Outside the Campbell County Detention Center in Newport, three U.S. representatives said on Monday they witnessed inhumane treatment inside the facility — and called for better access to medical care, food options and bedding.
“This is a business,” said Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore from Milwaukee. “It's a business cutting corners, like not having good food, not differentiating, not meeting people with medical needs, not having a doctor on duty. We see a lot of cost cutting here, and we definitely don't understand it, given the billions of dollars that we have allocated.”
Campbell County is one of hundreds of county jails contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the country. The contract, via the 237(g) program, pays local jails to house immigrants in detention. Those detained are often moved and held across state lines.
As of January, there were more than 130 people at the Campbell County Detention center held for immigration-related violations.
“I get paid to hold inmates from other counties,” said Campbell County Jailer James Daley after the representatives had left. “I get paid to hold inmates for the state, and I get paid to hold inmates from the federal government.”
He denied the congressional representative’s allegations that people in his jail are not given access to basic necessities like medical care and diabetic-friendly food options.
The three representatives said the jail treated people in detention like “commodities” — one said they saw dozens packed into one cell.
Democratic Congresswoman Delia Ramirez from Chicago said she will make calls about getting an in-house psychologist and more medicine, like insulin, into the jail. She said that some of the detained constituents the representatives spoke with are diabetic; she said they don’t have access to healthy food and have to pay for insulin.
“Two men who are diabetic tell me ‘I can't eat meat here, I have to just buy the food from the commissary,’” Ramirez said, adding that they’re relying on canned beans for protein.
Daley said the jail does provide a diabetic-friendly diet option for those with diabetes, but could not name the specific foods they give.
Moore and Ramirez also say they were particularly interested in visiting the jail after hearing about a pregnant woman who miscarried in the facility, and was put in confinement after returning from the hospital. The woman is one of Moore’s constituents.
“She went to the hospital for three days,” Ramirez said. “They brought her back, and instead of taking care of her, they put her in confinement.”
Daley said the jail cannot disclose any specific information about people in detention, but the woman in that instance did receive medical care from the jail.
“I can tell you that in a situation that I'm familiar with, a young lady came back and she was placed in — what they're calling isolation — is our medical wing,” he said. “It's in a solitary cell, but so they can [get] medical care.”
Congressman Morgan McGarvey from Louisville, Kentucky’s lone Democrat in the federal delegation, said the conditions are “unacceptable,” especially since 70% of immigrants in detention do not have a criminal record.
“That number is even higher in Kentucky,” he said. “Seventy-two percent of those detained in Kentucky do not have criminal records, and they are being warehoused in here and not given access to the medication they need to survive.”
Two community members spoke alongside the members of Congress outside the detention center. Jeff Richardson, who is fundraising for immigrants in detention, said the jail was fueling family separation by keeping them in detention.
“They're trapped because immigration judges aren't granting bonds anymore since last year,” he said. “I'm disappointed that Campbell County has a contract with ICE.”
Alice Gerdeman, from Sisters of Divine Providence, said her grandparents immigrated from Germany. She thanked the representatives for conducting the oversight.
“A big problem that we have in our country right now is that we live in fear, and it's an unjustifiable fear,” she said. “If you know a lot of people who come from an immigrant background or who are immigrants, and you're not frightened of any of them, why would we hook on to a culture or a political system that says we should be fearful?”
Representatives said they will follow up about their requests for better medical care, food access and bedding with the jail.
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