Tennessee Town Approves Plans to Turn Previous Prisons into Ice Detention Center | Tennessee

Rural officials Tennessee The town voted to approve the agreement to turn the former prison into an immigration detention center run by a private company, despite loud opposition in a controversial public meeting.

Mason’s five-member parliamentary committee, along with Mayor Eddie Noeman and Deputy Mayor Reynaldo Givhan, met in the Fire Department garage to discuss the transformation of the closed West Tennessee detention center into the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) detention center run by Corecivic Inc, the second largest private prison operator in the United States.

There were dozens of vocal music, angry public members present, who opposed allowing ICE to resettle in Mason where Mason was detained, because Donald Trump push his Massive Deportation Agenda forward.

The U.S. president touted the Florida Detention Center, where allegations of abuse of detainees filed lawsuits by civil rights advocates and environmental groups. And Corecivic is buoyancy Due to its growing immigration detention contracts, and more prospects among New Republicans Legislation provides billions of dollars For ICE and its parent company, the Department of Homeland Security.

However, the company has also been criticized for certain conditions reported by its facilities. This includes Tennessee, but recently, due to the recent investigation The guardian is involved in the federal detention center operated by the company in New Mexico.

In Tennessee, the first vote at the meeting led to approval of a contract to resume operating the facility with Corecivic, which closed in 2021 after Joe Biden ordered the Justice Department to stop renewing contracts with a private detention facility. Trump reversed the order in January. A second vote to approve the agreement with ICE was also passed. It is not yet known when the facility will reopen.

Norman said he wanted to reopen closed prisons to bring employment and economic development to the town, which is struggling to improve infrastructure. According to the U.S. Census data, Mason has a population of about 1,300, about 40 miles northeast of Memphis, and at least two-thirds of its residents are black. When it was opened, the prison was the town’s largest employer and important economic engine.

Noeman said turning the closed prison to Corecivic and Ice was a “win-win situation”, booing loudly in the room.

“No immigration is not personal to any immigration,” Norman said. “After a moment, “seeking work for the people is what I want.”

Sometimes, Noeman argues with participants, questioning whether they actually live in Mason and telling them: “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Before the meeting, board member Virginia Rivers told the Associated Press that she did not support turning the prison into an ice rink because “I don’t like the ice representatives, how they treat the people.”

During the meeting, she noted that some immigrants with no criminal record were swept by immigrant agents and separated from their families. She said the approval of the contract would allow Mason to “complice the abuse of immigrants.”

“We are officials of Mason Township, the consequences and harms arising from citizen elections that will lead to our local community, our neighbors, Tennessee schools and many families,” Rivers said.

Corecivic said in a statement that the ICE facility will create nearly 240 new jobs, and it is now open to ads for detainees at a salary of $26.50 per hour.

“We provide services that help governments solve problems in ways they can’t be alone – helping to build safer communities by assisting the current immigration challenges, greatly improving the standards of care for vulnerable groups and effectively meeting other critical needs, thus effectively meeting other critical needs.”

One of the spokesmans, Charles Watkins, pointed out that Corecivic is the operator of the prison, whose previous name was the American Correctional Company.

“How can we consistently get these organizations into the black community and somehow get a few dollars they throw on the table and when they bring most of them back to wherever they come from?” Watkins said.

From 2022 to February, Tennessee’s correction agencies fined $44.7 million in four prisons, including insufficient violations.

Records obtained by the Associated Press also show that the company has spent more than $4.4 million in four Tennessee jails and two prisons between September 2016 and September 2024 to resolve about 80 lawsuits and complaints of abuse alleged abuse, including the deaths of at least 22 inmates.

Corecivic, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, defends itself by pointing out the industry-wide issues of hiring and keeping workers.