Inside the California ICE detention boycott over $18 coffee grounds, $21 tampon boxes

Immigrants detained at two federal facilities in California have launched a boycott in protest of increasing and, in their view, burdensome prices at the facilities’ commissaries for items including tampons, coffee and soup.

The Times reviewed a grievance letter and spoke with three detainees who are involved in the boycott at the California City Detention Facility, about 80 miles east of Bakersfield, and at the Golden State Annex in McFarland.

More than 300 detainees are estimated to have signed grievance letters sent recently to facility administrators, according to advocates with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.

Both facilities are operated by private prison corporations — the California City facility by Tennessee-based CoreCivic and the Golden State Annex by Florida-based GEO Group.

Ryan Gustin, public affairs director for CoreCivic, said the company cares for people at the facility safely, humanely and with dignity while their cases proceed. He said the facility provides three nutritious meals per day and accommodates religious, therapeutic and cultural diets, and that commissary items are a supplement.

Proceeds from commissary sales, per the facility’s contract, are put into a detainee welfare fund, Gustin added. Those funds are used to buy electronics or recreational or educational items.

“We regularly collaborate with our outside commissary vendor and government partners to review and set commissary item pricing that is reasonable,” he said. “It’s important to note that the commissary program is not a profit mechanism.”

The Times also reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and GEO Group for comment.

Detainees are provided certain essentials, such as food and soap, free of charge, but many also purchase items at commissary stores that are of better quality or otherwise unavailable.

Detainees said shampoo and other hygiene items sometimes run out for days and that meals are small or exacerbate diabetes and other health issues. One detainee said the facility provides a pint of milk twice a week and that he has never received fresh fruit.

“The three daily meals that CoreCivic provides at California City Detention Facility are the bare minimum to keep a person alive,” they wrote. “Because of this, charging inflated prices on necessities is considered price gouging and profiteering against vulnerable incarcerated population who have no ability to refuse or shop elsewhere.”

The detainees said an 8-ounce jar of Folgers instant coffee costs $18 at the California City facility, a single instant ramen soup is 75 cents and a box of 40 tampons costs nearly $21.

At Walmart, the same Folgers coffee costs $8.97, Maruchan chicken ramen soup is 50 cents and 40 Tampax tampons are $12.19.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains immigrants for civil purposes. Detention is meant to facilitate removal proceedings but is not meant to be punitive.

Detainees are paid $1 per day under a voluntary work program for cleaning or cooking. Many detainees rely on money from family and friends.

In their grievance letter, the detainees called the markups an unacceptable business practice with no apparent limit. They said they view the situation as an example of captive market exploitation and economic coercion.

The detainees requested a review of commissary pricing by facility leaders, a comparison of prices with prison industry standards, an immediate reduction in prices of essential items and the implementation of reasonable price caps. They also requested an increase in the portions of daily meals, including meals meeting religious requirements, which they said are particularly small.

In May, the California State Senate passed a bill that would prohibit the excessive markup of products sold at private detention centers, limiting prices to 35% above the vendor cost. Existing California law already limited such markups in state prisons.

“It’s just a cycle of unnecessary exploitation,” said Sen. Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista), who wrote the bill, which is now in the Assembly. “If someone is under contract, they should engage in ethical business practices.”

Priya Patel, an attorney at the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, represents people who have been detained at both facilities. She said that during legal service consultations, the topic of commissary pricing frequently comes up.

“The higher the prices get, the higher of an impact the conditions have on people and the more difficult it becomes to fight their cases,” Patel said.

The collaborative is one of the organizations that brought a lawsuit last year alleging inadequate medical care, as well as insufficient clothing, food, water and outdoor recreation time, at the California City facility, which can hold more than 2,500 people. The lawsuit remains ongoing; in March, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco appointed an external monitor to ensure the facility provides “constitutionally adequate health care.”

The lawsuit describes multiple commissary-related issues. For example, it says the facility doesn’t provide headphones for tablets, making private phone calls — including privileged calls with attorneys — impossible unless the detainee can afford to purchase headphones from the commissary.

“One detained person has difficulty walking and standing for extended periods of time without shoes that provide arch support,” the complaint says. “He arrived at California City with appropriate shoes to accommodate his mobility disability, which were approved as an accommodation at a prior ICE facility. California City staff confiscated those shoes and instead provided him with plastic, orange sandals.”

“Several weeks after staff confiscated his shoes, he had an appointment with a doctor at California City,” it continues. “The doctor told him … to buy different shoes from commissary to accommodate his foot condition.”

Gustin disputed those accounts, saying that detainees are given headphones at intake and that attorney calls typically take place in private booths. He said that the company provides orthopedic footwear for any detainee with a medical provider’s order, and that he couldn’t review the case detailed in the complaint without specifics.

A contract between CoreCivic and ICE for the California City facility, dated April 1, 2025, says that the contractor must provide notice of any price increases and that “any revenues earned in excess of what is required for commissary operations shall be used solely to benefit aliens at the facility.” A 2019 contract between GEO Group and ICE for Golden State Annex and two other facilities in California includes the same language.

Alfredo Parada Calderon, 52, has been detained at the California City facility since September. He said commissary prices were already high before they increased around mid-June.

Parada Calderon said he asked an ICE officer why the prices had increased so much. The officer said he wasn’t aware of the change but that the vendor is Keefe Group, which supplies commissaries at prisons and immigrant detention centers across the country.

Detainees in his dormitory submitted a grievance about commissary prices, Parada Calderon said. The answer was vague.

“They’re blaming it on inflation,” he said.

Parada Calderon said his family sends him about $100 per month for commissary items, which he spends on packets of crackers, coffee, soups, soap, shampoo, deodorant and chips.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “It’s a horrible enough place to be in and you guys are making it even more horrible, not just for me but for my family. The detainees want to be heard and this is the only option we actually have — a peaceful protest.”

Tommaso Bardelli, a researcher at New York University who studies mass incarceration, said the families of most people in prison are working class and may sacrifice their electricity bill or credit card payment to send money to their incarcerated relatives. The money they send no longer pays for small luxuries, he said, because prisons have over the years reduced how much they spend per person on necessities such as food.

Bardelli published a research article in 2022 about inequality within prison commissary stores. Commissaries are often now the difference between starving and having a semi-normal diet, he said.