San_Bernardino_County_California_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Adelanto_Highlighted

Adelanto Detention Facility is a privately operated immigration detention center in Adelanto,

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

. Owned and operated by the

GEO Group The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The company ...

, it consists of two separate facilities: East, which was an existing prison purchased in June 2010 from the City of Adelanto with a capacity of about 600 inmates, and the newly built West expansion completed in August 2012 with another 700 beds. After an additional expansion in 2015, the facility's capacity houses up to 1,940 immigrant detainees of all classification levels, with an average stay of 30 days.

History

From 1991 Adelanto was a state prison for adult male inmates. The GEO Group purchased the facility in 2010 and in May 2011, contracted with the

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the Un ...

(ICE) to house federal immigration detainees. Based on the agreement, the center must comply with ICE’s 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards, which establish requirements for environmental health and safety, detainee care, activities, and grievance system. The GEO Group also receives a fee of up to about $112 per day per detainee from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with the city of Adelanto serving as a go-between. This used a complicated subcontracting model so ICE and Adelanto didn't need to award the contract for the center’s operations using competitive bidding as required under Federal regulations. In 2016, the city of Adelanto extended the company’s contract until 2021.

Conditions

The prison, ICE's newest and largest in California, was the scene of small immigration protests in November 2013. Since its opening as an ICE detention center in 2011, Adelanto Detention Facility has faced accusations of insufficient medical care and poor conditions. Because of the poor conditions, in July 2015, 29 members of Congress sent a letter to ICE and federal inspectors requesting an investigation addressing their concerns. Later that year in November, 400 detainees went on a hunger strike, to demand better medical and dental care. In May 2018, government inspectors from the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

(DHS) made a surprise visit to the detention center where 307 contract guards oversaw 1,659 immigrant detainees housed in different facilities around the center. Inspectors found multiple violations of ICE detention standards which posed significant health and safety risks for detainees and restricted detainees' rights. The violations found were: nooses in detainee cells, inappropriate segregation including misuse of solitary confinement, improperly handcuffed and shackled, and detainees with limited English lacked communication assistance; and untimely and inadequate detainee medical care. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of six detainees with medical conditions due to inadequate sanitation and beds placed too close together. These conditions provided an “ideal incubation” opportunity for coronavirus.

''Hernandez v. Sessions''

''Hernandez v. Sessions'' is a class action lawsuit filed in April 2016 by the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...

and pro bono lawyers from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Lead plaintiffs in the case were non-citizens who were detained at Adelanto Detention Facility due to their inability to afford the bond set by immigration officials. In October 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s order granting a classwide preliminary injunction in favor the plaintiffs. The ''Hernandez'' decision is the first court case to impose due process requirements in the immigration context and requires ICE officers and immigration judges to consider a person's financial ability to post bond and suitability for non-monetary alternative conditions of supervision when considering the conditions of release.

References

External links

Adelanto Processing Center
from Immigration and Customs Enforcement {{coord, 34.560251, -117.437228, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark Prisons in California Buildings and structures in San Bernardino County, California GEO Group Immigration detention centers and prisons in the United States 2011 establishments in California Prisons completed in the 2010s