Immigrants held at two federal detention facilities in California have turned the one bit of economic leverage available to them — their own spending — into a protest, refusing to buy from the commissary until prices come down.
The boycott
More than 300 detainees at the California City Detention Facility, about 80 miles east of Bakersfield, and the Golden State Annex in McFarland have signed grievance letters to facility administrators over commissary pricing, according to advocates with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, The Associated Press reported. The detainees are asking for a review of prices, a comparison with prison-industry norms and caps on markups for essential goods.
The stakes are personal in a place with little money. Detainees can earn about $1 a day through a voluntary work program, and many rely on funds sent by family — so a marked-up commissary, they argue, drains the people least able to afford it.
The prices in dispute
Detainees and their advocates say the markups are steep. According to the reporting, they cited an 8-ounce jar of instant coffee priced at roughly $18, a box of tampons at about $21 and instant soup at 75 cents — well above what comparable items sell for at a big-box store. The Los Angeles Herald has not independently confirmed the individual prices, which are drawn from detainees' accounts and the advocacy groups relaying them.
Who runs the facilities
Both sites are operated by private prison companies under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: the California City facility by Tennessee-based CoreCivic, and the Golden State Annex by Florida-based GEO Group. Commissary services at both are supplied by Keefe Group, a national vendor to prisons and detention centers. CoreCivic, GEO Group and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on the boycott. In past statements about California City, CoreCivic has said it adheres to federal detention standards and that its facilities are monitored by federal officials.
A wider fight over conditions
The protest lands amid broader scrutiny of California's immigration detention system. State Attorney General Rob Bonta's office has issued a series of reports over recent years documenting problems at detention facilities in the state, and state investigators have raised concerns about medical care and living conditions, CalMatters has reported. State lawmakers have also pushed legislation aimed at capping commissary markups at private detention centers, extending limits that already apply to California's state prisons.
For now, the dispute is a standoff over a store shelf — but it reflects a larger question the state and federal governments continue to wrestle with: what conditions are owed to people held in civil immigration detention, most of whom are awaiting the outcome of their cases rather than serving criminal sentences.
