Following a heated public meeting that ended in confusion, a West Tennessee CoreCivic prison is reopening to house federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.
The Aug. 12 meeting of the Mason Board of Mayor and Aldermen was called to vote on a contract between the town of Mason and private prison operator CoreCivic, and another between the town and ICE. The meeting drew around 100 people to Mason, Tenn.’s fire station, an overflow space across from the town hall, although only a few dozen members of the public were allowed inside the building. Attendees were wanded with a metal detector by Mason police, who provide public safety to a town of fewer than 1,500 residents.
Attendees at an Aug. 12, 2025, meeting of the Mason Board of Mayor and Aldermen
A group of protesters, some from across the state, chanted outside the building for around two hours. At times, members of the public inside the building chanted along as well, drowning out the remarks of elected officials who shared a microphone and a small speaker inside the sweltering metal building.
Mason Mayor Eddie Noeman made an economic argument for reopening the prison, pitching some 240 job opportunities and hundreds of thousands of dollars of increased revenue for the small town. He dismissed public concerns about the potential for human rights abuses by both CoreCivic and ICE amid a national immigration crackdown.
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“At the end of the day, we are trying to care about our citizens, about [our] city — there’s nothing personal about any immigrant,” Noeman said, noting that he is an Egyptian American immigrant.
Noeman appeared to grow more agitated throughout the meeting as he faced angry protesters, at times engaging in arguments with attendees — some of whom were not Mason residents. Several aldermen acknowledged that the room had few familiar faces.
Several people issued public comments, including a Mason man who said he worked at the prison when it previously operated in the 1990s. The man said he was underpaid his promised wage, saying, “All money ain’t good money. … When you talk about what’s good for the town — that prison ain’t ever been good for the town.” Another man said his son died in a CoreCivic prison three years ago, calling it a “death trap.”
Mason Mayor Eddie Noeman
CoreCivic lobbyist Jerry Lankford addressed the crowd, saying, “The facility will operate with strong oversight and accountability from our government partners, meaning that our government partners will have a presence at that facility while we’re operating, including regular audits and on-site monitors.”
“Both our company and the government partners share a deep commitment to humane care,” said Lankford. “Our top priority is the safety of the people in our care, our staff and the community.”
The West Tennessee Detention Facility is located just one mile from where the meeting took place, and has “remained idled” since it closed in 2021 — it has not housed inmates since that time, but is maintained by CoreCivic. Following the meeting, CoreCivic public affairs manager Brian Todd told reporters the prison operator has already received 2,100 applications for jobs at the facility.
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The agreement to reopen the prison passed the board 4-1, with two abstentions.
When asked about the outcome of the ICE vote, Noeman said that — despite leading the meeting, calling for the vote and gaveling out the meeting — he didn’t know the outcome. Noeman seemingly grew agitated when asked if he should know the outcome of items the body just voted on, pointing to the town’s recorder a few feet away before leaving the building.
The recorder confirmed the results of the vote despite apparent attempts from a Mason police officer to stop the press from asking about the results. The ICE agreement was initially recorded as failing 3-2 with two abstentions. After the meeting, according to the mayor and several aldermen, the item passed in a 3-2-2 vote, with Noeman saying the error and correction were explained to the board by Nathan Bicks, whom Noeman referred to as a “city attorney.”
“With my partner David Goodman, we represent the town, and our job is to make sure that if the town chooses to enter into these relationships, that the town [is] protected to the maximum extent,” Bicks said during the meeting.
When Scene sister publication the Nashville Post reached out to Bicks for clarification on the misunderstanding, Bicks said he doesn’t represent the town and declined to offer any clarification on the confusion surrounding the vote. Bicks has not returned additional requests for comment or provided any additional information. According to his firm Burch, Porter and Johnson, Bicks is the town attorney for Collierville, located 35 miles south of Mason.
The agreement with ICE was ultimately approved, but longtime Alderman Virginia Rivers raised concerns about not receiving the final CoreCivic contracts until arriving at the Aug. 12 meeting. Noeman said the final contracts were largely identical to contracts the board had received in March, but acknowledged that they did include updated information. As of this writing, those contracts have not been made available to the public online or provided to the Scene or Post.
Mason Alderman Virginia Rivers
“We never got [the March] contracts back to know what was changed, and we never got ICE’s contract [before Aug. 12],” Rivers said, noting that Bicks said attorneys had just completed a review of the contract prior to the meeting.
Rivers also said she believed the ICE vote had failed before later finding out that it had passed — confusion that was echoed by other aldermen. Rivers alleged that Noeman was “coercing” Vice Mayor Reynaldo Givhan to support the measures, with Givhan voting for the CoreCivic contract and abstaining from the ICE contract.
Rivers also alleged that the mayor and vice mayor, along with Alderman Alethea Harris, violated state open-meetings laws when they left the room and went outside in a gated area — where, Rivers said, they were discussing the agenda items.
“They were out there so long that I got up to see what was going on,” Rivers said. “When I got out there, those three, along with the CoreCivic guys, were holding a conversation about voting and talking about the contract, out there. That was illegal.”
Rivers said she hopes the meeting is investigated. Noeman denied that the group was conducting business, as did Givhan — who told the Post he stepped out to get some fresh air, collect his thoughts and pray, and that other board members came to check on him.
Next steps and details about the reopening of the prison are unclear at this time.
On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee issued a press release demanding that Mason “immediately stop all actions related to contracts” with CoreCivic and ICE. The ACLU argues that the board did not follow the town’s charter, which requires a majority vote to pass an item.
The ACLU is seeking confirmation that the ICE contract was not illegally approved, with ACLU of Tennessee interim executive director Phyllida Burlingame calling for “transparency and accountability.”
“This is a simple matter of following the rules: those in favor of the ICE contract needed a majority of votes to win — and they didn’t have it,” Stella Yarbrough, legal director for the ACLU of Tennessee, says in a news release. “Officials cannot ignore their own laws to push through a harmful contract that will generate $30 million in corporate profits for a for-profit prison company.”
This story has been updated.
