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Immigration facility may get softer look
Internal e-mail suggests adding plants, extended visitation, movie nights


Stephen Gurr
sgurr@gainesvilletimes.com
June 26, 2010


A privately operated midtown Gainesville facility that holds illegal immigrants prior to deportation could soon have a less jail-like environment.


The North Georgia Detention Center, former site of the Hall County jail, holds about 500 people who are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for being in the country illegally. Most of the detainees, who come to Gainesville from across the Southeast, spend 30 to 90 days at the center before being deported.


A spokesperson for Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the facility through an agreement with Hall County and ICE, confirmed this week that the North Georgia Detention Center is one of nine facilities that could undergo changes allowing greater freedoms and privileges for detainees and a “softeningâ€