A Walk through a Private Prison in the US
6 min readNov 12, 2023
The names of the detainees and guards referenced in this story have been changed or redacted to avoid retaliation.
From the outside, Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) is surrounded by multiple perimeters of razor wire and electronically controlled access gates. The building is squat, with few windows. Once inside, there are double doors leading past a metal detector into the main hallway off which all cellblocks branch. Signs on the doors invite veterans who are employed by CoreCivic, which operates TCDF, to take part in an event for Veterans Day…
