The Fog of Institutional Finger-Pointing: ICE and Its Contracts with Public and Private Facilities

Highlighted Stories

Editor's Note

The first highlighted story, from The Indiana Lawyer, concerns Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana — and it is in many ways a microcosm of a national crisis. It illustrates with painful clarity how accountability for the treatment of ICE detainees can simply evaporate into a fog of institutional finger-pointing.

When The Indiana Lawyer pressed Indiana's Department of Correction about conditions at Miami Correctional, the state deflected entirely to ICE. ICE, in turn, denied any problems existed. And when reporters sought answers about medical care, they hit a third wall: Centurion Health, the Virginia-based private contractor hired to provide healthcare at the facility, did not respond to inquiries. Three layers of institutional responsibility — state, federal, and private contractor — and not one willing to acknowledge any systemic deficiencies. The proliferation of ICE detention contracts adds yet another layer of complexity to already labyrinthine correctional systems and correctional healthcare.

This diffusion of responsibility is not unique to Indiana. Across the country, private operators — GEO Group, CoreCivic, and MTC — run facilities where conditions have drawn sharp criticism. In the second highlighted article from CalMatters a GEO Group spokesman Chris Ferreira dismissed allegations of poor conditions as "baseless" and "politically motivated," even as advocates fight to prevent a former prison in McFarland, California, from becoming yet another ICE detention center.

As reported in last week's Weekly Update, Alameda County is considering a resolution to block the reopening of FCI Dublin for similar purposes, with community members pointedly noting that federal agencies have not always been truthful in their public statements. California counties do nominally have some recourse regarding conditions in private facilities. As we noted in our March 17 Editor's Note, a 2024 California law authorized county health officers to inspect private detention facilities — but it has not been widely used. The one notable exception is San Diego County, where health officials were blocked from inspecting the CoreCivic-operated Otay Mesa Detention Center. San Diego County has since filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the Trump administration illegally blocked a public health inspection.

Next door, in Arizona, the Arizona Luminaria reports that the proposed Marana detention center raises the same accountability questions — compounded by the fact that ICE's own Office of Detention Oversight conducted 36% fewer inspections in 2025, even as detention numbers soared. In the third highlighted article from station KOVA, Arizona's U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging DHS to pause any effort to build additional ICE detention centers in Marana.

Scrutiny is intensifying on other fronts as well. As reported in last week's Weekly Update, Solitary Watch notes that Senators Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Dick Durbin of Illinois are investigating reports of extreme solitary confinement practices in ICE facilities, including conditions they describe as tantamount to torture. Meanwhile, data showing rising rates of solitary confinement and deaths in custody continue to accumulate nationwide — fourteen people have died in ICE custody this year alone.

The human cost behind these statistics is vividly captured in the final highlighted piece, from the New York Times: the story of Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, an 85-year-old French widow of an American veteran, arrested in her bathrobe and pajamas, chained at the wrists and ankles, and loaded onto transport like cargo. While detained, her sciatica worsened to the point where fellow detainees helped her to the bathroom and shower. In response, a Homeland Security spokesperson stated that ICE maintains "higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons."

To paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies: well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

ICE

This article examines conditions at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana, which began housing ICE detainees in October 2025 under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security. Detainees and their attorneys describe frequent sewage backups leaving cells ankle-deep in contaminated water, inadequate and nutritionally insufficient food, failure to accommodate religious dietary needs, and significantly delayed medical care. ICE denies the conditions are substandard, and Indiana's Department of Correction defers to ICE. The facility's third-party medical contractor, Centurion Health, did not respond to inquiries. An attorney for detainees state that the root problem is that ICE contracted with an under-resourced facility without adequate infrastructure.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement again has expanded in California’s Central Valley, activating a new 700-bed detention facility operated by the for-profit prison company GEO Group. Advocates say the agency began transferring immigrant detainees to the McFarland facility last week. The facility, called Central Valley Annex, brings the total number of active detention centers in California to eight, up from six at the beginning of 2025. They are all operated by private companies and they have a total capacity of nearly 10,000 beds. For years, detainees at the Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex facilities have alleged abuse and dangerous conditions. In response to some of those previous allegations, Chris V. Ferreira, the spokesman for GEO Group, has previously told CalMatters that his company “strongly disagrees with these baseless allegations".

