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In-depth piece on the use of private detention centres that Biden and Kamala claimed they were going to close. Documents abuse of detainees, detainees being held in solitary confinement as punishment when asking for the paperwork they need to complete their applications, and the massive commercial growth thanks to private prisons converting to become detention centres instead:
But as record numbers of asylum-seekers continued to arrive at the southern border in the past three years, the administration has relied increasingly on privately operated immigration detention centers. The centers that DHS recommended be closed have remained open, continuing to hold thousands of detainees. And even though overall immigrant detention has fallen under Biden from the all-time highs during the Trump administration, the US now concentrates more of its immigrant detainees than ever in privately operated ICE facilities—the same ones Biden vowed to drive out of the sector.
Part of that shift is tied to an executive order he signed less than a week after taking office, one barring the Department of Justice from renewing any contracts with privately contracted prisons and jails. The ban, importantly, didn’t apply to immigrant detainees. Some of those private contractors quickly converted criminal jails into immigrant detention centers, signing new contracts with ICE. In 2021 about 79% of all ICE detainees were held in privately run detention centers; by mid-2023 the percentage had jumped to more than 90%, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. In the South, which absorbed much of the shifts in detention flows, the portion was even greater. In Louisiana, for example, about 97% of detainees are now overseen by private companies. Such shifts have helped some of America’s largest private prison contractors rake in more revenue during the Biden administration than ever.
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Decker’s organization is part of a coalition that has conducted more than 6,000 interviews with detainees inside the nine Louisiana detention centers since 2022. They’ve compiled stories of beatings, sexual assaults and attacks with pepper spray and tear gas. Detainees reported being shackled in five-point restraints for as long as 26 hours, unable to eat or use the restroom, and left with cuts on their wrists and legs. They described conditions inside the centers that included rat infestations, black mold, leaking ceilings and worm-infested food. “The pattern repeated especially in the privately run facilities is that the companies are actually profiting by offering substandard quality of food, clothing and medical care,” Decker says. “Less than the bare minimum.”
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But in 2021 the Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights division conducted an investigation into allegations of abuse at Winn. The subsequent DHS report, published that November, raised “serious concerns” about substandard conditions, inappropriate use of force by staff and numerous “serious medical and mental health concerns.” A DHS memo written a month later recommended that Winn “be closed or drawn down” and that ICE immediately “discontinue placing detainees at Winn until the identified culture and conditions that can lead to abuse, mistreatment, and discrimination toward detainees are corrected.”
But Winn never closed. When ICE’s five-year contract for the facility expired this May, the Biden administration renewed it. The precise terms of the deal haven’t yet been made public, but Winn continues to hold hundreds of detainees.
ICE and the White House didn’t respond to questions for this story. But the agency has previously defended conditions in all of its facilities by declaring that it “is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody.” It has emphasized that it uses “multi-layered inspections, standards, and an oversight program” to continuously review the detention centers to ensure humane treatment as well as comprehensive medical and mental health care.