Willacy County

In this March 7, 2015 file photo, trash bags are piled within the northern fence at the Willacy County Correctional Center as clean up begins at the emptied detention facility in Raymondville, Texas. Management and Training Corp. recently purchased the detention center that was shuttered after a 2015 inmate riot left it uninhabitable. (David Pike/Valley Morning Star via AP, File)

A Small County Bets Big on Locking Up Undocumented Immigrants

Jones County has an empty prison and a load of debt. Their solution? Dust off the old prison and fill it with undocumented migrants.

After Years of Working with ‘Ritmo’ Detainees, I Know the Inhumane Facility Doesn’t Deserve a Second Chance

by Erica B. Schommer

New 1,000-Bed ICE Lockup Set to Open on Site of Notorious ‘Tent City’ in South Texas

How a South Texas County Bet on Immigrant Incarceration and Got Burned

by Melissa del Bosque

Prisoner uprising Willacy County Correctional Center

Goodbye to Tent City

After a riot destroys a for-profit prison, Willacy County ponders its economic future.

by Daniel Blue Tyx

Willacy County Detention Center

Immigrants in Federal Prisons ‘Subjected to Shocking Abuse and Mistreatment’

by Forrest Wilder and Priscila Mosqueda

Immigrant female detainees inside their holding cell of the Willacy County Immigration Detention Center in Raymondville.

Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses—We Have Private Prisons to Fill

The profits and losses of criminalizing immigrants.

by Forrest Wilder

Jailbait

Prison companies profit as Raymondville's public debt grows

by Forrest Wilder