Senator Padilla Introduces Legislation Limiting Profiteering in ICE Detention Facilities
SACRAMENTO – Today, Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) introduced Senate Bill 941, which would prohibit the excessive markup of products sold at private detention facilities.
Over 90 percent of individuals detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nationwide are held in private, for-profit detention facilities. 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 Senate District 18.
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 monitoring visit by Disability Rights California to California City Detention Facility found that the drinking water available to detained individuals was brown in color and unpleasant in taste, requiring detainees to purchase bottled water from the commissary.
A 2023 UCLA report interviewing individuals who were currently or previously detained found that commissary costs in private detention facilities were significantly higher than in state prisons. Commissaries profit from detained individuals by selling essential goods that are marked up at unreasonable prices:
- 75% higher for a bar of soap
- 100% higher for ramen noodles
- 139% higher for baking soda and peroxide
- 300% higher for a can tuna
“California corporations are taking advantage of President Trump’s mass incarceration spree and profiting off the heinous conditions detainees, which include US citizens, have to endure,” said Senator Padilla. “These unreasonable markups are unjust and only serve to line the pockets of their shareholders at the expense of working-class families. In the hardest moments of their lives, detainees are forced to choose between clean drinking water or calling their families. This kind of opportunistic profiteering cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.”
In 2023, California enacted SB 474 (The BASIC Act), which limits commissary price markups in state prisons to no more than 35 percent above vendor cost. That law recognizes commissary access as a basic necessity and prevents exploitation of incarcerated individuals and their families through excessive pricing. However, SB 474 does not apply to private detention facilities, leaving detained individuals in those facilities without comparable consumer protections.
SB 941 extends California’s existing commissary price protections to private detention facilities by prohibiting the sale of commissary items at prices exceeding a 35 percent markup above vendor cost. The bill mirrors the framework established under SB 474 and applies it to private, for-profit facilities operating within the state.
SB 941 is sponsored by Immigrant Defense Advocates.
"For profit facilities that exploit detained individuals and their families through price gouging represent a fundamental moral failure,” said Jackie Gonzalez, Co-Executive Director of Immigrant Defense Advocates. “California must continue to lead the way in ending these predatory practices and ensuring that everyone in our state is protected from this type of exploitation. SB 941 does exactly that."
SB 941 is a part of a package of legislation introduced by Senator Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) addressing rampant profiteering and abuse in private detention facilities in California. The package also includes SB 942 which would require private detention facilities to obtain a state license through the State Department of Public Health as a condition of operating in California as well as issue severe penalties for violations and whistleblower protections to prohibit retaliation against anyone that reports health and safety concerns.
SB 941 will be heard in the Senate in the coming months.
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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/