Mental Health Professional

NJ AG launches probe of alleged Delaney Hall civil rights violations. NorthJersey.com Aug. 8, 2026, 10:18 a.m. ET The New Jersey Attorney General's Office has launched an investigation into potential civil rights violations by GEO Group, the private operator of Delaney Hall in Newark, in response to reports of poor conditions and recent deaths at the immigration detention center. Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced the investigation on Friday, Aug. 7, saying she had issued investigative subpoenas through the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. The investigation, she said, will focus on whether any inaction or action by GEO Group employees violated rights of detainees. "New Jersey has both a legal and a moral duty to stand up for the civil rights of people within our state," said Davenport. "For people who are held involuntarily, including by a private corporation like GEO Group, those rights include the right to humane treatment and adequate medical care. "We will take every action available under law to safeguard these core legal principles," she said. Story continues below photo gallery Davenport asked that anyone with relevant information contact the division's Affirmative Enforcement Unit at [email protected]. Gov. Mikie Sherrill called the investigation "the right and necessary course of action," saying that the GEO Group is "stonewalling efforts for real oversight" and would be held accountable. "We've heard the reports of disturbing conditions and have been heartbroken by recent deaths of detainees at the facility," Sherrill said in a statement. "ICE and The GEO Group have continued to block our efforts for a full health inspection and there are now reports that visitations have been stopped. We will not tolerate a facility that abdicates any transparency and accountability." GEO Group declined to comment. The company is the largest for-profit operator of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in the country. It opened Delaney Hall in May 2025 under a 15-year, $1 billion contract. Alleged spoiled food, medical neglect, abuse, deaths. The 1,000-bed detention center has sparked complaints over living conditions, including alleged spoiled food, medical neglect and abuse. GEO Group and ICE disputed allegations, saying they meet health and safety standards in the care they provide to detainees. In May, dozens of detainees joined a labor and hunger strike. In June, the attorney general sued GEO Group on behalf of the Department of Health, seeking a court order requiring GEO Group to grant the agency full access to Delaney Hall to conduct health inspections. Since its opening, Delaney Hall has faced reports of at least three deaths of people in its custody. On Aug. 1, Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo died after falling ill. His family, who said that he did not get proper medical care, demanded at a press conference that the attorney general open an independent investigation into his death and medical care at the facility. The attorney general's announcement comes one day after all nine Democratic members of the New Jersey House delegation in Congress wrote to the heads of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security seeing information about reports of abuse and neglect. They asked for an accounting of deaths connected to Delaney Hall, including timelines, medical care provided and any corrective action taken. They also asked for inspections, mortality reviews, audits, staffing assessments and internal communications concerning medical care. They also demanded that members of Congress and New Jersey health officials be given full access to inspect Delaney Hall. DHS and ICE, which have defended care and conditions at Delaney Hall, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "Three deaths, repeated allegations of medical neglect, restricted oversight, and less public transparency are a terrible track record of care for individuals in your custody," wrote the lawmakers. "At this point, the question is no longer whether ICE knows what is happening inside Delaney Hall. It is, 'Why does ICE continue to allow the GEO Group to put lives at risk?'"

'People's Hearing' spotlights ethical and legal concerns about a proposed ICE jail east of Denver. August 7, 2026 On Wednesday, Together Colorado, a progressive advocacy organization, hosted a "People's Hearing" on a proposed ICE jail in Hudson, 30 minutes east of Denver. The hearing offered legal and ethical rebukes of the detention center to a crowd of 50 people, featuring faith leaders, legal experts, and activists. It immediately preceded a Hudson City Council meeting that would discuss the issue further. The proposed detention ICE facility, called the Big Horn Detention Center, would be operated by the GEO Group, which also runs Colorado's only other ICE jail located in Aurora. David Seligman, a lawyer working with Together Colorado to bring a lawsuit against the GEO Group, spoke on the legal issues involved. "The GEO Group, a for-profit prison company, wants to open a 1,200-bed federal immigration detention center here," he explained at the event. "The problem for GEO is that this use is simply not allowed under Hudson's own land development code, its zoning laws." The proposed site is within a region labeled as an I-3 zone, which, according to Hudson municipal codes, "generates the most noise, pollution, and other noxious uses out of all three (3) types of industrial districts. Potential uses include recycling facilities and cement production." Seligman's lawsuit argues that an immigration detention center is not allowed to be placed within the proposed I-3 zone. Seligman told the crowd that "Section 1662 of the code says that a use not identified specifically under the code is not permitted. A detention center is nowhere listed in the code, and it is not permitted under Hudson's current zoning laws." Andrea Loya, the executive director of Casa de Paz, a nonprofit that helps those recently released from the Aurora ICE facility, stated that if the Big Horn Detention Center opens, then her organization will move to help those detainees as well. She further said that the "GEO Group Inc. is a corporation that is known for abusing people. It is known for abusing the folks that it supposedly houses." Last month, the Aurora detention center faced heavy backlash after denying health inspectors access to enter and examine the facility in response to reports of a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak. Further information about the TB outbreak is scarce, as "answers about who, how many, and where they are today have not been provided, while state, county, and local governments point fingers of blame and the contractor that runs the facility simply refuses to cooperate with anyone outside of ICE," explained Colorado Public Radio. At the hearing, Loya shared the story of a detainee who went into the Aurora facility as a fully able-bodied person, and "came out without being able to lift even 10 pounds... He has some neurological disease now that he acquired from being in detention." Loya cited her concerns that the Hudson facility "absolutely does not have the means to take care of people and people's medical needs. If they do not have those needs met in Aurora, they will not have those needs met when the closest hospital is in Brighton." The GEO website states, "The support services GEO provides on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs." Numerous findings from the press (such as the TB outbreak) and accounts from those detained in GEO centers cast doubt on the functionality of these services. "A detention center is not just a building - it's a statement," said Pastor Ariceli Berdugo, Community United Methodist Church in Keenesburg, about 10 miles east of Hudson, in a news release. "It tells every immigrant family whether they are seen as neighbors or as a threat. But I believe we can make a different statement. Let us choose love over fear, compassion over cruelty, justice over injustice, unity over division, and peace over violence." Federal and state officials representing Hudson have taken a variety of position on the proposal. Jared Polis has yet to issue a position on it. Opponents include Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper. Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO), whose district includes Hudson, has expressed support for the jail. Together Colorado Executive Director Meghan Carrier stated in the release: "We continue to call on the Town of Hudson to stand with our communities and use its authority to protect the dignity and safety of all by regulating the proposed Big Horn ICE Detention Center. ICE is not trustworthy to run that facility in a way that upholds human dignity. We believe another future is possible, and we're organizing together to build it." If the Big Horn Detention Center is completed and becomes operational, the 1,200 detainees would significantly increase the population of the city of Hudson, which is 1,615.

The GEO Group reported second-quarter 2026 earnings driven by the normalisation of 2025 contract wins worth approximately $520 million in annual revenue. ICE populations at GEO facilities increased 20% over the last six weeks following the Secure America Act's restoration of baseline appropriations. The company is shifting towards a support services model, planning to sell facility real estate to the government whilst retaining long-term operational management contracts. GEO currently houses over one-third of the national ICE population. Guidance was raised to reflect first-half strength. Management expects total capital expenditures to decline below $100 million in 2027 as the current reactivation cycle for idle facilities concludes. The company repurchased 1.6 million shares for $37 million in the second quarter. Net leverage has fallen below three times adjusted EBITDA.