ICE Plans 1,400-Bed Detention Center at Shuttered Rivers Correctional in Hertford County, NC

Internal ICE documents obtained by the New York Times show the agency plans to reopen GEO Group’s shuttered Rivers Correctional Institution in Hertford County, NC by the end of 2026 — North Carolina’s first dedicated ICE detention facility and one of the largest planned on the East Coast, with a target capacity of approximately 1,400 beds. Rivers has a documented history of violence and sexual abuse — a 2016 federal report cited by the New York Times found high rates of sexual misconduct, violence, positive drug tests, and contraband discoveries (verify-rivers-correctional-hertford-abuse-history-contract-terms-findings); it closed in 2021 under the Biden administration’s move to end the federal government’s use of privately run prisons. Governor Josh Stein opposes the reopening, but the federal government does not require state consent to operate a detention facility on federal contract. Contract negotiations remain ongoing, with the facility targeted to open by the end of 2026.

Community mobilization against the reopening followed within days (2026-07-22–hertford-county-nc-rivers-correctional-geo-group-resistance), and the facility extends the same national pattern of reopening shuttered private prisons under ICE contract that the timeline has tracked at other GEO Group and CoreCivic sites through 2026’s record-pace detention expansion.

Corrected 2026-10-01: narrowed several claims to what the entry’s three cited sources (WUNC, WBTV, ACLU of North Carolina) actually state — none cites “DOJ OIG Report 16-06,” a “14-facility cohort,” or GEO’s FY2020 10-K for the closure date, so those specifics were cut (kept: a 2016 federal report cited by NYT found high rates of sexual misconduct, violence, drug tests, and contraband; closed “in 2021,” no exact date; contract award framed as “negotiations ongoing,” not “before September 2026”).