The Profit of Detention

In handwritten letters to advocacy groups forwarded to The Washington Post, detainees there complain of harsh treatment by guards, inadequate medical care and rotten food. Mostly, though, they complain about having no idea about their case status or when they might be deported -- a fate most have long accepted as the only way out of jail. The new facility would give detainees access to computers, video games and exercise equipment while holding them just yards away from courtrooms where their cases can be heard.

Farmville officials think that the facility would also be a huge financial windfall for the community. Town Council member Edward Gordon, who is the medical director at Piedmont, said Farmville had a simple choice: "We had this industry or nothing."

"Yes, we might come to be known as an ICE hub, but the average person who lives in town won't know where it is," Gordon said, adding that most residents had no idea that Piedmont had been holding immigrant detainees.

Built and run by a private subcontractor, the facility will not be paid for by taxpayers. The town expects to receive about $322,000 a year in revenue by collecting $1 per detainee per day. An additional $425,000 would stream into Farmville and neighboring Prince Edward County by way of taxes and fees, buttressing Farmville's annual budget of about $24 million.

"I'm tickled to death with it," said Otto Overton, a Town Council member who is looking forward to the creation of about 200 jobs that average $48,000 a year in salary and benefits.

But it also figures to be a huge boon for the private investors, who have secured as part of the ICE contract a rate of almost $63 per detainee per day. That means that if the estimated 322,000 detainee days are achieved each year, the company could gross $20 million in federal tax dollars annually.

After salaries and expenses, the group could make millions in profit while also saving taxpayers money, since the $63 rate is lower than that of many of the state's jails. While Piedmont charges $46.25 to house ICE detainees, rates in Northern Virginia range from $64 per detainee per day in Prince William County to $113 in Alexandria.

And local jails don't always have the room to hold ICE detainees for long periods. Prince William's regional Adult Detention Center has had to send about 120 of its criminal prisoners to other facilities to make room for illegal immigrant detainees, and has had to budget about $1.8 million to process immigration-status reviews of all foreign-born suspects.

"ICE needs the beds, and a new facility will help relieve their pressure of finding a place," said Pete Meletis, superintendent of the Prince William jail. "This will be a central place for them to house people and will be a good thing."