Arizona's U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego sent this letter to the Department of Homeland Security last week urging DHS to pause any effort to build additional ICE detention centers in Marana and Surprise. They want an answer soon. One of the facilities the senators refer to is the former private prison in Marana on Silverbell Road. The senators point to a lack of transparency regarding the projects. Part of the letter said ICE describes the Marana facility as having space to house roughly 775 detainees. However, that figure far surpasses the private prison's capacity of 225. Management and Training Corporation (MTC) owns the former prison.

This story concerns a French woman, the widow of an American veteran, who was arrested by ICE and eventually deported. She describes being swallowed into the country’s sprawling immigration detention system, where she was chained by her wrists and ankles to other detainees and loaded onto buses and planes. While in detention, her back pain from sciatica worsened, and other detainees had to help her get to the bathroom and shower. Asked for comment, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that “all detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.” It added that “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens” and is “regularly audited and inspected by external agencies.”

Follow Ups

YesCare/Tehum Care/Corison

Editor's Comment: Oh my, what a surprise — YesCare/Tehum Care/Corizon has found its way into our Follow Ups yet again. Just last week, we covered the healthcare company's failure to reverse a colostomy, which cost it a multi-million-dollar settlement in Michigan. Now Alabama is terminating its contract with YesCare/Tehum Care/Corizon — this time for failing to meet payroll — and replacing it with NaphCare, an Alabama-based provider.

There's just one catch: NaphCare was recently banned from providing services in New York State. It may be difficult for our subscribers to see the bright side of this particular switch.

The Alabama Department of Corrections has terminated a $1 billion health care contract with a troubled Tennessee company for what it called a “failure to adequately fulfill its contractual duties.” ADOC said it terminated the 5-year contract that it awarded in 2023 had with Tennessee-based YesCare after it was reported that the company could not meet payroll to pay its employees. “To ensure uninterrupted medical service, ADOC is working to execute an emergency agreement with NaphCare to provide inmate healthcare services.

Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets

Editor's Comment: In our March 17 Editor's Note, we reported that the CDC was cutting funding to overdose-prevention programs using the Never Use Alone slogan. A CDC spokesperson stated: "Federal funds may not be used to support harm reduction efforts that primarily serve to facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm." The administration's stated goal was to ensure that recipients were in compliance with President Trump's executive order, Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets. Today's article shows how far that executive order has expanded — now reaching any harm reduction program that does not include abstinence.

Also this just crossed our desk: SAMHSA on April 24 sent out a Dear Colleague Letter outlining the Agency's shit away from harm reduction consistent with the executive order. The letter also provides guidance to state agency leadership and to grantees on what supplies and services previously defined under the umbrella of harm reduction could be supported with SAMHSA funding.

President Trump signed an executive order entitled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” that, among other things, ordered government agencies to stop funding “so-called ‘harm reduction’ or ‘safe consumption’ efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.” As a result, none of the $7.4 billion in federal funding to treat mental health and addiction can be spent on projects that include the words “harm reduction.” Because harm reduction does not always involve complete abstinence, some critics charge that these tactics encourage risky behavior. But study after study shows that rather than enabling drug use, harm reduction efforts keep people alive and provide a pathway to health and recovery. By meeting people where they are—not where we want them to be—these interventions reduce overdoses, connect people to addiction treatment, and decrease HIV rates.

Oklahoma County

Editor's Comment: Oklahoma County is in a world of pain, as our subscribers who have been following this story know all too well. The jail there has become something of a case study in everything that can go wrong with a correctional facility — and then some.

As far back as 2024, there were signs that not all was well. The Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority (OCCJA), which oversees jail operations, delayed renewing its contract with healthcare provider Turn Key Health Clinics — a company that was soon to rebrand as TK Health, which, given this industry's history with name changes, was not an encouraging sign. In our Editor's Note of September 17, 2024, we reported that Turn Key had then given 30 days' notice to quit the jail. Fifty people had died in their care during their tenure as provider.

That same Editor's Note covered another remarkable development: the OCCJA was suing the State Health Department to prevent it from inspecting the jail. We had never encountered anything quite like it. The resulting legal battles wound their way up to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Health Department — a decision that ultimately led to the resignation of OCCJA CEO Brandi Garner.

But wait, there's more.

Oklahoma was also in the midst of constructing a new facility to replace the old jail, which had fallen into significant disrepair. The site selection became a point of contention between Oklahoma County and Oklahoma City, prompting the state Attorney General to intervene. Cost overruns followed, as they tend to do.

