The Eloy Detention Center is a private prison located in Eloy,

Pinal County, Arizona Pinal County is a County (United States), county in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's List of counties in Arizon ...

, owned and operated by

CoreCivic CoreCivic, Inc. formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas W. B ...

, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America, under contract 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).

History

The facility opened in 1994 and approximately 1,550 male and female individuals being held for immigration violations at a mix of minimum and medium security levels. Each individual costs approximately $180 per day to house. Eloy is adjacent to three other prisons also run by CoreCivic: the

Red Rock Correctional Center The Red Rock Correctional Facility is a medium-security, privately owned and operated state prison for men located in Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona, owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the Arizona Depar ...

, the

La Palma Correctional Facility The La Palma Correctional Facility is a privately owned and managed medium-security detention center for men, located in Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona Pinal County is a County (United States), county in the central part of the U.S. state of A ...

, and the

Saguaro Correctional Center The Saguaro Correctional Center (SCC) is a private prison for male inmates, owned and operated by CoreCivic located in Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona. The prison contracts with the Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as well as the ...

. After the Trump administration's controversial zero-tolerance family separation policy in 2018, the facility housed roughly 300 mothers separated from their children.

Suicides

ICE's internal Office of Detention Oversight investigated the death of Eloy detainee Manuel Cota-Domingo in 2012, and found serious issues with the quality of medical care provided by CCA. The facility had 15 detainee deaths between 2003 and late 2016, including five suicides. Since 2003, Eloy alone represented 9% of the total inmate deaths in all 250 detention facilities in the United States. As a result of passing all inspections despite the facility's high suicide rate, the

National Immigrant Justice Center The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is a center affiliated with the Heartland Alliance in the United States that "is dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers." Its ...

found ICE and the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

of being complicit in hiding maltreatment at the center in a 2015 report. Also in 2015, U.S. Representative

Raúl Grijalva Raúl Manuel Grijalva ( ; February 19, 1948 – March 13, 2025) was an American politician and activist who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona from 2003 until his death in 2025. A member of the Democra ...

toured the facility, calling it "the deadliest immigration detention center in the U.S." In late July 2015, he called for an independent investigation into the most recent suicide.

Notable detainees

Year of detention listed in parentheses: * Binh Thai Luc (2006), Vietnamese plumber *

Ike Ibeabuchi Ikemefula Charles "Ike" Ibeabuchi (born February 2, 1973) is a Nigerian former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 1999 in the heavyweight division. He defeated the previously undefeated highly ranked contender David Tua in 1997 and ano ...

(2014), Nigerian boxer * Nina Chaubal (), Indian transgender rights activist * (2017), German actress

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eloy Detention Center Prisons in Arizona Buildings and structures in Pinal County, Arizona CoreCivic Eloy, Arizona 1994 establishments in Arizona U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration detention centers and prisons in the United States Prisons completed in the 1990s