Home/ Facilities/ Eden Detention Center — CoreCivic private prison holding ICE and USMS detainees in Eden, TX
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Eden Detention Center — CoreCivic private prison holding ICE and USMS detainees in Eden, TX

Concho County, TX FIPS 48095
1,422-1,558 beds (facility); ~660 ICE / 844 USMS contracted split at 2019 reactivation
Bed capacity
Operator: CoreCivic

Overview

Eden Detention Center is a privately owned and operated men’s (and some women’s) detention facility in Eden, Concho County, TX, run by CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) — not GEO Group, correcting an operator misattribution in this project’s heat-score signal notes. The facility opened in 1985 under a Federal Bureau of Prisons contract, was sold to CCA in 1995 for $18M, and was shut down in 2017 when DOJ phased out FBOP’s use of private contractors. It reopened in June 2019 under a new arrangement: an intergovernmental agreement between the City of Eden and the U.S. Marshals Service, with CoreCivic as the operating contractor and ICE authorized to use capacity at any time. This IGSA-via-city structure (not a county- or ICE-direct contract) is the same “pass-through municipality” pattern seen at other CoreCivic/GEO facilities and is worth noting for anyone tracing county vs. city vs. private contract chains in this KB.

As of the 2019 reactivation, CoreCivic projected $35-40M in annualized revenue from the facility. The facility is still operating on this contract as of mid-2026, holding both ICE and USMS populations concurrently — a dual-agency population mix rather than a dedicated ICE processing center.

Key Details

  • Capacity: Facility total ~1,422-1,558 beds (sources vary); 2019 contract split ~660 beds for ICE, ~844 for USMS.
  • Population: Vera Institute ICE Detention Trends data (on file in this KB, kb/facilities/) shows an average daily ICE population of 641 in recent data pulls; a September 2025 figure cited elsewhere put average daily ICE population at ~275 — population appears to fluctuate significantly, consistent with ICE’s practice of surging/de-surging rural contract beds.
  • Operator: CoreCivic, under contract with the City of Eden (intergovernmental agreement, indefinite term, 30-day termination notice either party) since June 1, 2019. USMS is the prime federal counterparty; ICE has standing authority to use capacity.
  • Contract fee structure: 2023 contract amendment set the City of Eden’s administrative fee at $1.08 per federal detainee day — the city’s cut for serving as the IGSA pass-through.
  • Compliance history: A DHS Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) inspection (report dated Nov. 2023) found compliance in 3 of 6 reviewed areas and cited violations for insufficient health care staffing, lapsed credential verification for medical staff, and water-temperature standards not maintained. A subsequent ICE facility inspection occurred Feb. 25-27, 2025 (results not yet located in this search pass — flagged for follow-up).
  • Historical incidents: Facility has a documented history of unrest predating its ICE/USMS era — 1989 food-quality protest/mattress burning, 1989 recreation-scheduling riot (284 inmates), 1991 quarters refusal (~$250K damage), 1992 recreation-center/library fires, and an August 1995 SWAT/tear-gas standoff injuring 13+ inmates and staff, with subsequent guard-abuse allegations. These predate the 2019 ICE/USMS reactivation (facility was BOP-contracted at the time) but are part of the operational record CoreCivic references when marketing the facility’s “30-year” government-partner track record.
  • Local/community framing: CoreCivic’s own July 2025 facility-spotlight piece emphasizes community-relations programming (Easter/Christmas donations to local nursing homes, Fall Fest participation, nursing-student tours) — standard CoreCivic messaging for rural host communities where the facility is a major local employer in a fiscally distressed county (see kb/budget/concho-county-tx-usda-distress.md, distress score 4/10).
  • No 2025-2026 closure, expansion, or new-contract news found in this search pass. No Concho-County-specific 287(g) news found; Texas’s SB8 (effective Jan. 1, 2026) mandates all county sheriffs operating jails cooperate with ICE, which mechanically covers Concho County under the same statewide pattern already reflected in the heat-score 287g:8 signal (no county-specific action to report beyond that statewide baseline).

Why It Matters

Eden Detention Center is a long-running (since 1985) rural private-prison/federal-detention hybrid whose 2019 reactivation via a small-city IGSA pass-through (population ~2,600 town serving as legal intermediary for a federal contract) is a template worth tracking elsewhere in the buildout — it lets CoreCivic operate what is functionally an ICE facility without a direct ICE or county contract, complicating transparency and local-opposition organizing since the City of Eden council, not Concho County commissioners, is the nominal counterparty.

Sources

Edit Report issue County profile
Last updated: Aug 19, 2026