ICE's COVID Years: Organizational Failure in the Inspection Process

• In Event: 20820 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 17. The State, Legal System, and Healthcare Policy

Abstract

The height of the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented upheaval to daily life worldwide. While many institutions struggled to adapt to evolving federal regulations aimed at limiting contamination and prioritizing the safety of vulnerable populations, significant shortcomings persisted in carceral spaces. Confined spaces, already limited in social distancing, accelerated the spread of disease without adequate protective measures. Social media videos, such as those released by Rikers Island inmates, revealed the severe mishandling of facilities, including but not limited to the failure to distribute masks, provide treatment for those with symptoms, and maintain a clean environment (Kagan and Lewis 2021). These dire conditions, stemming from what we describe as a culture of acceptable organizational failure (Author), were most evident in U.S. government facilities housing immigrants fighting deportation cases (Brennan Center for Justice, 2020). As in other carceral spaces, the U.S. government attempted to use alternatives to detention, such as GPS monitoring, to reduce congestion in ICE facilities. However, these efforts were inadequate, leaving many immigrants confined to overcrowded detention centers (ICE 2023).
This paper focuses on inspections conducted in ICE-contracted facilities from 2020 to 2021. Our analysis is based on 204 inspection reports, approximately 95% of which were produced by Nakamoto Group, a private organization responsible for overseeing facility inspections. Using a comprehensive critical discourse method and matching news reports, we illustrate how ICE’s contracted inspector group oversimplified and omitted vital information related to the compliance of ICE detention performance-based standards. Notable in our analysis is the Nakamoto Group’s failure to verify facility conditions and detainee concerns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We contend that these actions represent a quintessential example of organizational failure—specifically, the structural mismanagement of immigration detention centers, which led to unequal health outcomes for vulnerable detainees of color (Author).

Authors

• Beatriz Aldana Marquez, University of Connecticut

• Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde, Utah State University