LEAVENWORTH — Around the corner from a defunct for-profit prison owned by Tennessee-based CoreCivic, Marcia Levering walked carefully across a grassy field to a podium at Ray Miller Park, aided by her cane and a friend, to speak out against the company’s desire to open an ICE detention facility.
Levering, who now lives in Nebraska, worked at the CoreCivic’s Leavenworth Detention Center for 10 months beginning in 2020 before she was stabbed four times by an inmate — once in the ear, once in the right arm, and twice in the abdomen. She shared her experience at a Thursday press conference hosted by ACLU Kansas, Cross-Border Network for Justice & Solidarity and Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, speaking out against CoreCivic’s desire to reopen the prison and house immigrants.
“As usual, we were understaffed,” Levering said of the attack. “There are two officers in Q building, when there should have been seven. I was in training for a new position. The day of my assault, on Feb. 6, 2021, I was coming out of my office. Unit Four accidentally buzzed open the wrong door, allowing an inmate to come out, throwing boiling water in my face and stab me four times.”
Levering said corrections officers expect to be in danger, but a pattern of understaffing and poor working conditions made the job much more dangerous than it should have been.
The CoreCivic facility closed in 2021 when its contract with the United States Marshal’s Service ended. Reports by oversight agencies when the Leavenworth facility closed highlighted problems at the facility, including understaffing and the use of “triple bunking” in cells, a practice of adding a third bunk to a cell designed for two inmates.
Leavenworth citizens and others from across the state have stepped forward to protest CoreCivic’s plan to reopen, speaking out through public rallies and at city meetings. City officials heard and responded. The most recent step in disagreements between the city and CoreCivic officials was a lawsuit filed March 31. The city said the company had not followed a proper permitting process to reopen.
Staffing shortages critical
Shari Rich, who worked at the CoreCivic facility for 13 years, attended Thursday to put her voice to those urging the city of Leavenworth to keep the detention center closed. Her first years with the company were good, and she considered the facility well run.
But in the last six years, it steadily deteriorated, she said.
“I worked control,” she said, explaining that was the eyes and ears of the building, keeping oversight of what was happening. “And usually we had two to three officers up there at all times. At the end, when she (Levering) got hurt, there was only one person manning that whole place. There are 24 pods.”
Using her hands, Rich counted how many doors and gates that was for one person to watch, a total that came to more than 45.
“So one person was manning that whole place,” Rich said.
“This was inevitable,” Levering interjected about the attack that left her partially paralyzed and for which she underwent 16 surgeries. “A matter of when.”
In the public eye
Esmie Tseng, spokeswoman for ACLU of Kansas, said the Thursday press conference was a way to keep the issue in front of the Leavenworth community. Although organizations put the event together, she said it’s important that the city be the focus.
“I definitely want it to be more of a bridge for the folks that have these stories to tell, who know firsthand the impact that the facility had on them,” she said. “I think we need to keep remembering that there are people who are at the heart of this.”
Tseng said the city’s officials have stepped up for those who shared their disagreement with CoreCivic reopening.
“It sort of took on its own momentum, right?” she said. “I think it’s such an issue that, like, really spoke to people. I really want to make sure that CoreCivic doesn’t just get to dominate the conversation.”
CoreCivic spokesman Ryan Gustin disagreed, calling the facility’s opponents “politically extreme, out-of-touch, outsider groups that want to tell the people of Leavenworth what to do.”
“The fact is the Leavenworth community wants our facility, the 300 jobs it will create, and the $2 million in annual local revenue it will generate,” Gustin said. “It’s time for the city commission to reject outside groups from hijacking this issue for their own political gain at the expense of the Leavenworth economy. Elected leaders should tell these outside groups to stop sending the message that the public safety profession is not welcome in Leavenworth.
“CoreCivic will operate a safe, transparent, and accountable facility that will be positive for the community,” he said.
Becoming an advocate
William Rogers, another former employee of CoreCivic, has become a grassroots advocate, filling out Kansas Open Records Requests and tracking down building permits and emails as he fights to stop the company from reopening a facility.
When speaking about holding an inmate, Dillon Reed, as he died, Rogers’ voice broke and he struggled to go on.
“I still see Dillon Reed at night sometimes when I go to bed,” Rogers said. “He was a good kid. He should have never died in there. He died because of staff negligence. People are humans in there. They’re inmates, but they’re humans. I think every one of us need to understand that these people have families. They have people that love them. We had a job to do, and we failed that day.”
Rogers received pointed out that CoreCivic promised in emails, which he provided to Kansas Reflector, to use local contractors to do all the upgrades the facility. But when he got a copy of a building permit for the complete removal and replacement of the roof, the contractor was a Texas company, Bass Roofing and Restoration LLC.
CoreCivic also offered, in emails from CoreCivic’s John Malloy:
- “A one-time impact fee payment of $1,000,000
- An annual impact fee payment of $250,000
- An annual impact fee to the police department of $150,000″
The company also said it expects to employ 300 to 350 full-time employees with a total salary and benefit package between $25 million and $30.2 million per year.
Prioritizing ‘progress over people’
Sister Jean Panisko, with the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, was the opening speaker Thursday.
“We’re Catholic women, religious, devoted to the work of justice, peace and upholding the integrity of creation,” she said. “We applaud the city commissioners for their actions, for listening to our community and protecting the city by suing CoreCivic, asking them to apply for a special-use permit with money provided by our government.”
Panisko said CoreCivic is promising conditions won’t be the same, but she said the facility “wasn’t closed by chance.”
“It was shut down by the previous presidential administration after serious reports and ultimately finding mismanagement, abuse conditions,” she said. “The closure was and continues to be an indictment of a failed system, one that prioritizes progress over people, efficiency over empathy and contracts over projects.”
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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