Before Fernando Arciniega was detained by federal immigration agents in May 2024, he was the breadwinner of his household. Providing for his daughter, 17, and son, 12, was something he took pride in.<\/p>\n
Now, Arciniega often finds himself relying on family for money to purchase food and other basic necessities from the commissary at Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Southern California.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to reach out to the family I\u2019m used to supporting,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s been times I had to ask my own daughter for $10.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the federal Voluntary Work Program<\/a>, Arcienega makes just $1 per day cleaning dorms and doing work around the facility, meaning his wage alone isn\u2019t nearly enough to purchase necessities from the commissary. While the facility provides daily meals, Arcienega said he has to supplement them with food purchased from the commissary to stay nourished.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re given such childlike portions of food here,\u201d he said, adding that detainees are forced to buy commissary items \u201cjust to keep ourselves fed throughout the day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Arcienega said he often has to choose between purchasing food, hygiene products or making calls to his loved ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some relief for Arcienega and other California detainees may be on the horizon. State Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) has introduced a bill that is aimed at curtailing price gouging at private detention facilities, whose commissaries sell products that can cost more than twice as much as they do in retail stores. The high prices prompted detainees at two California facilities to launch a boycott<\/a> earlier this month in an effort to call attention to the eye-popping price tags on commissary items, including an eight-ounce container of Folgers Crystals coffee selling for almost $20, more than double what it costs at Walmart and Target.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are eight privately owned immigration detention centers in California that operate under contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The commissaries at these facilities are typically supplied by third party vendors under contract to the operator. Senate Bill 941<\/a>, which passed the Senate by a 38 to 0 vote in May, drew support from both sides of the aisle.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think this is a partisan issue, profiteering off detainees,\u201d said Cameron Sutherland, Padilla\u2019s communications director, who predicted the bill would clear the Assembly and be signed into law before the legislative session ends on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n The legislation builds upon a 2023 law<\/a> that prohibits California state prisons from marking up commissary items more than 35% above vendor costs. SB 941 would require detention center commissaries to abide by the same price caps.<\/p>\n Priya Patel, an immigration lawyer at the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice who\u2019s been advocating for detainees inside the state\u2019s detention centers, called the bill a \u201cgood start,\u201d but hopes to \u201cabolish ICE detention\u201d or, short of that, \u201cnot make it a for-profit industry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Guillermo Medina Reyes, a detainee at the California City Detention Facility in Kern County, said the high commissary prices place an extra burden on a group of people already under stress.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the worst situations people are going to face in their life,\u201d said Medina Reyes, who placed blame for high commissary prices on CoreCivic, the Tennessee-based for-profit company that operates the Central Valley detention center. He said the private prison operator was \u201ctrying to squeeze every little bit of money that [detainees] may have,\u201d adding, \u201cThat\u2019s where taking advantage comes into play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ryan Gustin, CoreCivic\u2019s public affairs director, said that the company strives to set fair prices.<\/p>\n \u201cWe regularly collaborate with our outside commissary vendor and government partners to review and set commissary item pricing that is reasonable,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gustin said that the facility puts commissary revenue into a \u201cdetainee welfare fund,\u201d which is used \u201cto purchase items to benefit detainees, such as electronics, recreational or educational items.\u201d<\/p>\n But Medina Reyes said detainees at California City aren\u2019t seeing the benefits of the fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe really don\u2019t know where the money\u2019s going,\u201d he said. \u201cDefinitely not with the food, not with the clothing, not with the hygiene [products], not with no rec equipment; we barely have rec equipment at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n CoreCivic recently sold<\/a> California City Detention Facility, along with Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but the company said it expects to continue to operate the detention centers under existing contracts.<\/p>\n California City Detention Facility is the largest immigration detention center in the state. In May, it housed more than 1,600 detainees. In November 2025, detainees sued<\/a> <\/a>the Trump administration over allegedly substandard living conditions at the facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the lawsuit, detainees also alleged that the facility doesn\u2019t provide them with enough food or essential supplies, forcing them to rely on the commissary.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJust regular items that we need for daily necessities, like toothpaste, soap, they\u2019re all very expensive,\u201d Medina Reyes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Medina Reyes, detainees receive only limited personal hygiene items and only when inventory allows. The facility issues travel sized deodorant and shampoo, a small toothbrush and travel sized toothpaste, as well as soap and toilet paper. Everything else they have to buy from the commissary.\u00a0<\/p>\n On a call with Capital & Main in mid-June, Medina Reyes read off prices from the commissary\u2019s product list: $6.38 for a three-ounce Speed Stick deodorant, $20 for a 40-count box of tampons, and for an eight-ounce jar of Folgers Crystals instant coffee: $18.80. Detainees interviewed by the Los Angeles Times<\/a> earlier this month quoted similarly high commissary prices.<\/p>\n At Walmart\u2019s website, those items are significantly less expensive than what they cost at the California City Detention Facility\u2019s commissary. A three-ounce Speed Stick costs $2.47, a 40-count box of generic tampons costs $6.28, and an eight-ounce jar of Folgers Crystals instant coffee costs $9.79.\u00a0<\/p>\n After detainees submitted a grievance about price increases that took effect in mid-May to California City\u2019s detention center staff, Medina Reyes said that they were told that CoreCivic was merely passing on the higher prices charged by Keefe Commissary Network<\/a>. Keefe is a private company that supplies commissary products and technology services to detention centers and prisons nationwide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n