Detention reforms planned
Alternatives to jail sought for some illegal immigrants
Nonviolent immigrant detainees could be housed in converted hotels, nursing homes or placed on electronic ankle bracelets for monitoring as part of a series of reforms planned for the nation’s detention system, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Tuesday.
The changes are part of a detailed plan to overhaul a system that houses an average of 32,000 detainees every day across the country and has been criticized for its unsafe and inhumane conditions. Some of the detainees include women and children.
“This is a system that encompasses many different types of detainees, not all of whom need to be held in prison-like circumstances or jail-like circumstances, which not only may be unnecessary but more expensive,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
The department plans to build two new detention centers, including one in California. Napolitano said that some detainees have violent criminal pasts and need to be securely detained, but others are asylum seekers with no records and should be housed at facilities “commensurate with the risks that they present.”
In August, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton pledged to create a more centralized system to increase government oversight and accountability.
The department immediately began reviewing more than 350 contracts with local jails, state prisons and private facilities with plans to centralize the management of those contracts. Officials also are doubling the number of personnel to monitor the facilities that house more than 80 percent of detainees and are developing an online system to help families find relatives in the system.
In addition, the controversial T. Don Hutto center in Texas has been converted from a facility that holds families to one that only holds women.
Some of the proposed changes are expected to reduce costs for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has a nearly $2.5 billion annual budget for detention and deportation. For example, alternatives to detention cost $14 a day, while detention can cost more than $100, officials said.
Napolitano will submit a plan to Congress this fall on electronic monitoring and other forms of supervision.
She said that the department will ensure that those released on electronic monitoring show up to court and are able to have their cases decided in a timely way.