INSIDE FARMVILLE
Thirteen Years of Allegations, Oversight Failures, and the Private Immigration Detention Model in Rural Virginia
Executive Overview
Two Bodies of Evidence, One Troubling Pattern
For more than a decade, the Farmville Immigration Detention Center in central Virginia has been the subject of repeated complaints, federal investigations, lawsuits, and national media scrutiny.
Two key bodies of evidence define its modern history:
A 2016 investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) acknowledged serious deficiencies but concluded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had "adequately addressed" them and formally closed multiple complaints.
A 2023 advocacy report, Anthology of Abuse: 13 Years at the Farmville Detention Center, compiles testimonies, litigation records, government documents, and journalism alleging systemic abuse, medical neglect, retaliation, and catastrophic mismanagement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Together, these records trace a pattern: recurring allegations, limited institutional accountability, and consequences that escalated dramatically in 2020 when nearly the entire detained population became infected with COVID-19.
What Is ICA-Farmville?
The Privatization of Immigration Detention
ICA-Farmville is a privately operated immigration detention center located in Farmville, a town of roughly 8,000 people in Prince Edward County, Virginia.
Origins and Structure
The Town of Farmville signed an intergovernmental service agreement with ICE.
Operations were subcontracted to Immigration Centers of America (ICA), a private prison company founded by real-estate and manufacturing executives. The facility opened, designed to hold 722 people.
ICA rebranded as Abyon LLC after a merger. Farmville became the largest immigration detention center in the mid-Atlantic region.
CoreCivic acquired the facility for $67 million, taking full control on July 1, 2025. The facility now holds up to 736 detainees.
From its inception, the center embodied a broader national trend: outsourcing civil immigration detention to private corporations under federal contract.
A Record of Complaints
Federal Oversight 2010–2016
The CRCL Investigation
In response to multiple detainee complaints, DHS's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties conducted an onsite investigation in July 2015 using four subject-matter experts in medical care, mental health, environmental health and safety, and corrections.
Documented Complaints
The investigation examined complaints involving:
- Medical care deficiencies
- Use of force and restraints
- Religious accommodation
- Environmental health and safety
- General conditions of detention
CRCL issued 22 formal recommendations to ICE in September 2015. ICE reported concurrence or partial concurrence with all of them in March 2016.
CRCL then closed the complaints in September 2016, stating the issues had been resolved.
However, the same memo included a crucial warning: "CRCL continues to receive numerous complaints concerning Farmville, primarily related to medical concerns… [and] is aware of multiple use of force incidents."
The office said it would continue monitoring the facility for civil-rights violations.
Core Allegations
Documented by Advocates 2010–2023
The Anthology of Abuse report categorizes recurring allegations into several major areas. These allegations span thirteen years and draw from detainee testimonies, litigation records, government documents, and investigative journalism.
1. Conditions of Confinement
The report documents chronic issues with the physical environment and basic living conditions:
- Chronic overcrowding — The population sometimes neared 800 people in a facility designed for 722
- Inadequate sleeping arrangements — Four-stack bunk beds, unfixed cots, and mattresses on the floor
- Poor sanitation and food quality
ICA-Farmville is particularly known for severe overcrowding… with people sleeping in four-stack bunk beds or on unfixed cots and mattresses.
— Anthology of Abuse, 20232. Medical and Mental Health Neglect
Medical care allegations represent the most persistent category of complaints:
- Delayed or denied sick-call requests
- Inadequate intake screenings
- Lack of language access during medical evaluations
- Deaths allegedly linked to inadequate care
The advocacy report highlights the 2011 death of Aníbal Ramírez-Ramírez shortly after arrival, and the later death of James Hill during the pandemic.
3. Use of Force and Retaliation
The report documents systematic practices of force and punishment:
- Pepper spray deployment
- Solitary confinement following protests or hunger strikes
- Restraining detainees during chemical spray incidents
- Threats that filing complaints could harm immigration cases
The COVID-19 Catastrophe
2020: The System Breaks Down
The most consequential chapter in Farmville's history occurred during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. What transpired would become a defining moment in the national debate over immigration detention.
Timeline of Crisis
According to the Anthology of Abuse report and corroborating media investigations:
- 93% of detainees tested positive for COVID-19 at the peak of the outbreak—the highest infection rate recorded in ICE detention at the time
- James Hill, a 72-year-old Canadian citizen who was medically vulnerable, died in August 2020 after becoming infected
- A federal judge barred ICE from transferring new detainees into Farmville for nearly two years
- The facility was left completely empty in August 2022
Media investigations by The Washington Post, Reuters, CNN, NPR, and others reported that ICE transferred detainees to Farmville while simultaneously freeing aircraft to move federal agents to Washington, D.C., during the 2020 protests—an action critics argue worsened the outbreak.
Aftermath
After the injunction was lifted, transfers resumed. As of early July 2023, approximately 60 people were detained at the facility.
The COVID-19 outbreak at Farmville was so severe that federal courts intervened to halt ICE transfers—an extraordinary measure that kept the facility empty for nearly two years.
2025: New Allegations
Food Safety Crisis & Rising Population
October 2025: Food Contamination Incident
On October 19, 2025, people detained at Farmville Detention Center reported evidence of worms in their food. When detainees brought this to staff attention and refused to eat all three meals the next day out of concern for their health and safety, staff retaliated by threatening to remove access to food for sale in the detention center's commissary.
This disturbing event is aligned with the detention center's dangerous history of abuse, brutality, and neglect. In February 2015, detainees also reported white worms in their food. When people brought this to staff attention, they were brutalized with violence, including pepper spray and physical force.
A currently detained individual reported: "On the morning of Monday, October 20, 2025, all 98 men from a unit in the Farmville Detention Center refused and returned the plates from all three meals of the day. The food is prepared once every four days (chicken salad and peanut butter). Sanitary measures require that refrigerators be kept at a temperature of less than 40 degrees, for no more than two hours without refrigeration, in airtight containers."
The situation scared us. Once we noticed that there were worms in several other people's food, I felt sick. I had eaten worms.
— Currently detained person, October 2025Fiscal Year 2025 Data: Who Is Being Detained?
ICE published detention statistics for fiscal year 2025 in late June. Analysis of the data by WMRA revealed alarming statistics about the facility's population:
Over 75% of Farmville detainees fall under the category reserved for those with no criminal convictions. This is based on ICE's own "threat level" data, which states: "If a detainee has no criminal convictions, he/she will be classified as 'No ICE Threat Level.'"
Adding up all detention facilities' threat level data from across the country, nearly 84% of the entire detained population were categorized as having no criminal convictions—contrary to rhetoric from the Department of Homeland Security which touts "victories… removing violent criminal illegal aliens from American communities."
Increased Detention Population
Based on the average daily population of 549 people with an average length of stay of 49 days, approximately 4,000 individuals were held at Farmville over fiscal year 2025—more than two and a half times the number held in fiscal year 2024.
Segregation Incidents
The number of individuals who served at least one day in "segregation" (separate housing for disciplinary or administrative reasons) more than doubled from November to December 2024—from 11 to 26 people. It stayed elevated afterward, peaking at 48 people in segregation in February 2025.
CoreCivic Takes Control
June 2025: Corporate Ownership Change
The $67 Million Acquisition
On July 1, 2025, CoreCivic—the second largest private corrections company in the United States—acquired the Farmville Detention Center for $67 million. The company manages more than 65 state and federal detention facilities across 19 states and the District of Columbia.
What Changes?
According to CoreCivic Public Affairs Director Ryan Gustin:
- Current Warden Jeff Crawford remains in his role—he has been warden for 13 years
- The company plans to add specialty and supervisory positions
- Enhanced employee benefits including medical, dental, vision insurance, matching 401(k), paid leave, and tuition assistance
- $5.4 million investment in security systems, perimeter fencing, skylight replacement, and improved airflow
- $25,000 in planned charitable giving to the local community
CoreCivic's Controversial History
CoreCivic has faced significant controversies at its facilities:
2021: CoreCivic agreed to pay $56 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of inflating stock prices and claiming it "ran unsafe, low quality prisons that caused multiple deaths."
2023: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reached a settlement with CoreCivic after filing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of three former detainees at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, claiming the facility used forced labor to maintain operations and maximize profits.
December 2024 Inspection Results
The facility's most recent ICE compliance inspection in December 2024 found the center passed 21 out of 27 standards. Deficiencies included:
- Medical care (majority of deficiencies)
- Self-harm and suicide prevention
- Recreation and visitation
- Grievance system
- Staff training
Medical care violations included: not providing proper diets to detainees with allergies; not reporting diagnoses of communicable diseases (including active tuberculosis) to ICE; not providing mental health evaluations within 72 hours; and administering psychotropic medications with "no documented informed consent."
