AMOR Community Response Team: Report on ICE Detention at the Wyatt Detention Facility
“I would like to ask for your help if you can help not only myself but others as well to make our voices heard, and support is really needed.” - Message received March 2025
Dear Community,
This report comes at the behest of people currently detained by ICE at the Wyatt Detention Facility. They contacted us in March 2025 to share about detention conditions in Central Falls, RI, and urgently requested that we make their experiences known.
What follows is based on a March 10, 2025, letter from 13 concerned detainees and correspondence with more than 40 individuals detained by ICE at the Wyatt Detention Facility during March 2025. As of February 24, 2025, 111 people were detained by ICE at the facility, which board members described as “at capacity.” (Source: Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation Minutes, February 24, 2025, p. 1)
We share these words and ask Rhode Islanders to respond to the calls of those currently detained by supporting Senate Bill S-0295 and House Bill HB-5724 in the current legislative session to end ICE detention in Rhode Island.
In Solidarity,
AMOR Community Response Team
March 10, 2025, Letter from 13 Concerned Detainees
“The treatment here in ICE for detainees is unfair and needs to be addressed.” - Concerned detainee, March 2025
Testimonies of Medical Neglect
AMOR has received new reports that medical treatment has been deeply concerning at the Wyatt recently. This continues an ongoing pattern over many years of reports of medical neglect at the Wyatt, including those that preceded the death of Hui Lui “Jason” Ng due to medical abuse from prison staff at the Wyatt in 2008.
“Many of us get sick and they don’t care what happens to us. We reported it at the kiosk, and they ignored it. There is a person here with very high blood sugar, and it took them a while to take care of him. There are many who have waited two months without changing the bed sheets.” - Message received March 2025
In the first two weeks of March, AMOR received 12 messages from people detained at the Wyatt, specifically highlighting medical neglect.
People detained report being denied medical care for chronic conditions and necessary vaccines and report that Wyatt staff do not respond to requests for medical care.
Witnesses said that three people recently fainted and did not receive medical care.
Over the course of 2024, 12 medical staff were terminated/resigned/retired, while only 10 were hired/re-hired. Over that same period, the number of people detained by ICE doubled - compared to early 2024 - to around 110. Among the terminations, between November 2024 and January 2025, one doctor was terminated/resigned/retired, and no doctor had been hired/re-hired as of February 24, 2025. (Source: Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation Minutes, January 22, 2024 to February 24, 2025)
Just before doubling the number of people detained by ICE, the Central Falls Detention Center Corporation began contracting with BioReference for Clinical Laboratory Services to secure “a significantly lower rate” compared to the previous contractor. (Source: Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation Minutes, June 17, 2024, p.3)
Meanwhile, the average revenue of the Corporation in 2024 was $4 million per month. (Source: Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation Minutes, November 18, 2024, p.3)
“If someone is complaining about pain, headaches or in need of even a cough drop they shouldn’t have to write a request in the kiosk and wait sometimes multiple days for a response for treatment. One individual was feeling chest pain to the point where he couldn’t walk and had to sit on the floor, but the correction officer on duty refused to call medical. Other detainees had to unite and demand he call someone above him to help this poor man.” - Concerned detainee, March 2025
Testimonies of Imprisonment for Profit
“The calls are expensive, and I think they should be free, and the recreation systems - live films, videos, news, songs, and even video games to pass time - are reasons to charge money while they should be free. I’m starting to believe that everything here wants money in exchange for happiness and freedom.” - Message received March 2025
The Wyatt is run by the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation. Corporations and banks outside Rhode Island lent money (through bonds) to the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation to run the Wyatt. They are still waiting for a return on their investment.
The City of Central Falls owns the land on which the prison sits. The Corporation has paid nothing to the people of Central Falls since 2021, either in taxes or other payments. (Source: Panel on the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 2023).
The Corporation runs the prison by paying contractors for things like food service, communications, laboratory services, and more. These contractors then charge the people detained exorbitant rates for services necessary to survive. That includes making phone calls, sending text messages, and buying food to supplement insufficient nutrition.
