The Shut Down Etowah campaign is made up of individuals and civil, immigrant, and human rights organizations based in Alabama and across the country that are committed to ending the human rights abuses at the Etowah County Detention Center. We believe Etowah is far too broken to be fixed—the only adequate solution is to close it.
The Etowah County Detention Center located in Gadsden, AL, currently houses approximately 300 male immigration detainees, pursuant to a contract between Etowah County and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold immigration detainees in the county jail. Organizations like Detention Watch Network and the Women’s Refugee Commission have exposed the abuses and rampant human rights violations that have occurred inside Etowah, labeling it “among the worst” immigration detention centers in the country. The detention center has repeatedly proven itself incapable of implementing necessary reforms to protect the basic personal safety of detainees in its care and comply with constitutional and internal ICE standards. Conditions were so bad that ICE chose to to stop using the facility in 2022 after a review to determine whether they are humane, meet applicable standards and are a responsible use of funding - coming to the conclusion that we reached many years ago. Now Etowah County is again partnering with ICE, and we have no reason to believe they've cleaned up their act in the last three year.
