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CoreCivic staff pepper-sprayed and dispersed protesting detainees at Natchez ICE facility after halting hot food and water, detainee said

On Saturday evening, August 22, 2026, an estimated 80-100 detainees held in two housing pods at CoreCivic's Adams County Correctional Center, an ICE detention facility in Natchez, Mississippi, protested outside the cafeteria after the facility halted hot meals and hot water and served a lunch of two flour tortillas and sliced bologna. CoreCivic's special response team, in riot gear, dispersed the protest soon after; detainee Melvin Funez said the team sprayed some detainees and threw others to the ground before locking the dormitory doors. The facility, which CoreCivic operates under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was holding roughly 2,500 people in a space designed for 2,300.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Natchez, Mississippi

Abuses documented

Actors

On Saturday evening, August 22, 2026, an estimated 80 to 100 detainees held in two housing pods at CoreCivic's Adams County Correctional Center, an ICE detention facility in Natchez, Mississippi, began a protest outside the facility's cafeteria over the loss of hot water and a cut to hot meals. Detainee Melvin Funez told Mississippi Today his fellow detainees were "striking" over what he called "meager rations," after the facility served a lunch of two flour tortillas, two slices of bologna, shredded cheese, and a thin slice of cake; detainees set the food on the floor as a sign it was inedible. Another detainee, Johan Calderon, said the protest began among detainees in one housing pod and that others "stood by them and joined together to protest in solidarity." CoreCivic's special response team, dressed in riot gear, dispersed the protest soon after it began; Funez said the team sprayed some detainees and threw others to the ground before locking the dormitory doors.

Adams County Correctional Center, a former federal prison CoreCivic now operates under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was holding roughly 2,500 people in a facility designed for no more than 2,300 at the time of the protest. Staff distributed dry cookies and instant ramen well past midnight as a late dinner; detainees said the following morning's breakfast was cereal served with sour milk that some discarded rather than eat. Staff attributed the halted hot food and water service to gas-system maintenance.

CoreCivic did not respond to Mississippi Today's request for comment on the availability of hot food and hot water at the facility, or on the detainees' accounts of the response to their protest. The protest followed a petition roughly three weeks earlier, in which nearly 70 detainees wrote to the facility's warden objecting to being housed three to a cell built for two, with some sleeping on the floor near the toilet.

Why we recorded this

Government custody carries a duty to meet the basic needs of people who cannot provide for themselves while confined, and to answer their objections without escalating force. CoreCivic's Natchez, Mississippi ICE facility halted hot water and hot meals for roughly 2,500 detainees; when they protested, detainee Melvin Funez said the facility's response team sprayed some and threw others to the ground rather than restore services. This archive records the response because meeting a captive population's complaint about withheld necessities with force is a custodial-duty failure independent of the underlying shortage.

Sources

  1. Detainees protest meager meals in Natchez ICE facility — Mississippi Today primary accessed September 8, 2026

See also