In the first two weeks of March, 20 people detained reported to AMOR that calls were too expensive. During the same period, 43 individuals made new requests for Commissary help. Several people detained reported that it cost them 25 cents per minute to make a call, even though the cost should have been nine cents per minute on paper.
The Corporation contracted with Smart Communications in June 2024, and the Board affirmed the calls would cost people detained 9 cents per minute. (Source: Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation Minutes, June 17, 2024, p.3)
To receive funds to make these exorbitant payments, TouchPay takes a cut of more than 10% of funds transferred to people detained from their family and friends.
“The calls are very expensive. They only give us five minutes every Monday, and if for some reason it cuts off after a minute, you can’t use the minutes any longer. The commissary is very expensive.” - Message received March 2025
The City of Central Falls wrote in a 2019 letter at the beginning of the most recent ICE contract:
"The detention of these recent arrivals at the Wyatt beginning in March, 2019 is abhorrent to the ethos of the City, a predominantly immigrant and first generation American city. This is apparently yet another desperate attempt by the administration of the Corporation and the other special interests associated with the Wyatt designed to put money in the pockets of bondholders." (Source: Correspondence in response to threat of litigation letter involving UMB Bank and the Wyatt Detention Facilities Corporation)
Testimonies of Hunger
“The food they cook is not enough in size and sometimes I’m still hungry after I already ate, and not having money to buy snacks or order commissary makes life even harder in this place.” — Message received March 2025
In the first two weeks of March, AMOR received messages from 16 people detained by ICE who specified that they would not have enough to eat without help purchasing food from the Commissary.
AMOR has received reports that the facility is often only serving food with pork and that people who are Muslim/don’t eat pork have no other options and starve.
Testimonies of Racism and Arbitrary Punishment
“They left us incommunicado for two weeks, and they lock us up when the lawyers are about to come. Also, when they (inmates) fight in another unit, even if it’s not an immigration unit, they (staff) lock us up and yell at us... There is a lot of racism. I wanted to report that to a sergeant, and he got to my cell when I wanted to tell him, he closed the door on my face.” - Message received March 2025
In the first two weeks of March, six people detained detailed discrimination, and four specifically described being treated like animals.
AMOR received reports that the facility has been limiting people’s access to the legal program by arbitrarily deciding who can and cannot attend.
What you can do!
“I would like to ask for your help if you can help not only myself but others as well to make our voices heard, and support is really needed.” - Message received March 2025
Make calls and send emails to these administrators at the Wyatt Detention Facility to demand accountability and report these inhumane conditions:
James J Lombardi III Esq. CPA, Board President of the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation
(401) 454-5900
Annalisa Boucher, Contact for the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation
(401) 721-0313
aboucher@wyattdetention.com
Let our allies know we support their effort to remove ICE from Wyatt because of these abuses and ask these allies to use their voices to speak out against what is happening right now in Wyatt.
Mayor Maria Rivera of Central Falls
401-727-7474
State Senator Jonathan Acosta of Rhode Island District 16
401-305-0545
sen-acosta@rilegislature.gov
State Representative Karen Alzate of Rhode Island District 60
(401) 663-5600
rep-alzate@rilegislature.gov
Call and write to your Rhode Island State Representative and State Senator and tell them you support Senate Bill 0295 and House Bill 5724.
Find out who your State Representative and State Senator are here: Voter Information Center
Use this Report and AMOR’s Testimony Toolkits to prepare your testimony in support of these bills.
Become a monthly donor to the AMOR Community Fund for ICE Detainees!
All funds go directly to folks detained by ICE at the Wyatt.
We are looking for 90 people to pledge 40 dollars a month to make the fund sustainable and continue supporting those inside!
If you can’t pledge 40 dollars a month, do you know someone who can? Could you and three friends each give 10 dollars a month? Every bit helps!
Spread the word about those detained by sharing this report and talking about it with your community!
Restacked with a note calling upon all concerned persons to make this go viral.
What narrative do the staff at WYATT ascribe to that would allow them to exhibit these depraved and hostile behaviors toward detainees.