OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528 / www.oig.dhs.gov
June 3, 2019
MEMORANDUM FOR: Mark A. Morgan
Acting Director
FROM: John V. Kelly
Acting Inspector General
SUBJECT: Concerns about ICE Detainee Treatment and Care at
Four Detention Facilities
Attached for your information is our final report, Concerns about ICE Detainee
Treatment and Care at Four Detention Facilities. We incorporated the formal
comments from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the final
report.
Consistent with our responsibility under the Inspector General Act, we will
provide copies of our report to congressional committees with oversight and
appropriation responsibility over the Department of Homeland Security. We willpost the report on our website for public dissemination.
This report summarizes the violations of ICE standards and problems we
identified during our visits to the four facilities. However, some of the
conditions and actions we observed at the Adelanto and Essex facilities
1 Segregation is the process of separating certain detainees from the general population for
administrative, disciplinary, or protective reasons.
2 Joint Explanatory Statement, 164 CONG. REC. H2045, H2547 (daily ed. Mar. 22, 2018) www.oig.dhs.gov 2 OIG-19-47
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
Department of Homeland Security
represented immediate, unaddressed risks or egregious violations of the
PBNDS and warranted individual reporting to ICE for corrective action.3 The
inspection at the Adelanto facility revealed significant health and safety risks,
including nooses in detainee cells, improper and overly restrictive segregation,
and inadequate detainee medical care. At the Essex facility, we found
unreported security incidents, food safety issues, and facility conditions that
endanger detainee health.
Results of Inspection
This report summarizes findings on our latest round of unannounced
inspections at four detention facilities housing ICE detainees. Because we
observed immediate risks or egregious violations of detention standards at the
Adelanto and Essex facilities, we issued individual reports to ICE after our
visits to these two facilities and recommended ICE conduct a full review of the
facilities to ensure compliance with ICE's 2011 PBNDS. Overall, our
inspections of the four detention facilities revealed violations of ICE's detention
standards and raised concerns about the environment in which detainees are
held. Although the conditions varied among the facilities and not every problem
was present at each, our observations, interviews with detainees and staff, and
reviews of documents revealed several persistent issues. All four facilities had
issues with expired food, which puts detainees at risk for food-borne illnesses.
At three facilities, we found that segregation practices violated standards and
infringed on detainee rights. Two facilities failed to provide recreation outside
detainee housing units. Bathrooms in two facilities' detainee housing units
were dilapidated and moldy. At one facility, detainees do not receive
appropriate clothing and hygiene items to ensure they could properly care for
themselves. Lastly, one facility allowed only non-contact visits, despite being
able to accommodate in-person visitation. Our observations confirmed
concerns identified in detainee grievances, which indicated unsafe and
unhealthy conditions to varying degrees at all of the facilities we visited.
Food Service Issues at All Facilities Endanger Detainee Health and Welfare
Our observations of all four facility kitchens indicated some level of
noncompliance with ICE standards. We observed spoiled and moldy food in
kitchen refrigerators, as well as food past its expiration date. We also found
3 Management Alert – Issues Requiring Action at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Adelanto,
California, OIG-18-86, Sept. 27, 2018,
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/Mga/2018/oig-18-86-sep18.pdf; Issues
Requiring Action at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, New Jersey, OIG-19-20,
Feb. 13, 2018, https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2019-02/OIG-19-20-
Feb19.pdf
www.oig.dhs.gov 3 OIG-19-47 OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
Department of Homeland Security
meat thawing without labels indicating when it had begun thawing or the date
by which it must be used. The issues at the LaSalle and Aurora facilities were
minor and easily fixed during our visits, whereas those at the Adelanto and
Essex facilities were egregious. At Essex, the food handling in general was so
substandard that ICE and facility leadership had the kitchen manager
replaced during our inspection. Overall, the issues we identified represent
health and food safety risks.
x At Essex, open packages of raw chicken leaked blood all over
refrigeration units, as shown in figure 1; lunch meat was slimy, foulsmelling and appeared to be spoiled; and moldy bread was stored in the
refrigerator.
x At Adelanto, lunch meat and cheese were mixed and stored uncovered in
large walk-in refrigerators; lunch meat was also unwrapped and
unlabeled; chicken smelled foul and appeared to be spoiled; and food in
the freezer was expired.
x At LaSalle, some bread was out of date by up to 1 week. All bread was
stored in the refrigerator.
x At LaSalle and Aurora, open packaged food was not properly relabeled
and dated for future consumption,
**Above are portions of the official report. Click link below to read full report and view photos.