'A lack of oversight': California Attorney General wants to see changes at immigration detention centers [View all]
Source: Scripps News
Posted 8:40 PM, May 18, 2026 and last updated 8:40 PM, May 18, 2026
A lack of health care, not enough food and excessive use of pepper spray: Those are just some of the findings at lockups housing thousands of immigrants, detailed in a new report released by California officials. Now the California Attorney General is telling Scripps News what he wants to see happen next.
Inspectors from the California Attorney General’s office spoke to about 200 immigrants locked up in private detention centers. They discovered as the population of those jails grew, staff were overwhelmed. Conditions rapidly deteriorated and continue to get worse. The new report details a lack of medical care, including at the Adelanto ICE detention center that we have been investigating. It’s where four detainees have died.
As part of our continuing ICE Inc. investigation, one mother talked to us about her son dying from a skin infection that was allowed to fester. The attorney general’s office says many immigrants struggle to access medical care, and that in three cases, detainees weren’t able to get emergency help right away.
They also found inappropriate uses of pepper spray, including in confined areas, and inadequate food and clean drinking water. One member of the AG’s staff personally observed murky water at Adelanto. And they found trouble at California’s newest detention center, Cal City, saying it’s at “crisis level” of health care understaffing, a place where immigrants say it’s so cold they’re wearing socks as shirt sleeves to stay warm.
Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/immigration/a-lack-of-oversight-california-attorney-general-wants-to-see-changes-at-immigration-detention-centers
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