"For-profit Kansas prison an understaffed ‘hell hole’ of violence, death and drugs," 8 Oct. 2021

Dangerous understaffing, pervasive drugs and a stockpile of weapons have transformed a private detention center in Kansas into a “hell hole” where violence is routine and inmates are still on lockdown after one was beaten to death... .

The Leavenworth Detention Center, a pretrial lockup run by the nation’s largest private prison operator, CoreCivic, has been the site of two suicides and at least 10 severe beatings and stabbings [in 2021], according to attorneys representing inmates there. Guards have quit rather than face the dangers.

... “The only way I could describe it frankly, what’s going on at CoreCivic right now is it’s an absolute hell hole,” said U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson during a sentencing hearing in September

... [CoreCivic] declined to make available any corporate representatives or the Leavenworth facility’s new warden. ... [CoreCivic] referred Kansas Reflector to a statement it made last month when it called accusations by the region’s public defenders and ACLU chapters that its facility was understaffed and poorly managed “false and defamatory.” “We deny the specious and sensationalized allegations contained in this letter related to CoreCivic and our Leavenworth Detention Center,” [spokesman Ryan] Gustin said.

... “These allegations are designed to exert political pressure rather than to serve as an objective assessment of the work our dedicated … staff has done to serve the needs of the United States Marshals Service,” Gustin said.