Chronicling 25 Years of Violations: ICE Detention at Plymouth County Correctional Facility

Chronicling 25 Years of Violations: ICE Detention at Plymouth County Correctional Facility is a new report authored by Boston University School of Law’s Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program (“IRHTP”) and Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts (“PLS”). BU immprof Sarah Sherman-Stokes led the IRHTP team.

Here is the executive summary of the report:

Consistent complaints over the last twenty-five years reveal a disturbing pattern of systemic abuse and mistreatment of ICE detainees at Plymouth County Correctional Facility. Limited oversight and accountability mechanisms have enabled Plymouth to continue to receive federal funding while simultaneously violating the rights of individuals detained in ICE custody.

Today, individuals detained in ICE custody at Plymouth continue to face unsafe conditions, racism and retaliation from staff, inadequate food, medical care, dental and mental health care, and restricted access to legal counsel and loved ones.

Despite over two decades of documented violations at Plymouth, ICE and Plymouth have continued to renew their contract. The most recent ICE contract renewal expanded Plymouth’s immigrant detention capacity by 35%, alarming advocates and individuals who have directly experienced Plymouth’s decades-long deficiencies. Plymouth is now the only remaining jail in Massachusetts to detain noncitizens in ICE custody and has capacity to detain 402 individuals.

For the first time, this report provides a detailed summary of twenty-five-years of documented violations at Plymouth. Drawing on over two decades of formal and informal investigations and inquiries, reviews by outside agencies and documented internal grievances, this report reveals an alarming disregard for the safety and wellbeing of those detained at Plymouth.

This report adds to that history the voices and experiences of more than sixty men detained by ICE at Plymouth. These interviews confirm that the aforementioned issues persist; civil rights violations at Plymouth are a feature, not a bug. Despite decades of complaints, reports and investigations, the abuses faced by ICE detainees at Plymouth are pervasive and intractable.

We anticipate that ICE and Plymouth will renegotiate their contract at the end of September 2024. In light of these unrelenting violations, this report makes several key recommendations in advance of this contract renegotiation. Full recommendations can be found starting on page 71.

I'm actually in the middle of teaching the detention component of my crimmigration course. I will absolutely be bringing this report into class tomorrow for discussion.

Meanwhile, here's a local news report about this project.

-KitJ