On June 13, approximately 50 detainees at Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed immigration facility in Newark, New Jersey, managed to push down the wall of a third-floor dormitory room, allowing four to escape. (Three have since been caught). The mini-riot at the facility, which is owned and operated by The GEO Group under a 15-year, $1 billion contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), started after the detainees were angered by what they say are consistently late and poor-quality meals.
In a statement shared with Reason, a GEO Group spokesperson emphasized the company's compliance with ICE detention standards, offerings of "dietitian-approved meals" and "religious and specialty diets," and its processing centers' accreditation by "the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care."
Delaney Hall is the latest federal immigration detention center to experience dysfunction. In Miami, a lack of legal representation and degrading conditions amid an influx of 400 ICE detainees led to a mini-riot at a federal facility in May, as reported by Reason's C.J. Ciaramella. In Kansas, civil rights groups allege inmates are being subjected to lengthy lockdowns, abuse of force, and medical neglect. At the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington—a facility that currently holds 1,300 detainees—a 50 percent surge in occupancies this year and severe staffing shortages likely contributed to a successful escape in March.