Now, in today's article, Oklahoma County finds itself facing yet another crisis. It had contracted with a company called VieMed Healthcare Staffing to provide safety monitoring for detainees — a service we confess we had never seen outsourced before — but has now terminated that contract due to budget constraints. The jail is already understaffed. The fear, not unreasonably, is that suicides will increase.

The Oklahoma County Detention Center — already notorious as one of the deadliest jails in the nation — has cancelled a contract with VieMed Healthcare Staffing LLC, a Louisiana-based company that provided dedicated safety checkers for detainees, citing budget constraints. The Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority, which has operated the facility since 2020, voted to terminate the contract on March 31. The jail has seen more than 53 deaths since 2020 and been cited seven times for insufficient staffing. With only 74 detention officers for roughly 1,500 detainees, advocates warn the decision will lead to more suicides and preventable deaths — a grand jury having previously found that chronic understaffing had already made many such deaths preventable. Michael Olson, policy counsel for the advocacy group Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, worries more suicides and violent incidents will occur at the jail if there’s reduced supervision.

Arizona

Editor's Comment: More developments in the Arizona receivership story. Judge Silver asked both the plaintiffs' attorneys — the Prison Law Office — and the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCRR) to each submit at least five candidates for receiver. The results were, to put it charitably, underwhelming in volume: the plaintiffs named just two, and the ADCRR named only one.

Perhaps more telling is the character of the nominees themselves. None of the candidates — not even those put forward by the plaintiffs — could be described as firebrands. All come with substantial correctional backgrounds and establishment credentials. The implicit message seems clear: whoever takes on this role will need to work constructively with the department, and both sides appear to have prioritized that reality.

After 14 years of litigation and a string of court orders finding repeated failures to significantly improve health care delivery in the state prison system, federal district Judge Roslyn Silver granted a motion to appoint a receiver. Silver directed the parties to submit up to five receiver candidates each. Attorneys for the plaintiffs put up two: Kellie Wasko, her last position was as secretary of corrections for the South Dakota Department of Corrections and Leann Bertsch who is vice president for the Corrections Division of the Management and Training Corporation. Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (ADCCR) put forward one candidate: Annette Chambers-Smith who is the current director of criminal justice for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. The department submitted this candidate even though it is pursuing an appeal of the order granting the motion for a receiver

New York

Editor's Comment: This week's New York stories can be summarized in two words: more violence. The contributing factors are by now familiar — chronic staff shortages, last year's wildcat strikes, a persistent lack of cameras that leaves beatings by correctional officers largely undocumented, and officers increasingly citing the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act as contributing to more violence. There seems to be something depressingly circular in all of this.

Violence in state prisons has skyrocketed over the last 10 years. Use of force incidents by correction staff have increased 156% statewide between 2015 and 2024. At Green Haven Correctional Facility, the use of force by correction staff has increased dramatically, going from 89 incidents in 2015 to 357 incidents in 2024. That’s a 301% increase, far outpacing many other state prisons. A year after a wildcat strike, where 10,000 officers walked off the job, bringing in the National Guard, the troops are still there. There are 2,700 members of the National Guard still on duty, working in state prisons because of thousands of vacancies.

Two beating deaths of inmates in New York’s prisons within months of each other put a spotlight on the system in the last 18 months, but newly obtained state data as well as dozens of lawsuits allege a pattern of abuse by correction officers shooting upward in the last decade. Through court filings and interviews with former inmates who experienced abuse while in prison, the commonality among many of the stories is where the assaults occurred: blind spots like the infirmaries and transport vans that lack cameras.

The union that represents New York State corrections officers sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul describing a crisis unfolding in the state's prison system. The letter from the NYS Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, known as NYSCOPBA, said the situation is "increasingly unstable and dangerous for everyone who lives and works behind the walls." In the span of one week in April, three incarcerated people at three prisons in the North Country were killed. In its letter, NYSCOPBA urged Gov. Hochul to end double-bunking. "A comprehensive, statewide strategy to reduce—and ultimately eliminate—double bunking where it compromises security and human safety is essential." Another top issue of concern expressed by NYSCOPBA is related to drug exposures. Correction officers and other prison staff say they're being exposed to substances on papers and other contraband brought into facilities. To address some of the strains on the prison system, NYSCOPBA requested "reasonable amendments" to the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act.

