Abstract

This chapter addresses contemporary conditions of incarceration for immigrant detainees being processed for deportation from the U.S. We introduce punitive capacity as a metric of detention facilities’ varied abilities to punish migrants while incarcerated—that is, the technologies of control available to jailers to manage and impose physical/emotional violence upon administrative detainees. In the chapter, we juxtapose punitive capacity with the current audit system for detention facilities that routinely licenses facilities for continued contracting with the Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). The empirical findings demonstrate that the average detainee is routinely exposed to violence. We conclude the chapter by couching our findings in the political transition from the Obama to the Trump presidential administrations. We predict an increase in exposure to violence within an expanding public and private detention system.