In September and October of 2025, agreements were made between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (OKDOC) as well as the largest private prison company in the United States, CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The agreements focused on reopening the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, OK as a dedicated ICE detention facility. The OKDOC, for a monthly administrative fee of $833,333 would serve as an intermediary from which payments would pass through. On October 1, 2025, CoreCivic released a press statement announcing the 5-year contract. It also mentioned it would receive a ‘fixed monthly payment plus incremental per diem payment based on detainee population.’ Once fully operational, CoreCivic estimated annual revenue from this one detention facility to be around $100 million.
This co-investigation between The Frontier and independent documentary photographer Greg Constantine, places a microscope on the Diamondback Correctional Facility. Diamondback is a 2,160 bed prison owned and operated by CoreCivic. Diamondback opened in 1998 and held out-of-state and federal prisoners until it closed in 2010. It sat empty or ‘idle’ for over fifteen years. With billions of new funding for ICE detention approved by Washington DC in support of the Trump Administration’s mass deportation policies, Diamondback reopened in late 2025. ICE began detaining immigrants in Diamondback in late December 2025/early January of 2026. During a Q2 earnings call on August 7, 2026, CoreCivic CEO, Patrick Swindle reported–as of June 30, 2026–1,560 immigrants were being detained each day in Diamondback, making it one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. Recent statistics released by ICE show 86% of those detained in Diamondback have no criminal history.
Details related to the financial workings of contracts between ICE and contracted partners like the OKDOC and CoreCivic are often heavily redacted, leaving the revenue generated from a facility like Diamondback, as well as revenue generated by other parties as a result of the detention of immigrants, opaque and somewhat of a mystery.
Open Records Requests filed by Constantine over the past six months have produced invoices, bank records, contracts, utility bills and other materials. The materials here are organized into layers that show how CoreCivic, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Blaine County and the City of Watonga (population 2,500) are all making money from the incarceration of immigrants in Diamondback. Financial details commonly redacted in ICE contracts are exposed through monthly invoices from CoreCivic and the unredacted ‘Note’ sections found in these invoices. They reveal increasing ‘fixed monthly payments’ over time as well as ‘per diem rates per detainee’ and revenue from staff costs and transportation billings. Publicly available tax records and unredacted contracts presented alongside various monthly reports show how Blaine county and the City of Watonga are also significant beneficiaries from Diamondback.
Presented here, the documents expose a rare view into how in six months (from October 2025 until the end of March 2026) Diamondback went from being a dormant, non-operational prison to quickly generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue as a direct result of the incarceration of immigrants. They reveal how CoreCivic, the state and local government are making money from the incarceration of immigrants at Diamondback. And through this snapshot of time, they show how much money corporate interest and government make from the incarceration of immigrants at Diamondback.
Diamondback Correctional Facility
Follow the money
Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Oklahoma. GREG CONSTANTINE
For more than 15 years, Diamondback Correctional Facility sat idle in rural Oklahoma. Then it reopened as an immigration detention center. Within months, millions of federal dollars were moving through the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to private prison company CoreCivic — while state and local governments also began receiving revenue tied to the facility.
What the records reveal
A rare look inside the business of immigration detention
Financial details surrounding federal immigration detention contracts are often difficult to see. But invoices, bank records, contracts, utility bills and other public records obtained for this investigation provide a detailed view of how money began flowing through Diamondback after the prison reopened.
Together, the records trace Diamondback’s transformation from a dormant prison into a major immigration detention center and show, month by month, how CoreCivic, the state of Oklahoma and the City of Watonga receive revenue connected to the facility.
The arrangement
How the money moves
ICE entered into an agreement with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to house immigration detainees at Diamondback. Oklahoma, in turn, contracted with CoreCivic to operate the prison.
October 2025 – March 2026Behind the payments
How the deal works
The management agreement establishes the relationship between the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and CoreCivic and spells out how Oklahoma is paid for its role in the arrangement.
Two pages of the management agreement show the parties entering into the deal and the monthly administrative payment Oklahoma receives.
Who entered the deal
The opening page establishes the legal arrangement involving the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and the private prison company, CoreCivic, Inc.
Oklahoma gets paid
The second page of the agreement outlines the financial arrangement and monthly payment OKDOC will receive.
When CoreCivic announced the five-year Diamondback contract in October 2025, the company estimated the prison could generate approximately $100 million in annual revenue once fully operational.
Six months
From an empty prison to an $8.3 million monthly payment
Records obtained through public-records requests show how quickly Diamondback began generating revenue as ICE detention increased.
The receipts
See the money move month by month
Open any month to see the original invoices, detailed billing templates, payments and state financial records documenting the transactions.
October 2025
Avg. detained / day
0
Total payment
$2,000,000
OKDOC admin fee
$833,333
CoreCivic
$1,166,666
View records
Diamondback had not yet begun housing ICE detainees. Records show a fixed monthly payment of $2 million during the facility’s initial ramp-up period.
The records
November 2025
Avg. detained / day
0
Total payment
$2,003,854
OKDOC admin fee
$833,333
CoreCivic
$1,170,521
View records
Diamondback remained in its ramp-up period. The November records show a fixed monthly payment just over $2 million even though the facility had not yet begun housing ICE detainees.
The records
December 2025
Avg. detained / day
64 est.
Total payment
$2,186,941
OKDOC admin fee
$833,333
CoreCivic
$1,353,608
View records
ICE detention began at Diamondback in late December. The records show detention bed charges appearing for the first time alongside an increase in the facility’s fixed monthly payment.
The records
January 2026
Avg. detained / day
434
Total payment
$4,460,042
OKDOC admin fee
$833,333
CoreCivic
$3,622,854
View records
By January, hundreds of immigrants were being held at Diamondback. The records provide an unusually clear view of the transaction: the monthly bill, money arriving at the state and money subsequently paid out.
The records
February 2026
Avg. detained / day
685
Total payment
$5,041,836
OKDOC admin fee
$833,333
CoreCivic
$4,208,503
View records
Diamondback’s detained population continued to climb in February, and the monthly revenue surpassed $5 million.
The records
March 2026
Avg. detained / day
699
Total payment
$8,294,050
OKDOC admin fee
$833,333
CoreCivic
$7,460,716
View records
By March, the monthly revenue had more than quadrupled from October. Records show more than $7.7 million in detention charges before transportation and other costs were added.
The records
Local money
The money reaches Watonga, too
The financial impact of Diamondback extends beyond CoreCivic and state government. The City of Watonga receives revenue through an impact-fee agreement with CoreCivic as well as water and sewage payments from the prison.
Watonga, Oklahoma. GREG CONSTANTINE
Watonga
As detention grows, so does local revenue
Watonga receives money connected to Diamondback through an impact-fee agreement with CoreCivic as well as water and sewage utility payments. Impact-fee payments begin in January 2026.
Behind the local payments
How Watonga gets paid
CoreCivic and the City of Watonga entered into an impact-fee agreement tied to operation of the Diamondback facility. Every month, CoreCivic has agreed to pay the City of Watonga $1 per day for each immigrant detained in Diamondback.
Watonga also receives water and sewage payments from CoreCivic, creating a second source of revenue tied to operation of the detention facility.
Open the Watonga agreement ↗
