Officials in the small West Tennessee town of Mason on Tuesday approved a contract with private prison corporation CoreCivic to operate the former West Tennessee Detention Facility as an immigration detention facility.
The Mason Board of Mayor and Aldermen called a special meeting to review two contracts: one between the town and CoreCivic, and one between the town and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
After a chaotic exchange between aldermen and a crowd of constituents and residents of nearby towns in West Tennessee, the board approved the CoreCivic contract 4-1 with two abstentions. The ICE contract passed 3-2 with two abstentions.
Neither document was provided to the public prior to the meeting, and town attorney Nathan Bicks said he and others were working on the CoreCivic contract until Monday, giving the board about 24 hours to review it in its final form before the vote.
Crowds flanked the 1,500-person town’s Main Street more than 40 minutes before the meeting began, holding signs decrying ICE and opposing the facility’s reopening.
We need everybody’s support, everybody’s business here. We open arms for everybody. We’re not against anybody.
– Mason Mayor Eddie Noeman
The 600-bed prison closed in 2021 after the Department of Justice, under order from then-President Joe Biden, did not renew its contract with CoreCivic to operate the facility. President Donald Trump reversed Biden’s order against contracting with private detention facilities in January.
Mason Mayor Eddie Noeman, the first Egyptian immigrant to represent the town, voted in favor of both contracts, citing the job and economic opportunities that would come with reopening the facility.
“We need everybody’s support, everybody’s business here,” he said. “We open arms for everybody. We’re not against anybody.”
Alderwoman Virginia Rivers, who previously served as the town’s vice mayor, disagreed.
“I feel you should have been notified and made aware of this situation before now,” Rivers told the audience. “I understand and support the need to deport actual criminals, but the majority of the people who are being deported and detained are lawful citizens.”
“We, as the officials of the Town of Mason that were elected by the citizens, should consider the consequences and the hurt that this will cause our local community, our neighbors, Tennessee schools, and many families,” Rivers said, adding that entering into a contract with CoreCivic and ICE would “make our city complicit in the abusive treatment of immigrants.”
Mason officials held the meeting in the Mason Fire Department garage across the street from Mason City Hall to accommodate some of the larger crowd. The remaining audience stood outside the garage doors, chanting and drumming through most of the meeting. Officials passed around a microphone attached to a karaoke machine, and audience members repeatedly yelled out that they could not hear what officials were saying.
The majority of audience members who spoke at the meeting opposed the contracts.
Those who spoke in support pointed to property tax, impact fees and utility revenue that would come from the facility. CoreCivic stated the facility would generate about $325,000 in annual property taxes, and an estimated $1.2 million in annual utility payments. When fully operational, the facility would generate about $200,000 in annual impact fees to the town, according to the company.
I understand and support the need to deport actual criminals, but the majority of the people who are being deported and detained are lawful citizens.
– Alderwoman Virginia Rivers
Eloise Thompson, a fifth-generation resident of nearby Fayette County, said she was against Mason “becoming a for-profit center for human suffering.”
She said Mason has other alternatives to create jobs and stimulate the local economy that “speak more to the character of who we are.”
Darryle Donell, a veteran and Mason resident, said he previously worked at the facility when it was run by Corrections Corporation of America, which later became CoreCivic.
“That prison ain’t never been good for the town,” he said, calling for transparency, honesty and loyalty from town leaders. “I don’t see no prison. I see a concentration camp.”
Christa Poindexter, another Mason resident, approached Noeman during the meeting and asked why he supported the contracts.
“I want the job. Jobs,” he said.
At one point, at least three board members — Noeman, Vice Mayor Reynaldo Givhan, and Alderman Alethea Harris — exited the building during a period of public comment.
Givhan voted in favor of the CoreCivic contract but abstained from voting on the ICE contract.
“When I moved here 20 years ago, CCA or CoreCivic employed several of my family members, and it was thriving,” he said after the meeting adjourned. “I was actually excited when we first got word that they were coming, that it was going to reopen.”
The “negative connotation that’s connected with just the word ICE … you feel it, and in your heart of hearts, you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror,” he said of his abstention.
Givhan said he exited the building, which was not air conditioned, during the meeting to “get some air” and pray. He said he did not talk to other board members and did not see other members talking to each other.
CoreCivic Public Affairs Manager Brian Todd said 2,100 people have already applied for the roughly 240 job openings at the facility. These roles would pay a starting salary of about $26.50 per hour, according to a statement distributed by CoreCivic representatives at the meeting.
“You all may feel that there’s no oversight and accountability at the facility, and that is far, far from the truth,” CoreCivic representative Jerry Langford said. “The facility will operate with strong oversight and accountability … our government partners will have a presence at that facility while we’re operating, including regular audits and on-site monitors. Both our company and the government partners share a deep commitment to humane care.”
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