Drugs, dangers found in detention center

A sprawling immigration detention center in South Georgia has grappled with drug smuggling, chronic medical staff shortages and persistent safety problems that one employee called a “ticking bomb,” according to internal records from a federal investigation published in December.

The records from the probe paint a troubling picture of Stewart Detention Center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility operated by Nashville-based CoreCivic.

The inspectors, prompted by concerns raised by immigrant rights groups and complaints received on a federal hotline, interviewed unnamed employees and detainees at Stewart during visits there in 2016 and 2017. They also visited detention centers in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and Texas. The U.S. Homeland Security

Department Office of Inspector General released its findings in a 19-page report in December. But the office’s 88 pages of internal working papers — first obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting and WABE — shed more light on Stewart’s thorny challenges.