A private prison company offered to sell an empty Minnesota prison to the state for $75 million. The state said no. One year later, the Trump administration paid $495.6 million for the same building. Now that company is begging ICE to buy more before Democrats take control of Congress.
A $420 Million Markup
In August, the Department of Homeland Security bought the vacant Prairie Correctional Facility in tiny Appleton, Minnesota from CoreCivic. The price in the federal purchase agreement: $495,639,588.
KARE 11 investigative reporter A.J. Lagoe found that CoreCivic had offered the exact same prison to Minnesota’s Department of Corrections in May 2025. That offer was $75 million, and it even included the upgrades needed to reopen it. Snopes independently checked the records and rated the story true.
That gap is more than $420 million in taxpayer money. Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said he was stunned. “It’s beyond comprehension,” he told KARE 11.
The Company Was Trying to Dump It
CoreCivic was not holding out for top dollar. In a May 7, 2025 email obtained through a public records request, a CoreCivic executive offered the prison for “$75M inclusive of the upgrades CoreCivic has identified” to reactivate it.
Minnesota passed. Officials cited the cost, the remote location nearly three hours from the Twin Cities, and the challenge of staffing a facility that needs roughly 500 workers.
ICE had no such concerns. On top of the purchase price, CoreCivic got a five-year contract to run the place. The company expects it to bring in about $75 million a year once it is fully running. That is the original asking price, every single year.
Four Prisons, $2.2 Billion
Appleton was not a one-off. This summer, CoreCivic sold four detention centers to the Trump administration for a combined $2.2 billion. Most of them were buildings ICE was already using.
San Diego’s Otay Mesa Detention Center went for $739.2 million. Local reporting found that was more than four times its reported book value. The Leavenworth, Kansas facility sold for $238.4 million.
CoreCivic’s own filings tell the story. The sales produced a gain of about $1.8 billion, and quarterly net income hit $1.34 billion, up from $26.3 million a year earlier. The CEO called the sales “cash generating events”. The company is using the windfall to pay down debt and buy back its own stock.
“Move Quickly” Before Democrats Arrive
Two days after Democrats won back Congress, CoreCivic’s new CEO Lucibeth Mayberry got questions from nervous investors on Thursday’s earnings call. Would the Republican gravy train keep running?
Her answer was blunt. “We would urge the ICE administration to move quickly,” she said, adding that there was no reason to wait. Rival Geo Group expects to sell four more centers to DHS by the end of the year.
The rush makes sense. Mayberry pointed out that Congress gave DHS billions for immigration detention, available through fiscal year 2029, and said the company sees no reason DHS would stop spending until the money is gone. Starting in January, Republicans will no longer control who asks questions about it.
“A Waste of Our Time”
The Trump administration says it has declared war on fraud and waste. So KARE 11 asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about the $420 million overpayment at an Oct. 30 press event.
Bessent said he didn’t know anything about it. Then he called the question “a waste of our time” and said the administration was there to prosecute criminal fraud.
This came weeks after the Government Accountability Office warned that ICE has wasted taxpayer money on failed detention projects, including $1.07 billion on 11 warehouses it later walked away from. The GAO also said ICE has not assessed whether it can afford to own these facilities long term.
Donors, Questions and a Coming Reckoning
KARE 11 found federal records showing CoreCivic gave $500,000 to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee. Individuals tied to the company gave $223,223 to the Republican National Committee in 2024, according to OpenSecrets data cited by Snopes.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has called on Congress to investigate why Trump paid almost half a billion dollars to a Trump donor. Rep. Pramila Jayapal says the private prison CEOs can expect to be called to testify. Rep. Rosa DeLauro wants to claw back the billions Republicans handed ICE.
The other side: DHS says the price was set through the standard federal appraisal process using replacement cost, and that the $75 million figure was a preliminary, non-binding number. CoreCivic says any allegation of fraud or corruption is categorically false and defamatory. No charges have been filed, and no evidence has surfaced disputing the company’s denial.
The Bottom Line
The Republican administration that lectures Minnesota about fraud paid $420 million more than the asking price for an empty prison, handed the seller a $75 million-a-year contract on top, and called questions about it a waste of time. The company that cashed in is now racing to sell more before anyone with subpoena power shows up. Democrats should make sure they get there first.
Sources: KARE 11 (A.J. Lagoe; Jeremiah Jacobsen), Snopes (Rae Deng), The Independent, The Washington Sun (Jackie Llanos), Project Salt Box (Michael Wriston), CoreCivic filings and statements.