Essex County to House 1,200 Immigrant Detainees

Essex County officials announced a deal Monday to house 1,250 immigrant detainees, as part of a five-year contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that is expected to bring in $250 million in revenue.

The contract will triple the amount of federal detainees at Newark-area jails and is expected to bring in up to $50 million a year to the county for the duration of the contract. That breaks down to roughly $108 per detainee per day. 

County officials outlined the terms of the contract Monday, though the agreement was signed last Thursday.

They said 800 of the detainees will be housed at the Essex County jail on Doremus Avenue, but the county still is seeking bidders to house the remaining 450 detainees.

At a noon news conference, county officials said it had received one bid to house the 450 people. The bid was from Education and Health Centers of America Inc., an affiliate of Community Education Centers, which owns the privately run Delaney Hall, also located on Doremus Avenue.

However, the county currently pays $71 a day to house prisoners at Delaney Hall under a 2008 contract and would be charged $88 a day for the new immigrant detainees, so county officials said they would continue to solicit bids for the new agreement.

But Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said the new contract with the immigration service will still go forward because the county currently has a contract with the Community Education affiliate to house 1,500 prisoners at Delaney Hall under an existing agreement that expires in December.

Since only 600 of those 1,500 beds are currently being used, there is enough room for the 450 immigrant detainees to be housed until the existing contract expires at the end of the year.

However, Essex County's relationship with Community Education Centers has come under scrutiny.

The New York Times first reported in July that Essex County appears to favor the company for its contracts and that its owners have contributed to the county executive's campaign and also are close friends with Gov. Chris Christie. 

Under the federal deal, DiVincenzo said his chief of staff, Phil Alagia, would now become the county's director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program. His salary will increase from $108,645 to $140,000. County spokesman Anthony Puglisi said there was a vacant deputy director job in the county jail that now will not be filled because Alagia will perform two duties. That move, according to Puglisi, will save the county about $75,000.

DiVincenzo said Monday, the new deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been in discussion for roughly four years. He said the federal government solicited proposals from jails in the Northeast and narrowed it to Essex County in December 2010.

The deal is the second federal contract with the county to house detainees. One signed in 2008 with the U.S. Marshals service gives the county $105 a day for those prisoners. That open-ended contract has netted Essex County nearly $73 million in the past four years.

"We will do the right thing for detainees and residents," DiVincenzo said Monday at his office, flanked by county and jail officials.

Opponents, though, say the county is looking for cash and neglecting inmates.

"Essex County has shown profit comes before human rights," said Karina Wilkinson, co-founder of Middlesex Coalition for Immigrant Right, about the deal.

Ed Martone, public policy director with New Jersey Association on Correction, said the county has been told of problems in jails, "They seem to be romanced by dollar signs. They think, 'There's always going to be problems and we can work that out, but there will always be money.' "

Alix Nguefack, detention project coordinator at American Friends Service Committee, said they've received complaints about access to lawyers, lack of fresh water and smaller food portions within the past year at Essex County jail.

DiVincenzo said the county has had a good track record for the last four years, "Of course we're profiting. That's my job: To find new ways to do it. Why shouldn't Essex County benefit from it? With the economy being what is it today ... there's no question this is a very good situation for us."

The contract must still be signed by county freeholders, which is expected within the next few weeks. DiVincenzo said he hopes the jails could house their first detainees by Oct. 1.

[Editor's note: This article originally said Essex County Chief of Staff Phil Alagia would not receive additional pay for becoming the county's director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program. That information was incorrect and has since been changed.]