Tribe detention facility document has surprises

Green Valley News

The proposed federal detention center north of Sahuarita will have up to 1,500 beds and is designed to expand, according to a key document drawn up by the Tohono O’odham Nation.

The facility had been initially described as having 750 beds in a letter to the town.

The 87-page environmental assessment of the proposed detention center is posted at www.waknet.org, the Web site of the San Xavier District of the Nation.

“The 1,500-bed San Xavier Regional Detention Center is a secure, adult detention facility that is designed to be expandable” and covers 230,180 square feet on a 48.8-acre site, of which 25 acres would be encircled by a double 12-foot-high fence topped with razor wire, according to the EA.

The town was told in a letter in late March that the facility would be just under 140,000 square feet.

It is not clear from the document whether the number of beds could be expanded or just the building size. San Xavier officials have not returned media phone calls or emails over the past two weeks and have had limited contact with the town. Concerned residents of Rancho Sahuarita have gathered more than 1,200 signatures on petitions opposing the facility.

The privately operated facility could potentially take prisoners and detainees from city and county jails as well as the Arizona Department of Corrections; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and other agencies, the EA says.

The assessment is required under federal law because the tribe proposes to consolidate and lease 48.8 acres of local allotments (family property). This requires approval by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and an EA. The proposed site is two-thirds of a mile north of Pima Mine Road and about a half-mile west of Nogales Highway, east of the Santa Cruz River.

Three other sites were investigated and rejected, including a site across the street from Sahuarita, on Pima Mine Road. That site was passed over because “it would be more visible to traffic and neighboring communities such as Sahuarita,” it would “take away potential development” on Pima Mine Road; it was “closer than Proposed Action Site to ongoing business concern just south of Pima Mine Road (an apparent reference to the Climax molybdenum research center),” and “this site was considerably more expensive to lease” because it is on Pima Mine Road.

The other sites are north of the Asarco mine and near Three Points, and each presented road and utility issues.

The developer would be Innovative Government Strategies (IGS); the financier Municipal Capital Markets and the detention facility operator would be Community Education Centers of West Caldwell, N.J., which runs prisons and detention facilities in 22 states.

The company used to be named Community Corrections Corp., and touts itself as providing substance abuse, counseling and education programs that reduce recidivism among inmates. The proposed facility had earlier been intended mostly to house short-term, illegal immigrant detainees, many of whom would be deported.

The developer, operator and other consultants would provide contract services to the District, which would own the facility and would obtain a 30-year lease on the 48.8 acres and a 5.6-acre easement from the allottees (tribal members).

The EA says the District began to investigate a detention center in September 2006, as a way to obtain lease income and provide jobs, most of which would go to tribal members. The EA also said two publicly advertised hearings were held regarding the detention center idea in the San Xavier District in July and August 2006, and that documents have been available for public review for months before the EA was released to the Town of Sahuarita on April 30.

Until the EA was released, tribal officials had not mentioned the availability of such documents to town officials or news media in a letter seeking town comment, press releases or other communications.

The site will have its own wells and an on-site package plant for wastewater.

Town officials received the document Thursday and are studying it. They have cautioned residents to be careful about expressing their opposition to the proposal, saying they need to learn more about how they can influence the project.

pfranchine@gvnews.com | 547-9738