A Leavenworth District Court judge has finalized his decision to bar CoreCivic from housing ICE prisoners at a closed facility, rejecting the private prison company's most recent appeal.
As part of an ongoing legal dispute, the City of Leavenworth has spent the last several months fighting CoreCivic's attempts to bypass the city's development process, requiring CoreCivic to obtain a special use permit before proceeding. Judge John Bryant approved an injunction to be put in place while the two parties continue to fight the case in court, citing potential damages to the city if CoreCivic is allowed to skip this process.
In court documents, attorneys for Leavenworth reiterated the need for a special use permit and indicated the city's intention to address problems with prison management. CoreCivic pushed back, stating that the city itself didn't follow its own development process. In an email, CoreCivic spokesman Brian Todd reaffirmed their stance that a special permit is unnecessary due to the site previously operating as a prison.
