1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I am writing as your constituent to urge you to support legislation that would give state agencies clear authority to inspect the Rivers Correctional Facility in Winton and any other privately operated immigration detention facility in North Carolina. When a private company like the GEO Group operates a detention center under a federal contract, the people held there should not lose the basic protections of state health, safety, labor, and environmental laws. North Carolina should be able to verify that these facilities provide safe drinking water, sanitary conditions, adequate food, appropriate medical care, effective infectious-disease control, and safe working conditions. I ask you to enact legislation that would: ✔️Define privately operated immigration detention facilities as subject to applicable North Carolina health and safety requirements; ✔️ Authorize regular and unannounced inspections by appropriate state agencies; ✔️Require facility operators and subcontractors to provide relevant records and permit confidential interviews with detained people and employees; ✔️Establish corrective-action requirements, civil penalties, and court enforcement when access or compliance is denied; ✔️Protect whistleblowers and people who report unsafe or abusive conditions; and ✔️Require public reports on inspection findings, serious injuries, deaths, disease outbreaks, complaints, and corrective actions. The legislation should focus on the conduct of private contractors and on objective health and safety standards—not on making immigration-enforcement decisions. A clear statutory framework would help resolve uncertainty about state authority while ensuring that North Carolinians, facility employees, and detained people in our state are protected. Federal contracting should not allow a private company to operate beyond the reach of ordinary public-health and safety oversight. North Carolina should not wait for a serious illness, injury, death, or other preventable incident before establishing an inspection system. Please introduce, sponsor, and support legislation giving state officials meaningful access to the Winton facility and requiring transparent compliance with North Carolina law. I would appreciate knowing what steps you intend to take on this issue. Thank you for your service and for your attention to the health, safety, and dignity of everyone affected by detention operations in North Carolina.