YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Five faith leaders were arrested for trespassing outside of CoreCivic's Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Monday, after trying unsuccessfully to meet with and administer communion to undocumented immigrants being held there.

Forty people protested outside the private prison on Monday to call attention to the estimated 300 immigrants being detained there under administrative immigration violations, including about 70 arrested at Fresh Mark meat-processing plants in June.

Chrissy Stonebraker-Martinez, co-director of the InterReligious Task Force on Central America, said that a number of undocumented men being held there - including members of local congregations - have repeatedly asked for spiritual services they have not received.

CoreCivic spokesman Rodney King responded via email: "Any claims that detainees are not provided opportunities for religious activities and participation are completely false. Northeast Ohio Correctional Center has a full-time, onsite chaplain, who all detainees have access to five days a week. The facility also offers religious services weekly to detainees. Additionally, we make accommodation for all religious dietary needs. All of these accommodations adhere to Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS)."

Pastor Dustin White of Radial Church in Canton said that believers of all faiths are called to speak up for the people behind the prison walls. Just as God told Moses, "I've seen my people suffer, I've heard their cries, and I've come to set them free," he said. "What you're doing is immoral," he told the CoreCivic employees.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said that it no longer exempts classes or categories of undocumented immigrants from potential penalties, meaning that "all of those in violation of immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention, and if found removable by final order, removal from the United States."

Pastor James Talbert of Citizens Akron church brought pieces of matzo to deliver communion. J.R. Rozco, of Missio Alliance in Canton, brought a chalice of grape juice. Austin Miller, a Mennonite and fair trade business owner in Canton, said the detainees were being treated more harshly than the inmates.

Just as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said that "a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," Talbert said people of faith must be willing to stand up for the persecuted.

When CoreCivic employees stopped them from walking down the driveway toward the prison, Rev. John Beaty of Akron Interfaith Immigration Advocates knelt down and read aloud from the Bible.

When the CoreCivic employees refused to budge, the men offered to pray with them. Stonebraker-Martinez used her bullhorn to lead the other protesters in chants and spirituals. Additional Youngstown Police officers arrived and handcuffed the five of them.

CoreCivic, formerly called Corrections Corporation of America, is one of the nation's largest owners and operators of private prisons. It owns and manages 94 correctional, detention and residential reentry facilities, including the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, and the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut.