Following community conversation surrounding the possibility of amending or rezoning land in Roselawn to allow for GEO Group to open an immigrant detention center, the board of commissioners issued a statement rejecting support of the project.
This is a great first step to keeping a private detention center out of Roselawn. These privately-owned facilities operate outside of public oversight and accountability. With no one to hold them accountable, private immigration detention centers have maintained a particularly horrific track record of detainee abuse and neglect across the nation.
This is not the first attempt we’ve seen in the state of Indiana to open a private immigrant detention center, and it surely won’t be the last. The fight is not over as Newton County leaders still have the power to definitively prevent a private immigrant detention center from being built by changing the zoning on the proposed site. The ACLU of Indiana is working with statewide community partners and is ready to put the full weight of the ACLU behind additional efforts to open a private detention center anywhere in Indiana.
