RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (AP) – Officials in a remote South Texas county have approved a new, privately run 1,000-bed immigration lockup on the site of a tent city prison that was destroyed during a 2015 riot.
The Valley Morning Star of Harlingen reports Willacy County commissioners approved Monday a contract to open a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lockup outside Raymondville, about 50 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border city of Brownsville.
Previously, tent-like domes housed 3,000 prisoners at the site, which closed after they rioted. A county lawsuit blamed the uprising on "abysmal mismanagement" by Utah-based Management & Training Corp., which had operated the facility, and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons canceled its management contract.
Management & Training plans to run the new facility, but there are now no plans to use tents.
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