Eyes on Ice NJ Responds to Essex County’s Installation of Tents and Restrooms at Delaney Hall
Eyes on Ice NJ Responds to Essex County’s Installation of Tents and Restrooms at Delaney Hall
Our Government’s Actions Should Reflect the Care & Concern We Have for Our Neighbors
Newark, NJ – Eyes on ICE NJ welcomes Essex County’s commitment to erect a tent and four portable restrooms for visitors at Delaney Hall, starting today. This development comes at the consistent demand of advocates, activists, and the family members of detained community members, who have endured waiting outdoors in the extreme heat1 and subfreezing temperatures2for several hours before entering the facility since it reopened in May of last year.
Delaney Hall was reopened by the private prison corporation GEO Group on May 1, 2025 without proper permits from the City of Newark. Unlike other detention centers, Delaney does not have an indoor waiting area for visitors. Instead they are forced to wait in the driveway along a busy street in an industrial area. GEO holds visitation times four days a week, and time slots are organized by the individual detainee’s assigned visitation hour. Visitors regularly arrive early, waiting in line for the chance to see their loved one and to reduce their risk of being turned away, which can happen when the facility determines that it has reached full capacity.
On any given visiting day as many as 300 people come to visit. Up to 100 visitors at a time are concentrated in and around an outdoor shed without protection from the elements or access to indoor bathrooms or diaper-changing stations. Disabled visitors do not have access to ADA-compliant wheelchair ramps, parking or seating areas, which violates state and federal laws. Children and the elderly, who are both at-risk in the extreme heat and cold, are forced to adapt to the weather or risk losing their place in line.
Visitors are also forced to park illegally along a four lane road heavily trafficked by trucks coming to and from the port. They are often actively blocked by County employees from parking in the under utilized visitors lot for the Essex County Correctional Facility which is located next door to Delaney Hall.
1 Maurizio Guerrero. “Prison Corporation Forces Visitors at Delaney Hall to Wait 7 Hours in Life-Threatening Heat.” Documented, Aug. 6, 2025,
2 Steve Janoski. “Sen. Andy Kim renews call to close Delaney Hall as advocates decry worsening conditions and lack of heated shelter for visitors.” The Jersey Vindicator, Dec. 17, 2025. https://jerseyvindicator.org/2025/12/17/sen-andy-kim-renews-call-to-close-delaney-hall-as-advocates-decr y-worsening-conditions-and-lack-of-heated-shelter-for-visitors/
The County’s move to provide some relief for visitors is a small first step toward addressing the humanitarian crisis created by GEO Group at Delaney Hall, where Jean Brutus Wilson died a month ago while in custody. It is the role of our government to protect the human rights, health and safety of all people within its jurisdiction. As a coalition of grassroots organizations in New Jersey, we care deeply about our neighbors. We expect the actions of the people we elect to represent us and to reflect that deep care and concern.
We maintain that Delaney Hall should be shut down. We also call on the County of Essex, all local and federally elected officials and all people in power and of good conscience to join us in calling for ICE to be defunded and abolished. Its mission is not about public safety. It never was.
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About Eyes on ICE- We are a grassroots coalition of individuals and organizations whose primary focus is providing community support for our neighbors who are experiencing the trauma of having a loved one kidnapped and held by ICE.
