U.S. May House Detainees in Pinal County Jail
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U.S. may house detainees in Pinal County jail
County could reap millions from federal contract
Josh Kelley
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 13, 2005 12:00 AM
Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vásquez toured two California jails this week to better understand the challenges his office will face if it contracts with the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants.
Vásquez toured the jails along with Terry Altman, his chief deputy over detention. Vásquez said he plans to house immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an expansion of the county's adult detention center, or jail.
Altman said the Sheriff's Office is negotiating a contract with ICE, which is part of the U.S. Office of Homeland Security, to house possibly 625 federal inmates. advertisement
Altman said the contract would generate $16 million to $17 million annually from the federal government.
"It would appear that the contract is going to cover the staffing and operational cost of the facility . . . at no cost to Pinal County taxpayers," Altman said of the detention center expansion.
The addition to the detention center, a renovation of the current facility, an indoor shooting range and the county's new 100-bed juvenile justice facility will cost about $42 million, Altman said.
Revenue from the federal government will pay for the upgrade of the current detention center and the juvenile justice facility.
The expansion of the adult detention center is projected to open March 31 and will add 1,034 beds to the jail for a total of 1,506.Vásquez and Altman toured detention facilities run by the Kern County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to learn how officials there handle jailed immigrants awaiting deportation.
Vásquez had previously toured the ICE facility in Florence, but he said it would be beneficial to visit other county facilities where federal detainees are held.
"We want to be able to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges," he said last week.
When he toured the Florence ICE facility, Vásquez said he was amazed to learn that about 20 percent of detainees were Mexican because it's less complicated to return them to their homeland than immigrants from other nations in South and Central America, the Middle East and Africa.
"It's quite a broad number of ethnic backgrounds," he said.
And with that cultural diversity come language barriers and other potential issues that the sheriff and Altman must consider as they plan to hire 211 detention officers and 61 civilian personnel to staff the detention center addition.
