Northwest Detention Center

Northwest Detention Center is a private immigration prison located on the tide flats of the Port of Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington, USA. The prison is operated by the GEO Group on behalf of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The NWDC's current capacity is 1575, making it one of the largest immigration prisons in the United States. CCA and GEO get about 50 percent of all their revenue from the federal government; only 11 percent of their revenue comes from the Bureau of Prisons.HistoryThe detention center opened in 2004 by Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) under a contract with The US Department of Homeland Security. In 2005, CSC was purchased by the GEO Group, thus acquiring the Northwest Detention Center.In June 2008, the Seattle University School of Law's International Human Rights Clinic published an investigation on the NWDC concluding that conditions they found, "violate both international human rights law and domestic Constitutional protections."A contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expanded the facility's housing capacity in 2009, making it the largest detention center owned by GEO Group on the West Coast.In March 2014, inmates launched a hunger strike to protest conditions at NWDC. According to ICE, 750 detainees had refused meals. House Representative Adam Smith (D-9) criticized the NWDC in an interview with The Stranger in May, calling for improvement of the "shocking" conditions. Protesters are calling for better food, speedier trials, lower commissary prices, and increased wages for labor.