People at CoreCivic-run ICE Jail Are Held in "Dire" Conditions, ACLU Suit Says
One plaintiff has been waiting for months for a biopsy so he can receive a formal diagnosis of prostate cancer and begin treatment, according to the complaint.
People held at the Core Civic-run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jail in Kern County, California are denied medical care, access to their attorneys, and, for disabled detainees, the most basic accommodations, according to a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others this week in the the U.S. District Court for Northern California.
.The complaint says people at the California City Detention Facility are also subjected to solitary confinement and brutal attacks by staff.
“No human being, immigrant or not, should be subjected to these horrendous conditions,” Gustavo Guevara, one of seven named plaintiffs in the suit, said in a statement. “It’s not right that because we’re immigrants they feel they can treat us this way.”
Earlier this year, CoreCivic entered into a contract with ICE to reopen the jail, which had previously operated as a prison and closed in 2023. Currently there are more than 800 people held at the jail, although that number is expected to significantly grow.
With the capacity to hold up to 2,560 people, the lock-up is the largest immigration jail in California. CoreCivic predicts the jail will bring in approximately $130 million annually once “the activation is complete.”
The Trump administration has been a financial boon to the private prison industry. In advance of CoreCivic’s third quarter earnings call, which was held on November 6, the company announced its total revenue for the quarter was $580.4 million, an increase of 18.1 percent from the prior year’s quarter.
“Ongoing demand for the solutions we provide, particularly from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), contributed to a solid third quarter,” Damon T. Hininger, CoreCivic’s Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.
“We expect detainee populations to continue to grow as ICE implements its interior enforcement plan, contributing to a strong 2025,” he continued.
Their fortune is built on — and only possible because of — mass suffering.
The complaint says:
Sewage bubbles up from the shower drains, and insects crawl up and down the walls of the cells. People are locked in concrete cells the size of a parking space for hours on end, and officers threaten them with violence and solitary confinement. Food is paltry and people go hungry. Temperatures are frigid; those who cannot afford to buy sweatshirts from the exorbitantly priced commissary suffer in the cold, some wearing socks on their arms as makeshift sleeves.
“Some of the people I’m detained with don’t even have soap — they take showers without soap — and they’re losing weight because they don’t have enough to eat,” plaintiff Sokhean Keo said in a statement.
Medical care at the jail is atrocious, according to the complaint. Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, one of the plaintiffs, has been denied his heart medications for days at a time, which has resulted in two hospitalizations. During the last hospitalization, a doctor said he could die if this were to happen again. Yet, he has not seen a cardiologist and still does not consistently receive his medication, the suit says.
Another named plaintiff, Fernando Viera Reyes, has been waiting for months for a biopsy so he can receive a formal diagnosis of prostate cancer and begin treatment, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Viera Reyes is experiencing increasingly abnormal bloodwork results and bleeding with urination,” the suit says. “Although he still has not seen a specialist, these results indicate that his cancer may have metastasized while he has been waiting for an appointment.”
Plaintiff Fernando Gomez Ruiz, who has lived in California for more than twenty years, was abducted by ICE while he was eating at a food truck outside a Home Depot.
An insulin-dependent diabetic, he’s been denied regular doses of insulin while detained at the jail. He has a large ulcer on the bottom of his foot “which he is forced to cover with soiled bandages and bloody shoes.”
The suit says that Gomez Ruiz fears that without proper medical care, his foot will have to be amputated.
The plaintiffs allege that people with disabilities are denied necessary accommodations, including wheelchairs, sign language interpreters, . When plaintiff Jose Ruiz Canizales, who is deaf, tries to speak with staff “they often shrug their shoulders, walk away, or laugh at him,” according to the complaint. Since he arrived at the jail in August, he has only interacted with a sign language interpreter once, and that was through a video call.
Earlier this month, California City staff confiscated custom orthopedic shoes and insoles from a man who has amputated toes, “which cause an imbalance when he walks,” according to the complaint.
“He previously fractured his remaining toes from walking with that imbalance, leading his podiatrist in the community to order these accommodations for him,” the suit says. “He spoke to both an officer and a nurse at California City to request the custom shoes and insoles as a disability accommodation, but neither provided them.”
Staff routinely brutalize detainees. In one incident, officers entered the cell of a man in solitary confinement, who was handcuffed. The suit says they hit him with riot shields, threw him to the ground, and held him down with their knees on his back.
In another incident, an officer was speaking to a person who did not speak English and did not understand the officer. When the man turned to walk away, the officer pepper sprayed him, according to the suit.
In September, detainees organized a hunger strike and sit-ins to protest their conditions, and sent the warden a list of demands:
Medical. We have medical needs and records that prove it. Give us medical care.
Cease oppressive behavior. Stop threatening us with solitary confinement for requesting these basic necessities. Stop threatening us with retaliatory transfers for asserting our rights. Stop keeping us locked in our cells for the majority of the day. Let us have contact visits with our family.
Legal resources and access. Let us access a law library. Let us make copies of documents for our cases free of charge. Give us pens. Allow us access to our mail and phone calls.
Hygiene and Health. Unclog our toilets. Give us drinkable water. Clean the prison or at least give us the proper supplies to do so. Properly handle our food, and give us nutritious food.
Property. Give us back our property, including our books and religious items that were confiscated.
Staff placed many protesters in solitary confinement, and medical staff threatened to withhold medication from hunger strikers unless they ceased their protest.
“Conditions remained bleak for people civilly detained at California City, resulting in a widespread sense of hopelessness, desperation and, in some cases, self-harm and suicidal ideation,” the suit says.
At least three people at the jail have attempted suicide, according to the complaint.
On October 9, a man hung himself in his cell. Detainees screamed for help. It allegedly took staff about ten minutes to cut him down. Those who did not immediately return to their cells after the incident were given disciplinary tickets, according to the complaint.
Keo, one of the plaintiffs, was friends with the man and saw him hanging in his cell. The suit says he remains haunted by flashbacks.
“ICE is playing with people’s lives, and they treat people like they’re trash, like they’re nothing,” he said in a statement. “This is bigger than me, but filing this lawsuit feels like something I can do to call for help for myself and everyone else here.”
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Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash.