INDIANAPOLIS (INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE) — The State Budget Committee on Wednesday approved a request from the Indiana Department of Correction for $15.79 million in state funding to prepare Miami Correctional Facility for use in a new federal immigration detention agreement.
The money will fund a wide range of infrastructure upgrades and equipment purchases, according to budget committee documents obtained by the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Facility needs listed by DOC included enhancements to perimeter fencing and lighting; new temporary housing structures for staff; modifications to intake and processing areas; installation of drug detection and drone prevention systems; and x-ray screening equipment.
Officials said in the budget committee request that those improvements are “necessary to operate a proposed detention facility at Miami Correctional Facility in order to facilitate the federal immigration and law enforcement activity” and will be undertaken “upon execution of the agreement with the federal government.”
(Provided Photo/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
The request was approved just after DOC finalized a two-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The agreement, signed Sept. 16, commits the state agency to providing detention services for adult men classified as medium-maximum security for stays longer than 72 hours. It begins Oct. 1 runs through Sept. 30, 2027.
DOC Commissioner Lloyd Arnold framed the agreement as a way to bring idle prison space back into use while generating revenue to boost staffing.
“When we came in under this administration, we were trying to find ways … to fill that facility up, utilize those beds,” he said, noting that in 2021, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, DOC shut down roughly half of the prison, which has since left 1,200 beds “unoccupied in that facility.”
DOC’s latest figures for August showed that Miami Correctional Facility was housing 1,845 inmates in 1,862 available beds. The prison site has a total capacity of more than 3,100 beds when fully operational but the agency has been unable to find staff for that.
“Are there ways that we could actually pay staff at that facility, maybe more money, maybe get them to come there … ?” Arnold continued.
(Provided Photo/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
The State Budget Committee on Wednesday approved a request from the Indiana Department of Correction for $15.79 million in state funding to prepare Miami Correctional Facility for use in a new federal immigration detention agreement.
The money will fund a wide range of infrastructure upgrades and equipment purchases, according to budget committee documents obtained by the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Facility needs listed by DOC included enhancements to perimeter fencing and lighting; new temporary housing structures for staff; modifications to intake and processing areas; installation of drug detection and drone prevention systems; and x-ray screening equipment.
Officials said in the budget committee request that those improvements are “necessary to operate a proposed detention facility at Miami Correctional Facility in order to facilitate the federal immigration and law enforcement activity” and will be undertaken “upon execution of the agreement with the federal government.”
The request was approved just after DOC finalized a two-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The agreement, signed Sept. 16, commits the state agency to providing detention services for adult men classified as medium-maximum security for stays longer than 72 hours. It begins Oct. 1 runs through Sept. 30, 2027.
DOC Commissioner Lloyd Arnold framed the agreement as a way to bring idle prison space back into use while generating revenue to boost staffing.
“When we came in under this administration, we were trying to find ways … to fill that facility up, utilize those beds,” he said, noting that in 2021, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, DOC shut down roughly half of the prison, which has since left 1,200 beds “unoccupied in that facility.”
DOC’s latest figures for August showed that Miami Correctional Facility was housing 1,845 inmates in 1,862 available beds. The prison site has a total capacity of more than 3,100 beds when fully operational but the agency has been unable to find staff for that.
“Are there ways that we could actually pay staff at that facility, maybe more money, maybe get them to come there … ?” Arnold continued.
Under the agreement, ICE will pay Indiana a per diem rate of $291.94 for each detainee per day — far higher than the $42 per day Indiana pays county sheriffs to house state inmates, and nearly four times the $75 per day cost for current inmates at the Miami Correctional Facility.
Even so, Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, pressed Arnold on whether the federal government would directly reimburse Indiana for the $15.79 million in upfront costs associated with housing ICE detainees.
“This amount is seven times higher than we pay our locals,” he said during an exchange with Arnold at Wednesday’s meeting. “Would you agree that, in effect, there is a built in profit for the state in this?”
Arnold confirmed that the contract relies on the per diem rate, not a direct reimbursement of initial expenses. Instead, the state is relying on the volume of detainees and the daily rate to recoup its investment over time. He emphasized that the higher rate is intended to protect Hoosier taxpayers and ensure the facility can be adequately staffed and operated.
“We wouldn’t be doing it if there was not a built-in profit,” Arnold insisted.
Details of the agreement
Arnold said DOC intends to raise Miami’s correctional officer pay from $24 an hour to $28 to stay competitive with nearby auto plants.
“If I can go work at Subaru and make $28 an hour and not have anybody punch me in the face or spit on me … I’m gonna go do that,” he said. “Is there a guarantee? No … but we’ve got to try to find a way to find solutions.”
Arnold further emphasized that the ICE contract applies only to adult men, and that “we should not experience any concern with pregnant women, small children … we will not have any of that at that facility.”
He added that detainees will be held under federal detention standards “to ensure they get back to their country of origin in a safe manner.”
DOC spokeswoman Annie Goeller said the deal covers “housing, clothing, food, medical, translation, access to courts, transportation, and phone and communication services for typical stays of 30–45 days.”
She added that it also encompasses contracts with Aramark, Centurion, Indiana’s Office of Technology, and other vendors on DOC premises, as well as “a heightened rate for correctional officers and non-custody staff in order to properly staff the facility, in accordance with ICE detention standards.”
The contract guarantees a minimum of 450 filled beds for all but the first 120 days of the full two-year term, and allows for up to 1,000 occupied beds overall.
That means the value of the deal ranges from about $79 million over two years to as much as $213.1 million if the facility is at maximum capacity the whole time.
The first task order — covering Sept. 30 through Oct. 31 of this year — already funds $6 million for detention services and $20,000 for on-call transportation.
The Miami contract is part of a broader set of immigration enforcement agreements Indiana entered earlier this year. In addition to DOC’s detention arrangement, state police and other agencies signed agreements with ICE to collaborate on enforcement efforts across the state.
(Provided Photo/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
DeLaney said those deals only heighten the need for legislative oversight.
He argued that in the past, state law clearly outlined how prison-related funding would be spent, but recent changes have left key policy decisions in administrative hands.
“I don’t think that’s what anybody had in mind when they set the state budget committee up, and I think it’s a reduction in the function of the legislature,” DeLaney said. He added that if lawmakers fail to oversee how detention profits are used, “we’re going to lose some credibility with our citizens if we don’t straighten that out.”
Rep. Gregory W. Porter, D-Indianapolis, had sharper criticisms.
He argued that Republicans prioritized detention funding over core state needs like farm relief, early childhood education and health care waitlists.
“I feel like I’m stuck in the Twilight Zone,” Porter said in a Wednesday news release. “Republicans continue to make baffling decisions that contradict reality. Indiana doesn’t have money for this right now, and rebounding revenues and reimbursement don’t change that fact.”
“They couldn’t find the money to avoid cuts to social services,” he continued, “but they found the funds for this.”
Plans for other state prisons
Arnold also addressed uncertainty around the future of the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, saying there has been “a lot of misinformation” about whether the facility will close once construction of the new prison in Westville is completed.
Officials confirmed last month that the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City will remain open “for some time” after the new $1.2 billion Northwest Indiana Correctional Facility opens in 2027, backing away from earlier plans to shutter it.
Westville Correctional Facility, located just 14 miles south, will still close as originally planned.
“We have never said, as the Department of Correction, nor the governor’s office, [that] ‘Hey, we’re not shutting down the prison at Michigan City,’” Arnold told the budget committee. “There are concerns because our population is increasing, going across the board.”
He said that the department rescinded a letter of intent signed under the previous administration to transfer the prison site back to Michigan City because “we don’t want to give away state property.”
For now, Arnold said the plan is still to close the Michigan City facility eventually, though the timing is uncertain.
“Is it in 2027? No, please, no,” he said. “It’s one of those things as we go through time, we may have to continue discussions of what we need to do, what’s best for us, what’s best for the taxpayers, and [whether] keeping that facility either open or closed.”
