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A minimum security state prison in the far southwest corner of nebraska Gov. Jim Pilen said Thursday that the center, reconfigured to function as a federal immigration detention center, began accepting detainees earlier this week.
republican The governor said the facility is in McCook — a remote town of about 7,000 people amid the wide open grasslands between Denver and Omaha – As of Thursday, 50 to 60 immigrants were detained. The facility should be at capacity – currently 200 – by Thanksgiving, Pilen said.
Work He said the second phase of conversion is already set to begin, which will expand the facility to accommodate another 100 beds for a total of 300.
“I hope the second phase will be ready in the first half of the new year,” he said.
The facility served as the McCook Work Ethic Camp, which housed approximately 180 low-level offenders who participated in education, treatment, and work programs to help them transition to life outside of prison. Prisoners there regularly worked on the streets, in parks, in county and city offices, and even in local schools, and the program was often praised by state leaders as a success story for reducing prisoner recidivism.
Those low level criminals have been moved out of McCook Prison. Many were paroled, placed on probation or simply released, but most were sent to other facilities, including more than 100 to community corrections in Omaha and Lincoln. Dozens of others were sent to prisons in other states.
McCook is about 210 miles (338 kilometers) west of the state capital, Lincoln.
McCook officials and residents were caught by surprise when Pilen announced in August that he was turning the prison over for use by federal authorities as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration.
Nebraska and U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials have named the facility the “Cornhusker Clink”, a play on the Cornhusker State nickname of Nebraska and an old slang term for prison. The alliterative name comes in the vein of the previously announced “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” detention centers in Florida and the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana.
Some Nebraska lawmakers have complained that Pilen, a Republican, acted carelessly, noting that the state’s prison system is already one of the most overcrowded and chronically understaffed in the country.
To that end, former state senator Diana Shimek and thirteen other McCook residents have sued Pilen and the director of the state prison system, saying only the legislature has the constitutional authority to control or manage state prisons or reappropriate the use of public buildings.
The lawsuit filed in state court on behalf of residents by the nonprofit legal advocacy group Nebraska Appleseed had sought a temporary injunction to stop the conversion of McCook Prison while the case plays out, but a judge rejected that motion last month. Similarly, the judge also rejected Pilen’s motion to dismiss the case.
According to the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, nearly 60,000 people were being held in immigration detention as of mid-September — a 51% increase from January.
TRAC says that about 70% of those detained have no criminal records. Many others have been sentenced for minor offenses such as traffic violations.