Introduction

On November 5th, 2024, America decisively indicated that immigration was one of its top issues, but the country's immigrant detention centers have long been forgotten. Hidden in rural and often abandoned communities, pushed away from public consciousness, these facilities hold nearly 40,000 individuals daily across the United States. Though these facilities themselves cost taxpayers nearly $ 3 billion annually, they are often under-resourced, understaffed, and lack any real administrative oversight. A quick look into the deeply corrupt world of immigration detainment will quickly reveal the presence of widespread human rights violations, where reports of abuse, unsafe living conditions, and medical neglect are seemingly commonplace. This crisis in our nation is not without a root cause: the unchecked privatization of detention systems.

The Rise Of Profit-Driven Detainment

It might come with no surprise that the era of Reaganomics–with its emphasis on private sector growth and lack of government interference–ushered in the rise of the for-profit corrections industry.  In 1983, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was established and quickly secured itself in a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Out of a converted motel in Houston, CCA began their detainment operations which within a year was under a surge of lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) about their ability to properly incarcerate and rehabilitate with their apparent profit motives following the death and critical injury of two men. 

Even CCA’s first contact, which is sadly not too different from the one they have now, meant they collected payments from the federal government on a per-person basis. This encouraged high occupancy rates, where CCA would benefit from overcrowding and cheap untrained staff to line their pockets. Not only did this business model become the norm for CCA, but it was followed suit by corporations across the country and pushed privatized detainment to reach new heights of expansion.

Over the decades, the industry has continued to flourish. As of 2023, over ninety percent of persons in ICE detainment were reported to be held in privately owned facilities, with this number having rapidly grown over recent history from 79 percent from the end of September 2021. Even with all their apparent issues and mounting calls for closure, there has been little regulation put in place. Last year, CCA, now going under the name “CoreCivic,” reported to have raked in $ 1.9 billion of revenue, grossing $552 million from its contracts with ICE alone in 2021. Another similar company, the GEO Group, made nearly double that with a reported $ 1.05 billion in revenue from ICE contracts alone. As evident by the sheer amount of wealth amassed, CoreCivic and other similar corporations have been very successful in capitalizing off of vulnerable populations and slashing necessary expenses. 

The Human Toll

This corporate greed has ingrained a host of troubling living conditions into the fabric of our immigration system, leading to countless horror stories of suffering within the walls of each of these facilities. Accounts of unlivable conditions, abuse, and neglect are extremely common due to a lack of administrative oversight and resources. 

Living conditions in detention centers are often dismal, with overcrowding leading to dirty bathrooms, moldy walls, and a general lack of sanitation. Many individuals recount inadequate access to hygiene products, like soap, and even clean water. Even more, detention centers are often near pollution like fracking sites or waste disposal plants due to a mixture of a lack of accountability and lower property values. These chemicals often bleed into detention centers, exposing individuals to many dangerous chemicals like benzene, formaldehyde, and methane. One instance of this is in Karnes County Residential Center in Texas, which is just 100 feet from gas flares and oil wells, where a high presence of hazardous chemicals has been detected. In California, there was a similar case at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility where their air ventilation system was out of service, leading to many individuals experiencing difficulty breathing and suffering from headaches and gastrointestinal pains due to toxic air and water. 

A whole spectrum of abuse is highly visible at these facilities. Verbally, there are frequent reports of guards employing intimation tactics, degrading insults, and racial slurs against persons detained. Physically, there have been many cases of staff using extreme force, including excessive restraint methods and outright physical assaults. It is not common for guards to initiate forceful takedowns on unresisting individuals, at times using pepper spray and resulting in severe injuries. Women are extremely physically vulnerable in the detention system, with them facing threats of sexual abuse not only by male counterparts but also by staff. In Stewart County Detention Center in rural Georgia, five women have reported that they were sexually abused by a male nurse. Psychologically, there has been rampant usage of solitary confinement in immigrant detention facilities, with it being used over 14,000 times in the past five years. The average individual undergoing solitary confinement in the immigrant detention system spent an average of 27 days, with some having spent over a year.  Solitary confinement causes a litany of health problems like hallucinations, suicidal ideation, or post-traumatic stress disorders, and is typically used against vulnerable populations with pre-existing mental health conditions or disabilities. 

Medical neglect is disturbingly prevalent within the immigration system. While many people in the nation were able to socially distance themselves or receive medical care, the thousands of people in the United States Immigration Detention System were not. Limited access to basic protective measures like masks and hygiene supplies, overcrowded living conditions, inconsistent testing, and inadequate healthcare services meant that these facilities had significantly higher COVID-19 infection rates. This was not just the case with COVID: detained Individuals often report delays in receiving medications, inadequate responses to injuries, and limited access to specialists. Of the 52 deaths ICE reported between Jan. 1, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2021, 95 percent were deemed as being preventable or possibly preventable if ICE had provided appropriate medical care. 

Solutions

The issue of privatized detainment is long overdue for a proper solution. While the problem might be obvious as our immigration system has been plagued by inhumane conditions and insufficient oversight, solutions are a bit more complicated. 

One of the most frequently discussed solutions is to terminate contracts with corporations like Core Civic and to shift back towards public-sector-run detention. Gradually, the government would begin phasing out of contracts by not renewing their current ones. A publicly managed system would operate under guidelines set by government agencies, forcing them to be more transparent and responsive to accountability. This would likely mean higher standards of living and oversight from regulatory bodies. The biggest cost for this policy option would be buying back or reconstructing detention centers. Many of the original facilities would just be purchased from the private owners, maybe through buyouts or eminent domain processes if it’s determined to be in the public interest. Also, some of the current privately-run facilities are already owned by the federal government and these could simply be reacquired at the end of the contract. At worst, the government could also construct new facilities if the acquisition of some of the old ones is unfeasible. Over time, this change back to publicly run detention would likely result in long-term financial benefits, where much of the funding that is currently being allocated towards profit margins could be reinvested into community initiatives that would benefit the immigrant community and the lower-income communities centralized around detention centers. 

Another solution is to renegotiate contracts to shift away from payment-per-person policies. Instead of simply incentivizing high occupancy, contracts could base payment around standards of care. Under this model, profitability is instead linked to maintaining liveable conditions, healthcare, and safety. This would also need to gradually roll out and contracts are renewed, but as many contracts span multiple years the government could offer stipends to facilities that uphold this standard of living. Because this model would require regular third-party audits to determine each facility's compliance with ethical standards. This would likely only require a slight increase in funding toward detention facilities as they set up accountability mechanisms which will require new staff, but would reduce profit-focused spending and reinvest into the community. 

The most preferable solution to address the shortcomings of privatized detainment, in my opinion, would be the all-out closure of detention facilities and a shift to community-based programs. Not only are detention centers ineffective and costly but they perpetuate unnecessary suffering. Detention itself is something seemingly punitive, where even with comfortable conditions it is undignifying. It is also not as if the U.S. federal government, as we shift to a president who has run on mass deportations and border walls, would be ideal to oversee these facilities. Community-based solutions, where programs that support case management, transitional housing, and legal assistance could greatly enrich the community. By leveraging the expertise of nonprofit organizations which have immense experience in supporting individuals on a community level we could prioritize human dignity and long-term societal benefits. Funding allocated towards detention centers now could simply be reallocated, people hired to work at detention centers could shift into these solutions. 

Conclusion

While privatized facilities continue to yield profit from the detention of vulnerable populations, contributing to horrible conditions, widespread neglect, and human rights abuses, we could instead find more ethical alternatives. By building a framework that supports community cohesion, we can work towards fixing our immigration system.

Work Cited

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