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County staff brief commissioners on ICE detention contract, bed counts and per-diem negotiations
Summary
County staff reviewed the intergovernmental services agreement with ICE, saying it dates to 2007, allows up to 40 beds and includes per-diem compensation. Officials said the county is negotiating an updated daily rate to reflect higher operating costs.
Alamance County staff told commissioners they are renegotiating the daily compensation under an intergovernmental services agreement that allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house detainees in county detention facilities.
The contract dates to February 2007 and has been amended several times, staff said. The agreement currently allows up to 40 ICE beds at the county detention center; county staff said the sheriff has negotiated terms that pay the county for the availability of those beds even if they are not all occupied.
"The best way to put it is that we're an Uber and we're a hotel for those people," a county staff presenter said, describing the services the county provides under the contract, which include housing, transportation and medical screening. The staff member said the per-diem rate in the packet had been set in a 2019 negotiation and that the county and sheriff's office are seeking a higher rate to cover rising costs.
Presenters said the county handles medical screening and care for detained individuals and provides clothing, meals and detention staffing under the agreement. When the ICE population was higher in prior years, the county occasionally had additional net revenue that the sheriff used for equipment purchases; staff said there were no categorical statutory limits on what equipment purchases could be financed from those funds but any proposed use would come before the board.
County staff did not provide a current annual revenue total in the presentation but said the county's negotiated per-diem rate was $135 starting February 1, 2019, and that the line-by-line compensation elements (transportation, hourly rates, mileage) have been amended over the years.
Commissioners asked about bed capacity, separation of ICE detainees from general population and where revenues were used; staff said ICE detainees are kept separate from county general-population inmates and that revenue from the contract in prior years had funded equipment and other sheriff department needs with board approval.
The presentation did not include an action to amend or terminate the contract; staff said negotiations over the rate were ongoing and would be brought back to the board as needed.
