$495.6 million for an empty prison the seller offered Minnesota for $75 million
The Department of Homeland Security paid CoreCivic $495.6 million in August for the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota, a prison that has sat empty since 2010. In May 2025, CoreCivic had offered the same facility to Minnesota’s Department of Corrections for about $75 million. Swift County assessed the property at about $14 million.
Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire is now investigating. Her letters to DHS and CoreCivic, dated Nov. 11 and made public Friday, ask both to preserve their records on the sale, Reuters reported. Hassan is seeking to lead the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee when Democrats take control in January.
KARE 11 first documented the price gap on Oct. 29, using CoreCivic’s SEC filing and the May 2025 email offering the prison to the state. CoreCivic gave $500,000 to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee. It has sold four detention facilities to the federal government for a combined $2.21 billion, and its revenue rose 28% year over year on ICE demand.
In September, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office warned that ICE had wasted taxpayer money on unsuccessful detention projects and lacked key information on their long-term costs.
DHS says it followed the standard federal appraisal process, and that the $75 million figure was a preliminary, non-binding offer that did not account for replacement costs. CoreCivic says independent appraisers used a cost-based valuation and federal officials set the price. Neither could be reached for comment on the letters, Reuters reported.
Asked about the purchase on Oct. 30, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he knew nothing about it and called the question “a waste of our time.” Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell called the federal price “unexplainable.”
No investigation has found wrongdoing. The questions are the senator’s and the GAO’s, not findings. But the numbers demand daylight.
Taxpayers deserve straight answers on a $420 million gap.
Voters changed who holds the gavels, and this kind of oversight is what that change is for.
You do not have to be a Democrat to see the math problem. If you want honest books, you want someone checking this receipt.
- Ask your senators to release the full appraisals and cost analysis behind this $495.6 million purchase
- Share the KARE 11 report and this story with a neighbor who cares about waste
- Ask your members of Congress to back a full GAO review of ICE detention purchases
- Check your voter registration at Vote.gov
Countdown
The swearing-in of the new Congress is in 50 days.
References
Senator probes DHS's $495 million purchase of a vacant prison the seller had offered Minnesota for $75 million. Nov 13, 2026
Senator probes DHS's $495 million purchase of a vacant prison the seller had offered Minnesota for $75 million. Oct 29, 2026
Senator probes DHS's $495 million purchase of a vacant prison the seller had offered Minnesota for $75 million. Nov 6, 2026