detainees

Access-to-attorney issues at immigration detention facilities can include policies requiring lawyers to schedule visits days in advance, detainees being transferred after visits are scheduled, and administrative scheduling delays that prevent attorney meetings before legal deadlines.

U.S. federal courts can issue temporary orders requiring immigration detention facilities to provide detainees with basic necessities and humane conditions, including adequate bedding, sanitation, showers, three meals a day, bottled water upon request, menstrual products, and prescribed medications.

Judicial remedies in immigration detention cases can require facilities to provide detainees private, cost-free access to attorneys and to supply lists of pro bono attorneys in relevant languages, and can bar officials from misrepresenting documents presented to detainees.

A 2025 U.S. Senate investigation documented cases of medical neglect in federal immigration detention centers that included detainees being denied insulin or glucose monitoring, having asthma medications withheld, and experiencing delays of weeks to months in receiving prescriptions.

County sheriff's offices may be responsible for transporting detainees even when they do not operate the detention facility to which detainees are taken.

Detainees sometimes use hunger strikes and refusal of water as forms of protest to demand medical treatment or to protest detention conditions.

Rights groups, the United Nations, and detainees have reported routine abuse in Israeli detention facilities, including beatings and insufficient food.