The new owners of an immigration detention center in South Georgia say they intend to keep its doors open and are not predicting a return of the financial troubles that have bedeviled the property.
Executives with CGL and LaSalle Corrections are expressing confidence about the Irwin County Detention Center’s future even as another company is shutting down a similar property in Gainesville because of a dwindling number of detainees. Last month, the Obama administration announced a 10 percent drop in deportations over the past two years.
A lot is now at stake. Located about 180 miles south of Atlanta, the detention center in Ocilla is Irwin County’s largest private employer with about 200 workers.
Lower debt, new efforts to control costs and the closure of the North Georgia Detention Center in Gainesville will boost the Irwin facility, the new owners said.
“We looked at the value of the property and the value of the contract and thought it was a good investment,” said Buddy Johns, the CEO of Miami-based CGL, which has offices in Georgia and owns courthouses and prisons around the world. “We have no intention of closing this facility. If anything, we intend to enhance it.”
The Irwin detention facility holds detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service. CGL teamed up with LaSalle to buy the detention center for $12.7 million following a bankruptcy auction last year.
In 2012, the property narrowly avoided being auctioned off at a county tax sale after creditors forced its then-owner, Municipal Corrections LLC, into bankruptcy proceedings. The property suffered because it failed to attract enough detainees and eventually its debt payments went into default, court records show.
The 1,200-bed facility last month was holding on average about 800 detainees per day, according to LaSalle. The new owners are now trying to fill the empty beds. One option LaSalle cited in case it cannot attract enough federal detainees: negotiating with Georgia to send state prisoners there.
Meanwhile, LaSalle is hoping to persuade the federal government to increase how much it is paying to hold ICE detainees at the Irwin detention center. That rate is now at $45 per detainee per day. In contrast, the federal government paid a daily rate of $83.42 for each person held at the North Georgia Detention Center.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America announced last month that it was closing down that facility, citing a dwindling number of ICE detainees. Any detainees who remained in Gainesville were to be transferred to other facilities, including the Irwin detention center.
“The fact that CCA just shut down a facility in Gainesville, Ga., actually is good news for us because … that is one less facility for ICE to use,” said Billy McConnell, the managing director for LaSalle, a Louisiana-based company that operates jails and correctional centers in the Southeast and Southwest.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for CCA confirmed that 124 employees were still working at the North Georgia Detention Center in December, helping box up records for storage and shut down the facility. They are expected to be gone by the first week of February.
“Our top priority continues to be assisting them,” CCA spokesman Steve Owen said. “We want to ensure that any existing staff member who wants to continue his or her career with our company can do so. For employees unable to transfer, our team is coordinating opportunities to help them find jobs in the local area.”
About the Author
