REPORTER:
00:02:01
Right. And you also found that nearly what-- 90% of inspections since 2019 identified at least one deficiency? So what types of problems are showing up, and what's showing up most often? Yeah, so when they identify an area where those facilities are not up to standards, they call those deficiencies. And most often, those deficiencies were in areas for the standards for environmental health and safety or medical care. And there's a wide range of these deficiencies, and they vary in terms of severity. So some of them were about not performing health screenings or mental health evaluations within the required time after a detainee enters detention or receives a referral. Some of them were about skipping required staff trainings, not performing fire drills. And experts said these inspections were already imperfect. They sometimes missed things, and they weren't enforcing financial penalties or significant repercussions for deficiencies. And they said that conducting these inspections less often could allow conditions to worsen. A former DHS official told us that when facilities' known inspection is coming, they sometimes self-review and correct some of their problems. And the DHS spokesperson said that the field office director will work with the facilities to correct deficiencies when inspections identify them. But with fewer inspections, they're going to be identifying these deficiencies less often.
REPORTER:
00:03:22
All right, Julie Ingram, thank you so much for your findings.
