California Immigration Detention: Mental Health and Oversight Concerns

For this investigation, the California Justice Department personnel collaborated with a group of correctional and health care experts to take a look at a range of problems of arrest. The record found that practices with adverse psychological health and wellness effects continue to be in regular usage, like disproportionate use of force and solitary confinement, often for months each time. Private investigators located some centers fell short to correctly notify detainees concerning securities under a government court negotiation that needs legal depiction for individuals with severe mental health and wellness conditions.

State Law Mandate

A 2017 state law mandates the Lawyer General’s workplace to report and inspect on California’s immigration detention facilities. It’s the fourth record to be released on problems in centers where noncitizens are restrained in California by ICE. Detectives found some centers fell short to correctly notify detainees concerning defenses under a government court negotiation that needs lawful depiction for people with extreme mental wellness problems.

Trump Administration’s Impact

“California’s center evaluates continue to be specifically crucial taking into account efforts by the Trump Management to both eliminate oversight of conditions at immigration apprehension facilities and boost its savage campaign of mass migration enforcement,” he stated, “possibly aggravating important problems currently existing in these facilities by packing them with more individuals.”

“This report by the California Chief Law Officer is a regrettable example of a politicized campaign by open boundaries political leaders to interfere with the federal government’s initiatives to jail, detain, and deport harmful criminal prohibited aliens according to established federal law.”

AG Bonta says the Trump administration’s hostile migration plan will drive that number up, which will just aggravate existing deficiencies. Talking during an April 30 virtual press instruction, he claims this makes oversight into immigration facility conditions a lot more important.

Detainee Population Increase

The variety of detainees in California is trending up, from 2,300 in 2023 to 3,100 as of April 2025. That’s up from the daily standard of about 1,750 in 2021, the record found. Concerning 75% of those detained had no documented criminal history.

“Congress throughout the country has a function in ensuring that the health and wellness, security, and well-being of the people that are touched by the financial investments that they make and the funds that they suitable, that it goes to a proper, humane level that is existing with the existing criteria of technique.”

Forced Transfer Incident

At the Mesa Verde center in Bakersfield, authorities failed to appropriately document or report the forced transfer of detainees that had gotten involved in a calm cravings strike, the report stated.

At the Mesa Verde center in Bakersfield, officials failed to appropriately document or report the forced transfer of detainees that had actually gotten involved in a relaxed hunger strike, the record stated. The center was checked out for its pat-down policy, which detainees were subjected to anytime they left their housing system.

A 2017 state regulation mandates the Attorney general of the United States’s office to evaluate and report on The golden state’s migration apprehension centers. It’s the fourth report to be launched on conditions in centers where noncitizens are detained in California by ICE. The findings signify that California plans to proceed oversight of immigration enforcement even as the federal government rolls such oversight back. The record notes the federal Department of Homeland Safety shuttered interior offices charged with exploring civil rights issues and apprehension problems. Previous reports in 2019 and 2021 have actually likewise found psychological healthcare solutions to be substandard.

GEO Group’s Response

Christopher Ferreira, a speaker with Geo Team, the personal company who runs several of the centers, said in a declaration that “GEO highly differs with these unjustified accusations, which become part of a long-standing, politically inspired, and extreme campaign to eliminate ICE and end government immigration detention by assaulting the federal government’s immigration center specialists.”

The privately-run facilities checked out in the study are Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde in Kern Area, Adelanto Apprehension Facility and Desert View Annex in San Bernardino County, Imperial Regional Detention center in Imperial Area, and the Otay Mesa Apprehension Facility in San Diego Area.

Key Findings of the Report

That seeks a new 165-page report from the Division of Justice launched Monday discovered that all of the state’s 6 privately-operated immigration apprehension facilities are stopping working to meet standard requirements for mental healthcare, clinical recordkeeping, and self-destruction avoidance. The report likewise located excessive use force, self-control versus detainees, and use of solitary confinement.