“Being in a room – being locked up – it destroys you! It destroys you mentally! It’s like going to a hospital and the person that treats you worsens your situation.”
CPA
Stewart County Detention Center is a private for-profit entity that contracts out food and phone services to other for-profit operations. According to Project South, ICE and Stewart County signed an Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) in July 2006. This detention center only detains men. Based on the amount of detainees, Stewart can receive upwards to around $95,046 per day. That is roughly $34,691,790 a year. Stewart is located in Lumpkin, Georgia. This location is so remote that it cuts off detained immigrants from “…legal counsel and family members, transportation, and hotel accommodations” (Project South).
“Detained immigrants at Stewart go to immigration hearings at the Stewart immigration court, which has the highest rate of deportation out of any detention center in the country.”
Excerpt from Project South’s “Imprisoned Justice Report,” Page 28
The housing situation in Stewart is set-up similarly to that of a prison. The thing is, the building was a former prison. The immigrants that are detained here are “…divided into three classification levels, which affect uniform color, housing, and other privileges” (Project South). There have been reports that there can be upwards to about 60 men in one location that will share a shower area with only six shower heads, three toilets, and three urinals. These are usually unsanitary or nonfunctional. The detained immigrants are the only people in charge of cleaning the units’ bathrooms, rarely receiving payment for doing so.
“The food and water conditions reported by both detained immigrants and attorneys were particularly concerning. In addition to food being frequently reported as spoiled or expired, foreign objects, such as hair, plastic, bugs, rocks, a tooth, and mice, were reportedly found repeatedly in the food. Detained immigrants also reported meat was rarely served, and if it was, it was generally undercooked, burnt, or rancid.”
Excerpt from Project South’s “Imprisoned Justice Report,” Page 31
According to ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight Compliance Inspection in 2012, Stewart Detention Center failed it’s inspection (ICE). In the section titled Standard/Policy Requirements for Deficient Findings, “In accordance with the ICE PBNDS, Admission and Release, section (V)(B)(2), the FOD must ensure staff shall permit the detainee to change clothing and shower in a private room without being visually observed by staff, unless there is reasonable suspicion to search the detainee in accordance with the section below on Strip Searches and the Detention Standard on Searches of Detainees” (Office of Detention Oversight Compliance Inspection, August 21-23, 2012). On page 2 of this document, “Nine standards were determined to be fully compliant, while ten deficiencies were identified in the following eight standards: Admission and Release (1 deficiency), Detainee Handbook (1), Funds and Personal Property (1), Law Libraries and Legal Material (1), Medical Care (3), Suicide Prevention and Intervention (1), Transfer of Detainees (1), and Use of Force and Restraints (1). A repeat deficiency was identified from the ODO August 2011 QAR in regards to the Use of Force and Restraints, and Funds and Personal Property” (Office of Detention Oversight Compliance Inspection, August 21-23, 2012).
According to the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was signed on December 10, 1948, detention centers like Stewart are committing major human rights violations. See OHCHR | International Law for further information.
Last edited: April 15, 2021.
U.S. Immigration Detention 
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