Boycott of Commissaries Highlights Need for Padilla Legislation Limiting Profiteering in ICE Detention…

SACRAMENTO – Yesterday, detainees at two ICE detention facilities in California, California City and Golden State Annex, announced they would hold a boycott to protest increasing prices and gross profiteering at commissaries at these facilities. Earlier this year, California State Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) introduced Senate Bill 941, which would prohibit the excessive markup of products sold at these private detention facilities. The bill has received bipartisan support as it moves through the Legislature.

In California, every ICE detainee is held in a private detention facility operated by a private corporation on private property under contract with the federal government. California is currently home to seven such facilities, including two located within Senator Padilla’s district.

Commissaries at such facilities are often operated by third-party vendors that set prices without meaningful oversight. Reports from oversight and advocacy organizations document excessive pricing and inadequate access to basic necessities in private detention facility commissaries: a bar of Irish Spring soap was marked up by 75%, ramen noodles by 100%, Colgate Baking Soda and Peroxide by 139%, and canned tuna by 300%.

“California corporations are profiting off the backs of detainees by forcing them into inhumane conditions and then hiking up the prices on basic goods,” said Senator Padilla. “We cannot allow this corporate greed to continue unchecked. I stand with detainees and their families fighting for basic human decency.”

SB 941 prohibits the sale of commissary items in private detention facilities at prices exceeding a 35 percent markup above vendor cost. This extends California’s existing commissary price protections, established under SB 474 (The BASIC Act), to ICE detention facilities.

SB 941 is sponsored by California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, the California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General, and Immigrant Defense Advocates.

"While immigrant families across California struggle to make ends meet, private corporations like CoreCivic and GEO Group are shamelessly profiteering off people in their custody and their loved ones,” said Edwin Carmona-Cruz, Executive Director for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. “These private prison companies fail to provide detained people with enough nutritious food or hygiene products, and then turn around and sell them poor quality products at exorbitant prices. Not only are they making millions off our tax dollars, they are squeezing every extra dollar they can from people working hard to survive. Where we see our neighbors struggling for freedom, all they see is dollar signs. Enough is enough. That's why people in detention have taken the drastic step of boycotting commissary this month, and we stand in solidarity with them."

To learn more about Senate Bill 941 and the unjust markups that detainees face within private detention facilities, click here.

SB 941 passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee unanimously earlier this month and the Senate by a vote of 38-0 in May. The bill now moves to the Assembly Floor.

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Steve Padilla represents the 18th Senate District, which includes the communities of Chula Vista, the Coachella Valley, Imperial Beach, the Imperial Valley, National City, and San Diego. Prior to his election to the Senate in 2022, Senator Padilla was the first person of color ever elected to city office in Chula Vista, the first Latino Mayor, and the first openly LGBT person to serve or be elected to city office. Website of Senator Steve Padilla: https://sd18.senate.ca.gov/