UPDATE — Friday, October 30, 2026

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The Appleton purchase reached the podium at the Trump administration's "War on Fraud" press conference in St. Cloud on Friday. During questions from reporters, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked about the federal government's $495.6 million purchase of the former Prairie Correctional Facility. Bessent declined to address the purchase, saying the event was not about that subject.

NCN's inquiries to ICE, the Minnesota Department of Corrections, CoreCivic and the City of Appleton remain pending. Responses were requested by Wednesday, November 4, 2026.

APPLETON, Minn. — The Prairie Correctional Facility has been empty since 2010. The 1,600-bed private prison in Appleton, a western Minnesota town of fewer than 1,400 people, sat idle for 16 years while its owner, CoreCivic, Inc., one of the nation's largest private prison companies, paid more than $800,000 a year in property taxes and looked for a buyer.

Public records obtained by KARE 11 Investigates show what CoreCivic was asking just last year. In an email dated May 7, 2025, CoreCivic representative Kelly Durham told the Minnesota Department of Corrections the company would sell the facility to the state for $75 million — a price that, according to the email, included the upgrades CoreCivic had identified as necessary to reactivate the prison.

The state declined. Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told KARE 11 the facility, roughly three hours west of the Twin Cities, was too remote to staff and service responsibly.

Fifteen months later, the federal government bought the same prison for $495,639,588, according to KARE 11 — more than six and a half times the price offered to Minnesota.

CoreCivic confirmed the sale in its own public filings. In an August 5, 2026 announcement and in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it completed the sale of the Prairie Correctional Facility to the United States, through the Department of Homeland Security, on August 4, 2026, for $495.6 million. The same transaction included a second CoreCivic prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, sold to the federal government for $238.4 million. In total, the Department of Homeland Security has paid CoreCivic about $2.2 billion for four facilities this year, according to industry reporting on the company's earnings.

The purchase was not the end of the federal spending in Appleton. CoreCivic also holds a five-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate the facility as an immigration detention center — a contract the company values at more than $536 million, with expected revenue of about $75 million a year. The contract runs through August 2031. Combined, the purchase and the operating contract commit roughly $1.03 billion in federal funds to a single facility that was offered to Minnesota for $75 million, upgrades included.

CoreCivic told KARE 11 that "the federal government ultimately determined the sale price following its assessment process." No appraisal supporting the $495.6 million figure has been made public.

Commissioner Schnell, whose department was offered the prison for $75 million, reacted to the federal price in an interview with KARE 11. "It's unexplainable," Schnell said. "Obviously, I was stunned given the reality of the offer that had been made to us just a little over a year prior to that. I still can't figure it out." The Minnesota Star Tribune has described the sale as the most expensive real estate transaction in state history.

The purchase also carries a local cost. Because the facility is now owned by the federal government, it is exempt from local property taxes. CoreCivic's tax payments — more than $500,000 a year to the City of Appleton and more than $100,000 to Swift County, with the remainder going to the local school district and the state — ended with the sale. Appleton Mayor Justin Koepp has said the city expects higher demand on its water and sewer services without knowing how the added cost will be covered. As of an August 20, 2026 town hall in Appleton, a payment agreement between CoreCivic and Swift County to offset the lost revenue had not been signed, according to Swift County Commissioner Gary Hendricks. CoreCivic has said the facility will not hold minors, that detainees will not be released in Appleton, and that it anticipates about 525 jobs. The first detainees are expected this fall or winter.

NCN OPENS INVESTIGATION

The National Correspondent Network has opened a formal investigation, INV-352, into the purchase. The central question is straightforward: how was the $495.6 million price determined, and who determined it?

NCN is requesting the purchase agreement and any appraisal or assessment used to set the price from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, and the state's own offer file from the Minnesota Department of Corrections under the Minnesota Data Practices Act. NCN is also seeking comment from ICE, Commissioner Schnell's office, CoreCivic, the City of Appleton, and Swift County, and will review the recorded deed, the operating contract, and CoreCivic's federal filings.

Among the questions NCN is pursuing:

  • What appraisal or assessment supported a $495.6 million price for a facility offered to Minnesota for $75 million, and will DHS release it?
  • Who approved the purchase, and was the acquisition competed or sole-source?
  • What will reactivation and renovation cost on top of the purchase price, and who pays?
  • What are the per-day rates and any guaranteed minimums in the five-year operating contract?
  • Has the payment agreement offsetting Appleton's and Swift County's lost tax revenue been signed, and at what amount?
  • Did the federal government's other 2026 prison purchases follow the same pattern?

This is a developing story. NCN will update this article as records are released and officials respond. Documents NCN obtains will be cited in full, and any statement from the agencies and companies involved will be reported in their own words.

— National Correspondent Network