What started as four people meeting in a coffee shop has evolved into a movement that has drawn attention from across the country and around the world.

In early 2025, CoreCivic, a private prison corporation, filed an application with the City of Leavenworth to reopen its shuttered prison as the Midwest Regional Reception Center (MRRC). Community members quickly organized in opposition, raising concerns about the company's history and the facility's documented record of neglect and abuse. Following significant public pressure, CoreCivic withdrew its Special Use Permit application and instead argued that a permit was unnecessary because the facility had "never closed."

The facility CoreCivic sought to reopen had been shuttered in 2021 after President Biden's Executive Order ending the federal government's use of private prisons. The Leavenworth facility was among the first to close due to longstanding concerns about unsafe conditions, inadequate care, and systemic neglect. A federal judge once described the facility as an "absolute hell hole."

Out of the movement to hold private prison operators accountable, the Carceral Accountability Council (CAC) was born.

While we continue advocating for transparency, accountability, and humane treatment, the reality is that the facility has now reopened and now immigrant detainees are being held behind its walls. Regardless of where people stand on immigration policy, every person deserves to be treated with dignity, have access to basic necessities, and know that someone in the community cares about their well-being.

That is where your support comes in.

What Your Donation Will Support

A Detainee and Family Hotline

We are raising funds to establish a dedicated hotline that detainees and their loved ones can use to report needs, concerns, and conditions inside the facility.

This hotline will serve as a critical lifeline, helping us connect families to resources, document urgent concerns, identify emerging issues, and ensure that people inside detention have a way to communicate with advocates and community partners on the outside.

Recreation, Educational, and Religious Items

Through conversations with detainees, we have developed a wish list of items they have specifically requested.

These include:

These items provide comfort and moments of normalcy during an incredibly difficult time.

Welcome Care Bags for New Detainees

Many individuals arrive at the facility with little more than the clothes they are wearing.

We are assembling care bags that include snacks, hygiene items, comfort supplies, and information about legal and community resources. These bags are designed to provide immediate support during the stressful first days of detention and help individuals navigate available services.

Family and Visitor Support

Detention impacts entire families, not just those inside the facility.

We are creating a visitor support program outside the detention center during peak visitation hours. Families will have access to resource information, legal referrals, community services, and light refreshments while they wait to see their loved ones.

Our goal is simple: to ensure that no family faces this experience alone.

Why This Matters

The Carceral Accountability Council was built by ordinary people who believed their community deserved better. Today, that mission continues.

We cannot change the fact that people are being detained at MRRC. What we can do is ensure that those individuals and their families have access to support, resources, compassion, and a community that refuses to look away.

Every donation, whether $10, $25, $100, or more, helps us provide practical assistance, build systems of accountability, and remind detainees and their families that they have not been forgotten.

Together, we can turn concern into action and compassion into tangible support.

Thank you for standing with us.