An Indiana state prison facility is expected by the end of the week to be home to some 100 adult men being detained prior to deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for lacking legal permission to remain in the United States.
Officials confirmed ICE detainees with no pending criminal charges began arriving Wednesday at the Miami Correctional Facility near Kokomo, which is about 100 miles southeast of Valparaiso.
Ultimately, up to 1,000 adult men awaiting deportation are set to be held in a portion of the prison closed off in recent years due to a shortage of correctional officers.
Lloyd Arnold, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC), told the State Budget Committee Sept. 17 that ICE is paying DOC $291 per detainee, per day, to use part of the state prison under a two-year contract.
That's significantly more than the state's estimated $75 daily cost to house each of the 1,859 convicted felons incarcerated in a separate portion of the facility, and nearly seven times the $42 per diem DOC pays Indiana sheriffs to hold state inmates in county jails, records show.
Arnold said much of the "profit" generated by the ICE contract will be returned to Indiana's General Fund that Hoosier lawmakers use to pay for most state programs and services, including prisons and education.
"We wouldn't be doing it if there was not a built-in profit for the state," Arnold said.
Though some of the money will also be used to boost the pay of state correctional officers overseeing ICE detainees to $28 per hour, instead of the current rate of $22 or $24 per hour depending on the inmate security level.
Arnold anticipates the higher pay will attract workers from nearby auto factories and entice correctional officers to transfer to Miami from other facilities on a temporary or permanent basis.
He hopes the higher wage rate will also be continued by Indiana once the ICE contract ends in September 2027 to enable the facility to keep its 1,000 extra beds open to accommodate the more than 900 state felons currently in a county jail.
The State Budget Committee already agreed last month to repurpose $15.8 million in state prison funds to prepare the Miami facility for ICE detainees.
Arnold said only $1.2 million is actually needed to make the unused portion of the facility operational. Much of the remainder will be used, if necessary, to temporarily house correctional officers brought in from elsewhere in the state to oversee ICE detainees.
According to the contract, DOC will be paid $291 a day for a minimum of 450 detainees beginning in February, regardless of how many men are held at the facility on behalf of ICE — a nearly $80 million guarantee.
Arnold also promised to ensure state correctional officers are trained to appropriately manage ICE detainees and that individuals awaiting deportation are treated humanely while they're in Indiana's custody.
"We're going to make sure that this is successful. We're also going to make sure that those in our care are well taken care of. So whatever we've got to do to do that, we'll make it happen," Arnold said.
State Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, emphatically urged Arnold to keep that promise because "the reputation of the state of Indiana is at stake."
© Copyright 2025, nwitimes.com, Munster, IN