Local Government Response
Prince Edward County Administrator Doug Stanley stated: "I am pleased that they are committed to ensuring the continuity of the Farmville Detention Center's operations and enhancing benefits for staff, many of whom call Prince Edward County home."
The contract between Prince Edward County and the detention center runs through March 29, 2029. At that point, the county will have the option to renew, renegotiate, or terminate the contract.
Two Competing Interpretations
Institutional vs. Advocacy Perspectives
The history of ICA-Farmville reveals a fundamental divide in how different parties interpret the same facts. This divide shapes policy debates and determines whether facilities like Farmville continue to operate.
The Institutional Position
From ICE, DHS, and CoreCivic's perspective:
- Problems were identified in 2015 and addressed
- Complaints were closed in 2016
- Oversight continues through inspections and compliance programs
- CoreCivic acquisition brings significant investment and improved benefits
- The facility operates under federal safety and health guidelines with regular audits
The Advocacy Position
From the perspective of civil-rights groups and many former detainees:
- Abuse is structural, not incidental
- Oversight is reactive and lacks enforcement power
- Private detention creates incentives to cut costs at the expense of safety
- The COVID-19 outbreak proved the system is incapable of protecting those in custody
- October 2025 food contamination shows nothing has changed
The Free Them All VA Coalition Statement
This incident is the latest example of abuse in Farmville's long and troubling history, where members of our community are treated as less than human. For over a decade, Farmville has been plagued by systemic cruelty, neglect, and retaliation. Daily life at Farmville, a detention center that profits from human suffering, is characterized by a culture of systematic abuse and brutality.
— Free Them All VA Coalition, October 2025
Congressional Response
In August 2025, Congressman Don Beyer visited the detention center after receiving pressure from directly affected families and organizers. Despite community warnings that CoreCivic's ownership would not change conditions, Rep. Beyer stated: "I think CoreCivic taking over was one of the big steps in terms of bringing in a big company with many, many more resources to invest in the things because we want it to be safe for everyone."
Following the October 2025 food contamination incident, advocates criticized this assessment as premature.
Critics argue that Farmville demonstrates how oversight mechanisms can exist on paper while systemic problems persist in practice. The October 2025 food contamination incident—occurring just three months after CoreCivic's acquisition—suggests corporate ownership changes alone do not address fundamental structural issues.
Why Farmville Matters
A National Case Study
Current Status (January 2026)
Based on available documentation:
- The facility operates at near-capacity under CoreCivic ownership
- Approximately 549 people detained daily (average for FY2025)
- 75% of detainees have no criminal convictions
- Food safety concerns persist despite corporate ownership change
- Advocacy groups continue to campaign for permanent closure
- ICE continues to include Farmville within its national detention network
A Case Study In:
ICA-Farmville is not just a local controversy. It is a case study in:
- The privatization of immigration detention
- The limits of federal oversight
- The consequences of crowding and under-resourced medical systems
- The human cost of civil detention during public-health emergencies
- Corporate profit incentives versus detainee welfare
Whether the facility ultimately closes or continues operating under federal contract, its history has already shaped national debates over how the United States treats people held in immigration custody.
The Broader Question
Farmville raises fundamental questions about the immigration detention system itself:
Can private contractors adequately protect the rights and health of detained individuals? Can federal oversight mechanisms prevent abuse when they rely primarily on self-reporting and reactive investigations? What happens when public-health emergencies collide with systems designed for security rather than care? Does corporate ownership change improve conditions, or simply change who profits?
These questions extend far beyond Farmville, Virginia. They define an ongoing national conversation about civil detention, accountability, corporate involvement in incarceration, and the balance between enforcement and human dignity.
Moving Forward
As of January 2026, forty local and national organizations have endorsed the call for Farmville's closure, including the National Immigration Project, Freedom for Immigrants, Detention Watch Network, and Virginia Abolitionist Response Network.
The facility remains operational under CoreCivic management, with Prince Edward County holding contract authority through March 2029. The coming years will determine whether Farmville's troubling pattern continues—or whether sustained advocacy, oversight, and accountability can finally break the cycle.
