Transfers of ICE Detainees from the
Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay)
Boston, Massachusetts
Detainees Transferred Number last 12 months 1,028 Out of total detained 1,433 Facility ranking on transfers top 18 %
Table 1: TransfersDuring the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 1,028 detainees were transferred by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) where they had been temporarily housed to other facilities. The average stay for these individuals before their transfer was 37 days. The use of this facility for the temporary housing of federal immigration detainees was arranged through an intergovernmental service agreement (IGSA) under which payments by ICE to another governmental agency are made for housing federal detainees. Additional information about the arrangement, including whether a private company may operate the facility for the government, was not available at the time this report was posted.
Transfers made up 72 percent of the 1,433 detainees who in one way or another left this facility during the last 12 months. This report focuses just on these transfers. The remaining individuals who departed from the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) last year actually left ICE detention. These individuals were deported from the country, released under supervision while their cases was being decided, or left ICE detention for a variety of other reasons. For more information on this facility please see additional TRAC reports in this series.
This report series is based upon analyses conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University of 1.7 million government records tracking each individual who passed through an ICE detention facility during fiscal year 2015. This most recent 12 month period for which comprehensive data are available covers October 2014 through September 2015. See About the Data.
How This Facility Ranks Nationally
Detainee transfer rankings. The Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) was one of 637 facilities nationwide that housed ICE detainees during the most recent 12 month period. Of these 637, there were 409 facilities that had at least 10 ICE detainee transfers last year. Excluding those facilities with fewer than 10 transfers, the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) last year ranked in the top 18 percent nationwide in the number of individuals it transferred to other ICE facilities. This means that 18 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of transfers, while 82 percent had a smaller number. See Table 1.
Average length of stay before transfer. Once detainees arrived at the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) their average length of stay before being transferred on to another ICE facility was 37 days last year. Ranking facilities from longest to shortest detention stays for their transfer population, this average of 37 days placed Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) in the top 25 percent of all facilities nationwide. That is, for detainees who are transferred, 25 percent of ICE detention facilities have the same or longer average stays last year, while 75 percent of detention facilities had shorter average stays.
Origins and Destinations
Were these detainees arrested locally? Where did those that ended up being transferred from the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) last year originate? Information on the place of arrest was not included in the available data ICE released. However, we can examine whether the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for a substantial proportion (31 percent) of these detainees, the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. The remaining 69 percent had been transferred in from another ICE detention facility.
We can also look at how quickly they arrived at this facility after they were first detained. A total of 32 percent arrived at the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) at some point during the very first day they were detained by ICE. This percentage is also based on an analysis of the most recent 12 months for which data are available.
How soon did transfers occur? Nationally, the median number of days before an ICE detainee is transferred to another facility was 1 days last year. That means that half of all transfers occurred on or before the 1st day, while half had longer stays before they were transferred on to another ICE facility. Note that nationally the average stay at an ICE detention facility before an individual is transferred is longer - 12 days. This is because while most detainees have relatively short stays before ICE transfers them elsewhere, sometimes stays are lengthy and these lengthy stays raise the average to above the median stay.
For the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) last year, the median stay before a detainee was transferred was 20 days. This is longer than the national figure. The average stay before transfers occurred was longer - 37 days - than the median stay. As noted above, this figure placed the facility in the top 25 percent among ICE detention facilities nationwide in the average number of days a detainee spent before he or she was transferred.
Where did those transferred get sent? ICE currently has great discretion about where in the United States transferred detainees are sent. For the period covered by these data, ICE divided the country into geographic regions or areas and assigned each to one of 152 document control offices or DCOs for the purpose of keeping track of detainees. Available data allow us to examine whether the transfer occurred within the same DCO or the transfer was to a different DCO. For the nation as a whole during the latest 12 months, 54 percent were within the same DCO, while the remaining 46 percent were to a different DCO.
Transfers Facility Profile U.S Overall
Profile (%)Number Percent Within region (DCO) 181 17% 54% Outside region (DCO) 892 83% 46% Total 1,073 100% 100%
Table 3: Transfer destinations during last 12 months
Figure 2 and accompanying Table 3 provide some comparative figures for how the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) stacks up against this national pattern. Last year, only 17 percent of the transfers from the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) were to locations in the same region -- facilities under the control of same ICE docket control office. The vast majority (83 percent) of the transfers went to detention facilities in a different region (DCO).
Nationalities
Which nationalities predominate? Last year in the United States, individuals from Mexico comprised the largest number of those transferred by ICE. Some 41.3 percent of all transfers recorded Mexico as their country of origin. The Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) had a much smaller proportion of detainees from Mexico - 15 percent - among their transfers. Detainees from Mexico were not the largest single nationality group among the transfers at the facility.
In descending order, the top nationalities that made up transfers from the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) last year were: Dominican Republic (21%) , Guatemala (16%), Mexico (15%), El Salvador (12%) and Honduras (7%).
For the frequency for each of the nationalities within the top 10 among transfers from the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) last year see Table 4.
Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Transfers Total To Diff. DCO % Diff DCO - ALL 1,073 892 83.1 % 1 Dominican Republic 220 204 92.7 % 2 Guatemala 167 160 95.8 % 3 Mexico 161 144 89.4 % 4 El Salvador 131 119 90.8 % 5 Honduras 79 71 89.9 % 6 Jamaica 67 57 85.1 % 7 Ecuador 50 41 82.0 % 8 Brazil 42 2 4.8 % 9 Haiti 28 26 92.9 % 10 Cape Verde 27 13 48.1 %
Table 4: Transfers by nationality
during the last 12 months
Out-of-region transfers by nationality. Within the nationalities that made up those listed in Table 4, the proportion transferred out of the region varied from 5 percent to 96 percent. As mentioned above, on average 83 percent of detainees transferred from the Suffolk County House Of Corrections (South Bay) were sent to detention locations outside the region.
For Guatemala with a total of 167 transfers, 96 percent of transfers were out-of-region transfers. At the other end of the range, 5 percent were out-of-region transfers for the 42 transfers from Brazil.
