The Department of Homeland Security bought the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota, from CoreCivic in August for $495,639,588, according to the purchase agreement filed with the SEC. Fifteen months earlier, in May 2025, CoreCivic had offered the same shuttered facility to the State of Minnesota for $75 million, a price that included the upgrades the company said were needed to reactivate it. The difference is $420.6 million on a single building.
Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell declined the $75 million offer because the remote site, three hours west of the Twin Cities, was too isolated to staff and service responsibly. He told KARE 11 investigators he was stunned by the federal price. The 1,600 bed facility had been shuttered for 16 years and sits in a town of about 1,400 people. CoreCivic told KARE that the federal government ultimately determined the sale price following its own assessment process.
Prairie was not a one off. CoreCivic sold four prisons to DHS in July and August 2026 for a combined $2.2 billion, including the Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, bought the same day as Appleton for $238 million, and the California City detention center in July for $733 million. CoreCivic expects about $1.6 billion in proceeds after taxes and transaction costs, and separately expects a five year ICE contract at Prairie projecting about $75 million in annual revenue once the facility is fully activated, so the government will pay again to run the asset it bought.
In September the Government Accountability Office faulted DHS planning for its detention expansion and called for a comprehensive strategic plan, which ICE does not expect to finish until August 2027. The immediate question raised by the KARE reporting is documentary: what appraisal supported a price 6.6 times the seller’s own recent offer for the same asset.