A former federal prison with 1,320 beds in northeastern North Carolina, privately owned by Florida-headquartered GEO Group, will become a federal immigration processing center. The facility, located in the Hertford County community of Winton, had one of the highest percentages of inmate-on-inmate issues in a 2016 Department of Justice review and closed in 2021 following then-President Joe Biden’s directive to phase out contracts with privately owned prisons.

Details of the Deal

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s five-year deal with GEO was made by the company on Wednesday. The company will provide support services, security, maintenance, food service, recreational amenities, medical care, and legal counsel in support services to ICE. GEO bills itself as providing “complementary, turnkey solutions for numerous government partners worldwide across a spectrum of diversified correctional and community reentry services.”

In a company release, GEO chairman, CEO, and founder George C. Zoley said, “We expect that our company-owned Rivers Facility in Winton, North Carolina, will play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bedspace. We are proud of our 40-year public-private partnership with ICE, and we stand ready to continue to assist the federal government in meeting its immigration enforcement priorities.”

Local Reaction

The potential reopening of the facility has led to two occasions where immigration rights advocates rallied against the idea. One was in Ahoskie, the primary retail and business community of the county, and the other was at the Legislative Building on Jones Street in Raleigh. First-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said, “ICE has a proven track record of arresting, detaining, and abusing American citizens, and the overwhelming majority of people ICE has detained have no criminal record.”

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.