AI

Prisons have long restricted inmates’ access to technology, concerned they could use it to break the rules or commit crimes. The internet is mostly off limits, along with A.I.-powered chatbots. But as hype about the technology has infiltrated prison yards and cellblocks, many inmates are eager to try it out. They’re attending workshops and classes to learn about A.I. They ask friends to send printouts of chatbot answers by snail mail. The result? A.I.-generated legal documents, essays, business plans and even a bespoke board game or two.

Hepatitis

People cycling through jails have substantially higher HCV prevalence than the general population, and even brief contact with the health system in this setting can be leveraged to expand testing. A jail-based strategy that includes hepatitis C virus testing, treatment and post-release navigation services could reduce incidence and related deaths among people who inject drugs, results of a simulation study showed.

Studies

Strong partnerships between criminal courts and mental health providers are imperative to ensure justice for individuals involved in the forensic system. Yet these entities approach issues with different priorities, unique perspectives, and competing resource demands. The authors present a university’s effort to facilitate communication among Alabama criminal courts, community providers, and the Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH).

State Roundup

North Carolina

Iryna's Law, was enacted in December 2025 after a deadly stabbing on a Charlotte light rail train. The law tightens pretrial release rules, particularly for individuals accused of violent crimes. While the law was designed to improve public safety, it may be having unintended consequences, especially for already crowded jails. In the last 18 months jail population has ballooned up. To manage the overflow, temporary beds known as “EZ bunks,” are placed in open dorm areas to accommodate additional inmates.

North Carolina's Disability Rights organization has filed a class action lawsuit against the state's Department of Health and Human Services, alleging that people with serious mental illness are languishing in county jails for months — sometimes years — while awaiting court-ordered mental health evaluations and treatment. Under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, pretrial detainees cannot be held beyond a reasonable period solely due to their incapacity to stand trial, yet the average wait for a capacity assessment is two months, and for psychiatric hospital placement, nearly five months. A federal judge has allowed the case to proceed on due process grounds while declining to issue an injunction.

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is increasing security measures at some of the state’s largest prisons to prevent the spread of contraband. Full-body scanners are being installed in five Oklahoma facilities, the agency announced in a press release. Everyone coming into the prisons will have to enter through the full-body scanners, including staff, visitors, volunteers and guests, an agency spokesperson said.

South Carolina

Inmates in South Carolina with serious mental illnesses are locked in a perilous waiting game for treatment to ease their symptoms just enough to restore their ability to stand trial. Average wait times for this care swelled from about a month in 2019 to eight months as of March — delays that have caused needless suffering and death. Together with lawsuits, law enforcement records and coroner’s reports, they depict a jail struggling to care for — and control — people with chronic, complex and often unpredictable behavioral issues.

Texas

Two people in Harris County custody have died this month, according to officials, including one who was being held in a privately run jail, The LaSalle Correctional Center, across state lines in Louisiana. The back-to-back deaths, one at the county jail and one after an out-of-state transfer, are again raising questions about oversight and medical care for people Harris County sends far from home. Housing Harris County inmates out of state complicates reporting and accountability, in part because those facilities are not always covered by Texas in-state reporting rules.

Rikers Island

Stanley Richards knows how bleak life can be at Rikers Island, New York City’s notorious jail complex. As a young man, he spent two years locked up there for robbery. Now, he runs the place as the city’s new Department of Correction commissioner. Richards, 65, takes over at a critical juncture for the city’s beleaguered jails system. A federal judge in January appointed Rikers’ first “remediation manager,” a new court-ordered position with wide authority to help bring order to the unruly jail.

Correctional Healthcare Vendors

NaphCare

A controversial medical and mental health care provider will not be rubber-stamped for a new contract at a local jail. Montgomery County (OH) plans to open bids, not just renew NaphCare for the contract. Montgomery County Administrator Michael Colbert said the county pays NaphCare more than $8 million a year. NaphCare has held the contract at the jail since 2002. A series of drug overdoses created some controversy, and the recent jail death of Christian Black after being put in a restraint chair really put the company in a negative light.

QCHC

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in the Circuit Court of Walker County (AL) alleging a pretrial detainee died after not receiving adequate medical care while housed at the Walker County Jail, according to a recently filed court complaint. The lawsuit was filed by Albert Theus, as administrator of the estate of his brother, Siras Theus The complaint alleges that multiple medical staff members, a contracted healthcare provider (QCHC), and a correctional officer failed to provide appropriate evaluation, monitoring, and hospital transfer despite worsening medical symptoms.