U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided new details on conditions inside the Indiana prison contracted to hold immigration detainees amid reported widespread medical shortfalls.
In a July 23 letter responding to an inquiry by Seventh District U.S. Rep. André Carson, acting ICE Director David Venturella answered some of the congressman’s questions on operations at the Miami Correctional Facility near Peru.
Venturella wrote that over a 22-day period in April, 760 doses of medication weren’t administered to those in detention either because detainees “refused to come to the pill line,” had low blood sugar or were in court. Another 44 doses were missed because the medication wasn’t available. That’s against 3,242 doses successfully given.
He also said the facility, which began its contract to hold immigration detainees in October, has not yet received a compliance inspection from ICE’s detention oversight office. The initial inspection is scheduled for mid-September.
But Venturella didn’t offer new information on the deaths of two men detained at the facility, citing ongoing investigations. He also declined to provide staffing totals for immigration detention and medical purposes at Miami Correctional “due to operational sensitivity and security.”
The letter came days after an IndyStar investigation detailed inadequate medical conditions for ICE detainees at the facility. That included widespread health care staff vacancies and evidence of service backlogs far higher than what contractor Centurion Health reported to the state.
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The reporting further alleged that the two deaths in the facility could’ve been prevented. Lorth Sim, who was found dead in his cell in February, had not been receiving medication to control his glucose levels, a nurse at the facility and an attorney for his family indicated. An autopsy sought by his family determined he had blockages in his arteries. And two detainees who witnessed Tuan Van Bui collapse said help arrived far too slow. He died in April.
Gov. Mike Braun ordered a review at the facility after IndyStar’s reporting. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed lawsuits over alleged medical neglect and mistreatment at the facility this week.
Carson visited Miami Correctional following Bui’s death in April, where he said he heard of systemic issues from detainees. That included a lack of a functioning intercom system to report emergencies, though Venturella wrote in his July letter that all alert systems “were and are operational.”
Carson, an Indianapolis Democrat, noted some changes in response to his inquiry, including an upgraded commissary system, but said “the agency’s answers raise even more serious questions.”
“Today, I am calling for immediate intervention and a thorough, transparent investigation into injuries and deaths at Miami Correctional,” Carson said in a release Thursday. “I am also calling for accountability of any officials whose actions or failure to act contributed to these deaths and injuries.”
Indiana entered an agreement last year to hold ICE detainees in a previously unused wing of the prison at a rate of about $291 per bed per day. The federal government had provided the state just over $20 million by June against roughly $22 million in expenses. At a state budget committee meeting that month, Department of Correction Commissioner Lloyd Arnold told lawmakers the number of immigration detainees was over 600. The contract allows for up to 1,000 detainees to be held there.
Venturella wrote in his letter to Carson that the average length of stay for immigration detainees at Miami Correctional was 56.3 days as of mid-April, and that ICE had about 680 detainees across Indiana. The agency obligated around $41 million for its detentions in the state over the last two fiscal years.
Fifty-one people died in ICE custody nationwide between President Donald Trump’s inauguration and mid-May, Venturella wrote.
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