Politics & Government

Hudson County Renews ICE Contract At ‘Inhumane’ Jail

Hudson County will continue to rake in millions from jailing ICE immigrant detainees. Activists have called the prison "inhumane."

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HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — For the next decade, Hudson County will continue to rake in millions of dollars every year from jailing ICE immigrant detainees at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny.

On Thursday, the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders voted 5-2 to renew an intergovernmental services agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house federal prisoners at the county-run prison.

The resolution to authorize the contract was buried deep in the meeting agenda - item #32 out of 49 – and was listed as “carried.” Hence, the vote came as a surprise to many, including Freeholder Joel Torres, who voted no on the contract partly because he only got a copy himself the night before the meeting, WNYC reported.

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Ironically, many of the detainees aren’t from New Jersey, officials told NJ.com. Less than a dozen of the nearly 800 federal detainees at the jail are from Hudson County; most are from the New York area.

While the county hasn’t immediately made a copy of the contract available for review, here are some probable details as written in the resolution, WNYC said:

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  • 10-year duration
  • County will receive $120 per detainee per day (an increase from $77)
  • Estimated $35 million annual value (based on current jail population of 800 immigrants)

Several immigrants’ rights advocates in New Jersey blasted the decision to renew the ICE contract in Hudson County.

“It is disheartening that the majority of Hudson County Freeholders voted to continue the lucrative immigration detention contract with the federal immigration agency that often tears immigrant families apart,” said Chia-Chia Wang, organizing and advocacy director with the American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program.

“At the time local governments should push back egregious and harmful immigration enforcement activities, Hudson County chose profit over what's right,” Wang added.

“We condemn this vote to renew the ICE contract with Hudson County Jail,” said Johanna Calle, director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “With this vote, the county is making a deal to profit off of family separation of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants over the next decade.”

Calle said that immigrants at the Hudson County jail experience some of the worst conditions in any detention facility in the nation.

“Hudson County is the profiteering off of attacks on our communities while they fail to meet high standards for care of all detainees,” Calle said.

The new county contract with ICE comes just months on the heels of a recent decision to stop participating in the controversial 287(g) program with the federal agency, which helped the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to "flag" any arrested foreign-born individuals brought to the jail for potential deportation.

Local civil rights activists applauded the decision to sever ties with 287(g), hailing it as a new direction for immigrant rights in a county that reportedly had 104,565 foreign-born residents in 2017… the most in New Jersey.

HUDSON COUNTY JAIL: ‘INHUMANE’ CONDITIONS

The Hudson County Correctional Facility was one of three labeled as “inhumane” by nonprofit advocacy group Human Rights First after it conducted visits at the facilities and spoke to more than 100 immigrant detainees.

Alleged issues at the jails - the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility and the Essex County and Hudson County Correctional facilities - include maggot-infested food, suicide risks, a lack of clean underwear and medical treatment done on a "cost-benefit analysis."

At the Hudson County jail, inmates with mental health issues face particularly hard challenges, the nonprofit alleged.

“The Hudson facility has a high number of individuals with serious mental health concerns, as demonstrated by the three suicides that have occurred at the facility since January 2016 and the 12 mental health hospitalizations that have occurred in the last six months,” Human Rights First wrote.

Other allegations at the Hudson County prison included:

  • “Several detained individuals who work in the kitchens complained that the food carts, trays, and dishes are frequently left unwashed, and that when they are cleaned, dirty water is used to wash them.”
  • “Several individuals who have been detained long-term at Elizabeth and Hudson reported that they avoid seeking dental care as the dentist only performs extractions, rather than providing treatment for basic dental issues, including cavities.”
  • “At the Hudson facility, we observed one woman using a bra as a sling for a clavicle fracture after being told that proper arm slings were a 'suicide risk.”

The Hudson County jail has also seen frequent protests and public outcries in recent years, including several from the families of inmates who died while in custody.

The Hudson County jail isn’t the only North Jersey prison to experience an outpouring of protest and anger from local residents who wish to have nothing to do with the “blood money” that prison contracts bring.

Earlier this month, eight members of grassroots activist group Resist the Deportation Machine were arrested in Newark after protesting Essex County’s contract with ICE.

Essex County has taken in millions of dollars in revenue from housing federal detainees at its Newark prison over the past years. A proposed $725.9 million Essex County budget for 2018 was anticipated to generate $35.7 million by housing federal inmates, immigration detainees and inmates from Gloucester County."

The annual prison profits have raised criticism from some residents.

"Essex County must not run on blood money," a local activist recently wrote. "The fact that the county profits from the unconstitutional detention of immigrants, because ICE pays for the beds, is not a valid argument for collaborating in the ICE deportation machine. The county could raise money by selling opioids as well, but that would not make it a wise policy."

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Photos: Protest at Hudson County Correctional Facility in June 2017 (Jawaid Stationwala)

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