ICE's own fiscal-year average, not a bed count and not a point-in-time headcount.
Average of that population convicted or with pending charges
335.1
ICE's classification, reproduced as published. This is an ICE administrative classification. Pending charges are not convictions, and this field is not population-level crime-rate evidence.
Average length of stay
57.5 days
Guaranteed minimum
1,653
A population level a contract treats as guaranteed. The workbook prints the number, not the price.
70CDCR26FR0000055 · Recorded as of August 20, 2026
02b
Contract floor, population and ownership
A difference between a printed contract floor and a reported population is a difference in beds. It becomes money only where an auditor published a figure.
Contract floor and populationICE workbook data pull, 2026-07-20
More than 10% below the printed floor. A printed guaranteed minimum is a contract floor recorded in ICE's workbook. It is not the facility's physical or licensed capacity, and on its own it establishes no payment.
Three federal oversight bodies have inspected this Tacoma facility since 2023, and Washington State has litigated against its operator twice: once over the dollar-a-day work programme, once over access for state inspectors. ICE disclosed one death here in October 2024. No award in this dataset names the facility: ICE's Tacoma detention order records a city and an area of responsibility instead.
Complete dossier · Last reviewed August 20, 2026
Complete: federal inspection, state oversight, litigation and death records are indexed with primary sources. The money lane is empty by design, because no award record in this dataset names this facility.
Evidence chain · every edge labelled by what the record establishes
01
Public money
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — appropriated detention funding
GEO's own facility page states it provides services at this centre, and the company is the named defendant, as the operating company, in Washington's minimum-wage and inspection-access suits over this facility.
What this does not establish
These records establish the company as the operator in the periods they cover. They do not establish the current contract terms, the staffing arrangement, or which corporate entity employed any individual worker.
Money, population, inspections, litigation and harm on one calendar
The facility record beside the money record
Lanes are shown side by side because they share a facility and a calendar, not a cause. Chronological proximity does not establish causation.
Only dated events are plotted. Records carrying an as-of or dataset-cutoff date, such as ICE’s fiscal-year population aggregates, are listed in the table instead, because a data-pull date is not the date something happened.
2021202220232024202520262027
Money and award actions
Population and capacity
No record indexed in this lane
Inspections and oversight
Litigation and corrective action
Observed and attributed harm
Select or focus a marker to read the underlying record. Every marker below is also listed in the table.
Facility evidence records by date, lane, evidence status and source.
Date
Lane
Record
Status
Nov 02, 2021
Litigation and corrective action
Judgment against the operator over the dollar-a-day work programmeWashington's attorney general announced that a federal judge ordered GEO to pay $5.9 million in unjust enrichment on top of a $17.3 million jury award of back pay to people detained here who worked for one dollar a day.Washington State Office of the Attorney General
Attributed finding
May 22, 2023
Inspections and oversight
Inspector general unannounced inspectionThe DHS Office of Inspector General published the results of an unannounced inspection of this facility, measured against ICE's own detention standards.DHS Office of Inspector General
Observed / verified
Oct 27, 2024
Observed and attributed harm
ICE discloses a death in custody at this facilityICE announced that Jose Manuel Sanchez-Castro, 36, a Mexican national, died at this facility on October 27, 2024. ICE's notice recorded the autopsy as pending.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Observed / verified
Nov 20, 2024
Inspections and oversight
Detention Ombudsman inspection report to ICEThe DHS Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman sent ICE's deputy director a final inspection report on this facility.DHS Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman
ICE compliance inspection, January 28-30, 2025ICE's Office of Detention Oversight inspected this facility over three days against the 2011 detention standards as revised in 2016.ICE Office of Detention Oversight
Observed / verified
Aug 19, 2025
Litigation and corrective action
Appellate ruling in the operator's challenge to state inspection lawThe Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in GEO's suit against Washington's governor and attorney general over the state law authorising health inspections of private detention facilities, as applied to this facility.U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Fiscal 2026 average daily populationICE reports this facility's average daily population for fiscal 2026 in its detention-management workbook. It is a fiscal-year average, not a bed count and not a headcount on any given day.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Observed / verified
As of Jul 20, 2026
Population and capacity
Fiscal 2026 average length of stayICE reports the average number of days people spent in custody at this facility in fiscal 2026.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Observed / verified
As of Jul 20, 2026
Population and capacity
Contracted guaranteed minimumICE's workbook prints a guaranteed minimum population level for this facility. The workbook prints the number; it does not print the price attached to it.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Observed / verified
As of Mar 31, 2026
Litigation and corrective action
State health department logs more than 3,500 complaintsWashington's Department of Health, which holds inspection authority over private detention facilities under state law, records receiving more than 3,500 complaints concerning this facility as of March 2026.Washington State Department of Health
Observed / verified
D
Inspections, findings and litigation
An ICE compliance rating records the agency's own determination against its detention standards on the inspection dates. It does not establish that no harm or deficiency occurred.
As of March 31, 2026 · Litigation and corrective actionObserved / verified
State health department logs more than 3,500 complaints
Washington's Department of Health, which holds inspection authority over private detention facilities under state law, records receiving more than 3,500 complaints concerning this facility as of March 2026.
Locator
Washington DOH publication 300-069
Amount as printed
$3,500.00 · complaints received, reported as more than
Procedural status
Complaints logged; no published disposition indexed here
Linked to this facility by
The state publication is specific to this facility.
What this does not establish
A complaint count is a count of complaints received. It establishes no finding, no substantiation and no adjudication, and the same person may file more than once.
