoreCivic and has worked for the company for 20 years.
She’s been chosen to operate the Leavenworth facility if it reopens as an ICE detention center. Mackey says guaranteeing safety is imperative.
“As a warden, it is my number one priority,” Mackey said. “I take that very seriously. It’s a huge responsibility.”
CoreCivic faced scrutiny over issues of safety and violence at the Leavenworth Detention Center.
Mackey addressed those issues Monday.
"I’m really sorry for the experiences they have had, and I think being in an industry doing what we do, there’s certain risks," Mackey said. "It’s a challenging industry in what we do, and we work with human beings, and that comes with a lot of different challenges. They have different experiences and different issues that they’re working through. Having our staff equipped to address those issues helps a lot to be able to identify individuals that may have mental health issues, that may be in crisis, that may have prior trauma in their life."
CoreCivic stopped operating as the Leavenworth Detention Center in 2021 after President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at ending the use of private detention facilities like CoreCivic’s.
“We've never actually shuttered the facility,” Mackey said. “We've had a contingency of maintenance staff that have been on-site providing virtually 24-hour coverage just keeping the facility open.”
In its special use permit CoreCivic submitted to the city of Leavenworth on February 21, it defined the intention to “reactivate” the Leavenworth Detention Center as the Midwest Regional Reception Center (MRRC) under an Intergovernmental Services Agreement (IGSA) with the Department of Homeland Security; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The application states the IGSA will allow CoreCivic to keep around 1,000 detained non-citizens for an average of 51 days as they’re “processed through the immigration system, including through removal hearings held at the facility.”
CoreCivic ensures no ICE detainees will be released into the Leavenworth community and says ICE will take custody of detainees with deportation orders and coordinate their departure from the United States.
“All detainees who are processed through the facility will be transported to the nearest major transportation hub (i.e. the Kansas City International Airport (MCI) or the ICE office In Kansas City,” the special use permit application states.
The facility is also expected to provide approximately 300 new jobs.
“We understand they've had employees there to kind of maintain the facility, but it has not been used as a prison for the last 24-plus months, which requires them to come back through a special use permit through our ordinances,” said Leavenworth City Manager Scott Peterson.
Peterson says the IGSA is something the city commission will eventually have to enter into, but that cannot be done unless the special use permit is approved.
The first public hearing with the Planning Commission is scheduled for April 7, followed by a full commission review on May 13 and a second review on May 27.
“I haven’t gotten any kind of a consensus from the commissioners other than they’d like to hear more information and have those conversations publicly, but no commissioner has come to me one way or the other to say how they feel about it,” Peterson said. “I think they’re going into it with an open mind and just gonna figure out what’s best for Leavenworth.”
There was initially an agenda item on the March 11 city commission agenda regarding CoreCivic, but that’s since been removed at CoreCivic’s request over wanting to “reconsider the scope of the project.”
The SUP public hearing remained unchanged on Monday.
“As far as the city is concerned, the SUP needs to be approved in order for them to operate,” Peterson said.
Peterson says the city and CoreCivic share differing definitions over what it means to operate by the book when it comes to submitting an SUP and not submitting one.
“There's a bit of internal disagreement between the two organizations there,” Peterson said. “As far as the city is concerned, as per a land use requirement, it has not been operating as a prison for the last two years. So they have vacated their use for a zoning standard.”
CoreCivic argues it doesn’t have to re-apply for a SUP from the city because it still owns the facility and technically “never closed.”
“We feel that we have always operated this facility by right and have done so for the last 30 years,” said Ryan Gustin, CoreCivic’s director of public affairs. “And so the facility, in fact, was never closed.”
Based on that definition, CoreCivic expects different protocol to be applied to their situation.
“Our feeling is, we have the ability to operate as an ICE detention facility, but the city of Leavenworth has asked us to follow the special use permit, so we’re doing that to be kind of a good government steward, and we want to kind of get off on the right foot,” Gustin said.
From there, he says, the goal would be to get an intergovernmental agreement. Gustin also said CoreCivic has been communicating with ICE about Leavenworth for approximately 18 months.
When asked if CoreCivic has any other plans or alternatives if the SUP doesn’t get approved, Mackey said she didn’t have that knowledge.
Peterson, however, did respond to being asked if CoreCivic could move forward with opening the facility even if the SUP fails.
“Not to the city’s knowledge, that’s not our understanding of it, and certainly not our position,” Peterson said.
Peterson says the city encourages the public to attend the April 7 meeting and the public hearings to weigh in on the potential for an ICE detention facility.
He says the city commission shares the sentiment that moving forward hinges on the views of the public.
“We certainly want to hear everybody’s voice on the matter and how they feel about it,” Peterson said. “The commission needs to have those decisions publicly to make sure that everybody understands why they’re making the decisions that they’re making.”
