Recently released detainees from the Chase County Detention Center in eastern Kansas are speaking out about alleged overcrowding and a lack of medical care at the facility.
Former detainees say they went weeks without medical care for issues like tooth infections, gout attacks, severe anxiety and skin irritation.
Two who spoke to the Kansas News Service said they were forced to sleep on the floor in over-capacity cells — sometimes with non-immigrant detainees charged with violent crimes.
Yet the Cottonwood Falls jail is far from the most shocking example of allegations of worsening conditions in immigration detention facilities across the country.
The push by President Donald Trump’s administration to deport as many people as possible has caused the number of people in immigration detention to soar, stretching facilities’ space and resources thin.
A planned 1,000-bed private detention center in Leavenworth has been temporarily blocked from opening, making the 148-bed Chase County jail a regional bottleneck for immigration detention.
The Chase County jail has an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help house detainees. A jail official told the Kansas Reflector in 2021 that ICE paid the county $62 per detainee per day.
In May, KMUW reported that the facility had exceeded its capacity 18 times in a 33-day period.
With cramped conditions and new policies that make it more difficult to be released on bond, even some detainees with winnable immigration cases are choosing to self-deport rather than spend months in jail.
Overcrowded and underserved
The Kansas News Service spoke with three immigrants who were recently detained at Chase County.
Interviews with immigration attorneys and advocates who have worked with Chase County detainees provided second-hand accounts, corroborating the difficult conditions these individuals described.
José, who asked that his full name and other identifying information be withheld for fear of retaliation, spent more than a month in the Chase County jail. He was arrested for a nonviolent offense and taken into ICE custody despite a pending application for deportation protections.
Leaning back in a computer chair at his home in the Kansas City metro area, José recalled how he was forced to sleep on the floor — a third detainee in a cell designed for two — while suffering from searing joint pain from gout, a form of arthritis.
“It’s denigrating, honestly,” José said. “Being in jail with that pain, it’s just like, ‘What's going to happen to me?’”
Gout was a problem for José before his stint in Chase County. But his health issues compounded once he got there.
He lifted up the back of his shirt to show where an itchy red rash had been.
“Three days after I got there, it was already growing on my back,” he said. Other detainees who said they witnessed similar issues blamed the shampoo and soap the jail provided.
But when he sought medical care for his skin irritation, or treatment for his gout attacks, José said he was stonewalled.
Another detainee, Luis Diaz Inestroza, told lawyers he went weeks without proper treatment for a severe tooth infection.
Genevra Alberti, an immigration attorney at the firm that represented Inestroza, said the father of three opted to self-deport to Honduras because he could not bear the pain.
“You're overcrowding the jails,” she said, “and then you're also going to deprive them of medical care. It’s just a war of attrition.”
Officials' response
The jail is run by Chase County Sheriff Jacob Welsh. In response to a detailed list of claims that sources made about poor conditions at the facility, Welsh said he could not comment on specific accusations.
Nevertheless, Welsh said his facility has received positive feedback from independent inspectors.
“Our staff consistently strive to treat every individual in our care with dignity and respect — values that reflect the spirit of our Kansas community,” Welsh wrote in an email to the Kansas News Service.
“We hope your reporting contributes to a thoughtful and constructive dialogue that brings unity rather than division to our country,” he said.
An ICE spokesperson said contract facilities like the Chase County jail are bound by national standards for medical treatment and sanitary conditions.
“Had these individuals not violated U.S. immigration laws or had they chosen to self-deport, they would not be subject to detention,” the spokesperson added.
In response to a reporter’s question about a 75-year-old man who died in ICE custody in Florida in June, White House border czar Tom Homan said that happens simply because there’s a large population of people in detention.
“People die in ICE custody. People die in county jail. People die in state prisons,” Homan said.
But, he insisted, “We have the highest detention standards in the industry.”
Access and due process
Though many ICE detainees in Kansas and Missouri travel through Chase County, they are
also often held at the Greene County Jail in Missouri and the Kay County Detention Center in Oklahoma.
In an unusual move this year, ICE has also held an unknown number of detainees at FCI Leavenworth, a federal penitentiary.
In a May letter, the American Civil Liberties Union, Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation and other groups, accused FCI Leavenworth of holding immigrant detainees — some of whom had already won their cases — in harsh conditions.
The ACLU of Kansas said the warden of FCI Leavenworth has responded to its letter, and that detainees have reported improved conditions at the facility. However, the organization said ICE has continued to hold immigrants at the prison even after they had prevailed in court.
Compared to those facilities, multiple immigration attorneys told the Kansas News Service that the Chase County Detention Center is one of the easiest to work with in the region.
However, advocates say the jail no longer allows in-person visits to detainees, and has become slower to send documents to attorneys.
“This inability for families to communicate with their loved ones, compounded by sudden jail transfers and the denial of bond, creates a cycle of secrecy and lack of accountability,” AIRR said in a statement.
After a recent decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative body that reviews decisions by immigration judges, many detainees without full legal status will no longer be eligible for release on bond.
The change means that many immigrants will no longer be able to leave detention and live their lives during often-lengthy court proceedings.
At the same time, detainees at Chase County and elsewhere are encouraged to self-deport. Officials promise immigrants $1,000 and better legal standing if they agree to be sent back to their country of origin.
Those incentives did not impress José. And he ended up being released from the Chase County Detention Center.
Nevertheless, the demoralizing conditions he said he endured at the facility made him seriously consider signing on the dotted line to self-deport.
“It makes you feel that you want to give up everything that you've done in this country,” he said.
Zane Irwin reports on politics, campaigns and elections for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at zaneirwin@kcur.org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