November 2, 2021 · Litigation and corrective actionAttributed finding
Judgment against the operator over the dollar-a-day work programme
Washington's attorney general announced that a federal judge ordered GEO to pay $5.9 million in unjust enrichment on top of a $17.3 million jury award of back pay to people detained here who worked for one dollar a day.
Locator
W.D. Wash. Nos. 3:17-cv-05806, 3:17-cv-05769
Procedural status
Judgment entered November 2021
Linked to this facility by
The litigation concerns the work programme at this facility and names it in the case caption and the state's announcement.
What this does not establish
The figures are the plaintiff state's own account of the judgment. The underlying judgment document is not indexed here, and the case concerns wage law, not conditions of confinement.
May 22, 2023 · Inspections and oversightObserved / verified
Inspector general unannounced inspection
The DHS Office of Inspector General published the results of an unannounced inspection of this facility, measured against ICE's own detention standards.
Locator
OIG-23-26
Linked to this facility by
The report names this facility in its title.
What this does not establish
An inspection report records what inspectors found on the days they were present. It does not establish conditions before or after, and it is not an adjudication of any legal claim.
January 16, 2025 · Litigation and corrective actionObserved / verified
Ninth Circuit affirms the wage judgment
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the verdict and judgment holding that the detainee work programme at this facility violated Washington's minimum wage law. Rehearing en banc was declined in August 2025.
Locator
Ninth Circuit Nos. 21-36024, 21-36025
Procedural status
Affirmed January 16, 2025; rehearing en banc declined August 19, 2025
Linked to this facility by
The appeal arises from the work programme at this facility.
What this does not establish
A minimum-wage holding establishes a labour-law violation. It establishes nothing about medical care, safety or treatment at the facility.
January 28, 2025 · Inspections and oversightObserved / verified
ICE compliance inspection, January 28-30, 2025
ICE's Office of Detention Oversight inspected this facility over three days against the 2011 detention standards as revised in 2016.
Locator
ODO compliance inspection, January 28-30, 2025
Linked to this facility by
The inspection report names this facility and its Tacoma address.
What this does not establish
This project has indexed the inspection and its dates. The deficiency counts inside the report are not restated here, so no claim is made about what the inspection found.
August 19, 2025 · Litigation and corrective actionObserved / verified
Appellate ruling in the operator's challenge to state inspection law
The Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in GEO's suit against Washington's governor and attorney general over the state law authorising health inspections of private detention facilities, as applied to this facility.
Locator
Ninth Circuit No. 24-2815
Procedural status
Opinion filed August 19, 2025
Linked to this facility by
The case concerns state inspection authority over this facility.
What this does not establish
This project has indexed the opinion's existence, court, date and docket number. The disposition and its consequences for inspections are not summarised here.
October 27, 2024 · Observed and attributed harmObserved / verified
ICE discloses a death in custody at this facility
ICE announced that Jose Manuel Sanchez-Castro, 36, a Mexican national, died at this facility on October 27, 2024. ICE's notice recorded the autopsy as pending.
Locator
ICE detainee death notification, October 29, 2024
Linked to this facility by
ICE's own notice names this facility as the place of death and the agency as the custodian.
What this does not establish
The notice establishes identity, date, custody and place. It does not establish a cause of death, and nothing in this dossier attributes the death to the facility, its operator, any contract, or any care decision.
DHS's inspector general inspected this facility unannounced and published the results in May 2023.
The DHS Detention Ombudsman reported inspection findings to ICE in November 2024, and ICE's own oversight office inspected the facility over three days in January 2025.
A federal jury and judge held the operator liable under Washington's minimum wage law for the dollar-a-day work programme here, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed in January 2025.
Washington's health department records more than 3,500 complaints about this facility as of March 2026.
ICE disclosed one death in custody at this facility, on October 27, 2024.
What this does not establish
That any contract action in this dataset paid for operations at this facility. ICE's Tacoma detention order names a city and an area of responsibility, not this facility.
A cause for the October 2024 death, or any link between that death and the operator, the contract or the conditions recorded elsewhere in this dossier.
What the 2023, 2024 and 2025 inspections concluded. Their existence and dates are indexed; their findings are not restated here.
That the complaint volume logged by the state reflects substantiated conditions.
Reviewed name matches
Northwest Detention Center — ICE's own Office of Detention Oversight titles its January 2025 inspection report for the Tacoma facility with both names, at the same Tacoma, Washington location the ICE workbook records.
G
Open research questions
These are the gaps the reviewed record set names. A question listed here is unanswered, not answered in the facility's favour, and this list does not claim to cover everything unknown about the facility.
No civil rights memorandum found in the published DHS collection
Searched — nothing released
On the search date, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published collection contained no investigation or recommendation memorandum naming this facility. This is a search result, not an event, so it is not plotted on the timeline and not counted as legal evidence. Locator: CRCL recommendation and investigation memoranda collection.
Collection searched · August 20, 2026 · not an event date
What this does not establish
Absence from the published collection does not establish that no complaint was filed, investigated, or substantiated. CRCL does not publish every memorandum.
No Government Accountability Office report naming this facility was found
Searched — nothing released
The GAO reports this project has indexed on immigration detention are agency-wide. On the search date none was found that examines this facility specifically. Locator: GAO immigration detention reporting indexed by this project.
Collection searched · August 20, 2026 · not an event date
What this does not establish
Absence of a facility-specific GAO report does not establish that GAO found nothing or that it looked.
These are company-wide records. They are not allocated to this facility and do not establish that political activity caused any award or facility decision.