Warren, Markey Push DHS to Tackle Abysmal Plymouth County Correctional Facility Conditions
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) wrote to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) urging them to resolve the persistent, horrific conditions at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility (PCCF) in Plymouth, Massachusetts if the DHS contract with the facility is renewed.
During the Biden Administration, ICE terminated its agreements with two Massachusetts counties to detain immigrants on behalf of ICE. Since then, PCCF — managed by the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) — has been the last remaining correctional facility that detains individuals for ICE in Massachusetts. The contract between Plymouth County and ICE recently expired on July 31, 2024.
“We ask ICE to consider whether continuation of the contract is appropriate, and if the contract is renewed, to implement stronger guardrails to ensure that, at a minimum, the facility’s conditions comply with established detention standards and civil rights,” wrote the senators.
According to a 2022 investigation by DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, individuals detained in the facility have reported rotten food, limited access to clean water, delays in medical attention, physical violence, and retaliation for complaints about conditions — including through placement in solitary confinement and denial of legal mail. However, since those findings were released, PCCF’s substandard conditions have persisted.
Today, immigration organizations submitted a letter to Massachusetts’ Office of the Attorney General outlining violations of detention standards, including substandard medical care, lack of access to language interpretation, inadequate phone communication, retaliation and solitary confinement, and inadequate daily living standards.
The senators are calling on DHS to resolve these problems through a range of actions, including unannounced inspections of PCCF to monitor whether conditions of confinement meet ICE’s detention standards, measures to ensure that correctional staff are held accountable for violations of protocols, and increased access by ICE to public records about PCCF to improve transparency surrounding the facility’s conditions.
“DHS must do more to tackle these problems if it chooses to renew its PCCF contract,” concluded the senators. “We urge DHS to implement reforms to safeguard the well-being and dignity of individuals detained at PCCF.”
Senator Warren has led the push on Plymouth County Detention Center:
- On January 3, 2022, Senators Warren and Markey wrote to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, urging them to conduct an immediate review of the detainee conditions at the Plymouth County Correction Facility, which they responded to.
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