North Lake Correctional Facility

North Lake Correctional Facility
Interactive map of North Lake Correctional Facility
Location
Security class
  • Medium
  • maximum
Capacity1,741
Opened1999; expanded 2009
Managed byGEO Group

North Lake Correctional Facility is a privately owned medium- and maximum-security prison for men located in Baldwin, Michigan, United States, owned & operated by GEO Group.[1]

Originally opened in 1999, it was closed in 2022 when the federal government cancelled contracts with for-profit prisons. It was re-opened in 2025 as the North Lake Processing Center. It is the largest immigrant detention center in the Midwest region.[2]

History

The prison was originally built in 1999 by Wackenhut to house Michigan’s youth offenders under contract for the Michigan Department of Corrections. The GEO Group, Wackenhut's successor firm, expanded the prison from 570 to 1,748 beds in late 2009.[3] Some 280 high security inmates convicted of crimes in the state of Vermont arrived from other out-of-state prisons (in Arizona and Kentucky) to the Baldwin facility in June 2015.[4] County Commissioner Dan Sloan stated that as many as 150 jobs would result from the influx of out-of-state prisoners to the facility.[5]

Vermont received notice that GEO was terminating its contract effective June 2017; Vermont Corrections relocated the prisoners from the Baldwin facility.[6] GEO secured a 10-year contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2019 to house non-citizen immigrant convicts, but the prison closed again in September 2022 when the federal government cancelled all contracts with privately owned for-profit prisons.[7][8]

The prison was reopened as the North Lake Processing Center on June 16, 2025 as a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center, making it one of the largest such facilities in the country.[9] Between August 2025 and February 2026, over 800 habeas petitions were filed on behalf of people detained at the facility, with judges ruling in over 90% of the petitions that they were unlawfully detained.[10]

On April 20, 2026, detainees at the processing center began a hunger strike. As of April 21, approximately 200 detainees are participating in the strike.[11] The strike is in protest of poor living condition and medical care, as well as procedural delays.[12] The Department of Homeland Security has officially denied the hunger strike.[2] In May 2026, according to the Manchester Mirror, the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center claimed detainees at the facility were being "denying adequate medical care" and that the facility was "limiting their access to attorneys, immigrant advocacy and civil rights organizations".[13]

References

  1. ↑ "North Lake Correctional Facility". GEO Group. Archived from the original on 17 July 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  2. 1 2 King, Jon (April 23, 2026). "Detainee speaks out as hunger strike continues at Michigan's largest ICE detention center". Michigan Advance. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  3. ↑ "Michigan adjusts law to accept Vermont inmates | VTDigger". vtdigger.org. 29 May 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  4. ↑ "Vermont's out-of-state inmates arrive at Michigan prison". 30 June 2015.
  5. ↑ "Michigan adjusts law to accept Vermont inmates". 29 May 2015.
  6. ↑ Hewitt, Elizabeth. "Vt. Prisoners to Leave Private Michigan Prison". Valley News / VT Digger. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  7. ↑ White, Rose (2 March 2025). "Owner of idled Michigan prison sees 'unprecedented opportunity' in mass deportations". MLive. MLive Media Group. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  8. ↑ Oosting, Jonathan (2 May 2019). "Private firm set to open immigrant prison in Michigan". The Detroit News. Digital First Media. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  9. ↑ Meyer, Brielle. "Closed private prison near Baldwin now reopen as ICE processing center". 13 ABC On Your Side. WZZM-TV. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
  10. ↑ Rayes, Adam Yahya; Polo, Michelle Jokisch; Smith, Lindsey (2026-03-04). "Judges rule hundreds of immigrants "unlawfully detained" at ICE center in Northern Michigan". Michigan Public. Retrieved 2026-03-04.
  11. ↑ Dailey, Katherine (April 24, 2026). "Civil rights organizations call for independent investigation into Michigan ICE detention center". Michigan Advance. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  12. ↑ White, Rose (April 22, 2026). "Detained immigrants launch hunger strike at Michigan ICE facility". MLive. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  13. ↑ Gibbons, Lauren (May 18, 2026). "Civil rights organizations call for independent investigation into Michigan ICE detention center". The Manchester Mirror. Retrieved May 22, 2026.

43°55′46″N 85°50′28″W / 43.929557°N 85.841025°W / 43.929557; -85.841025

This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.