Tideflats immigrant detention center will remain privately run

The Department of Justice is getting out of the private-prison business, but for the moment that won’t affect the largest privately operated detention facility in the state: the Northwest Detention Center on the Tacoma Tideflats.

DOJ leaders announced Aug. 18 that they would not renew existing contracts with private prison operators, saying they provide lower quality service and are less safe than publicly run prisons. The decision followed an earlier inspector general’s report that found so-called “contract prisons” have poor safety records and high rates of assault between inmates and against staff.

The decision didn’t affect the 1,575-bed detention center. Owned by the GEO Group, it operates under a recently renewed contract with a different federal agency: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But the DOJ’s move is prompting members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, to push for a similar withdrawal from the use of privately owned facilities such as the detention center.

“The Department of Homeland Security should follow the Department of Justice and begin to systematically end its contracts with private detention centers. It is now more clear than ever that for-profit companies have no place in operating prison facilities,” Smith said last week.

An Aug. 19 statement from the GEO Group said the company was “disappointed” by the DOJ decision, but added that the impact “is not imminent.”

The statement followed a steep drop in company stock; it alluded to immigration facilities, though not explicitly, saying the company would continue to work with “all of our government partners, in order to ensure safe and secure operations at all of our facilities.”

So far, ICE has shown no sign of following DOJ’s lead. ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said the agency provides “several levels of oversight to ensure that detainees in ICE custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments and under appropriate conditions.”

Rodriguez also noted that “ICE detainees are housed in a variety of facilities across the United States, including but not limited to ICE-owned-and-operated facilities; local, county or state facilities contracted through Intergovernmental Service Agreements, and contractor-owned-and-operated facilities. ICE uses these various models to meet the agency’s detention needs while protecting taxpayer resources.”

But Smith, who visited the Tideflats center in 2014 and called the conditions “shocking,” is a longtime critic of the facility. He has proposed less punitive approaches to detention, and sponsored a bill proposing community-based alternatives for immigration detainees who present little or no risk to public safety.

He’s not alone; U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi issued a similar statement last week, calling for an immediate review to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security should “reduce its dependence on private prisons.”

The average daily population at the Tideflats center is about 1,000, according to the latest figures, but measured by its 1,575-bed capacity, it’s the largest contract prison in the state, though authorities don’t use the word “prison” to describe it.

It’s bigger than the Pierce County Jail, the King County Jail, and every other county jail. It’s bigger than the state-run Washington Corrections Center for Women in Purdy.

A regular target of protests, the center has seen its share of controversy, including multiple hunger strikes by detainees who say conditions inside are unacceptable.

An inspector general’s report triggered the Justice Department decision regarding private prisons, but Homeland Security has its own inspector general, and no similar report has been issued regarding detention facilities. Spokeswoman Erica Paulson said the office has several ongoing reviews underway, begun before last week’s announcement. One such review covers contracts with detention centers, and whether they were awarded under proper guidelines.

The DHS inspector general is also conducting unannounced spot inspections of Border Protection facilities and ICE detention facilities. A July 28 press release said the inspections covered 60 such facilities since March, in response to concerns raised by immigrant rights groups and complaints regarding facility conditions. The statement did not indicate whether the Tideflats center was among those inspected.

Even if Homeland Security announced a withdrawal from contract prisons, it wouldn’t affect the Tideflats center until 2025 at the earliest. The GEO Group renewed its contract in February, locking in operations for another nine years.

This story was originally published August 27, 2016 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Tideflats immigrant detention center will remain privately run."