The Eloy Detention Center is a private prison located in Eloy,

Pinal County, Arizona Pinal County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's third-most populous county. The county seat is Florence. The county was founded in 187 ...

, owned and operated by

CoreCivic CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the ...

, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America, under contract with the

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

(ICE).

History

The facility opened in 1994 and approximately 1,550 male and female individuals being held for immigration violations at a mix of minimum and medium security levels. Each individual costs approximately $180 per day to house. Eloy is adjacent to three other prisons also run by CoreCivic: the

Red Rock Correctional Center The Red Rock Correctional Facility is a medium-security, privately owned and operated state prison for men located in Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona, owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the Arizona Depa ...

, the

La Palma Correctional Facility The La Palma Correctional Facility is a privately owned and managed medium-security detention center for men, located in Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona, under contract with ICE. The facility opened in 2008, and houses 3060 immigrants. La Palma is ...

, and the

Saguaro Correctional Center The Saguaro Correctional Center (SCC) is a private prison for male inmates, owned and operated by CoreCivic located in Eloy, Arizona, Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona. The prison contracts with the Hawaii Department of Public Safety as well as the Id ...

. After the Trump administration's controversial zero-tolerance family separation policy in 2018, the facility housed roughly 300 mothers separated from their children.

Suicides

ICE's internal Office of Detention Oversight investigated the death of Eloy detainee Manuel Cota-Domingo in 2012, and found serious issues with the quality of medical care provided by CCA. The facility had 15 detainee deaths between 2003 and late 2016, including five suicides. Since 2003, Eloy alone represented 9% of the total inmate deaths in all 250 detention facilities in the United States. As a result passing all inspections despite the facility's high suicide rate, the

National Immigrant Justice Center The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is a center affiliated with the Heartland Alliance in the United States that "is dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers." Its ...

found ICE and the

Obama Administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

of being complicit in hiding maltreatment at the center in a 2015 report. Also in 2015, U.S. Representative

Raúl Grijalva Raúl Manuel Grijalva (; born February 19, 1948) is an American politician and activist who has served as the United States representative for since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 7th from 2003 to 20 ...

toured the facility, calling it "the deadliest immigration detention center in the U.S." In late July 2015 he called for an independent investigation into the most recent suicide.

Notable detainees

Year of detention listed in parentheses: * Binh Thai Luc (2006), Vietnamese plumber *

Ike Ibeabuchi Ikemefula Charles "Ike" Ibeabuchi (born February 2, 1973) is a Nigerian former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 1999 in the heavyweight division. He defeated the previously undefeated highly ranked contender David Tua in 1997 and ano ...

(2014), Nigerian boxer * Nina Chaubal (), Indian transgender rights activist

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eloy Detention Center Prisons in Arizona Buildings and structures in Pinal County, Arizona CoreCivic Eloy, Arizona 1994 establishments in Arizona U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration detention centers and prisons in the United States