ICE and CoreCivic held disabled detainee in unsanitary conditions at Stewart Detention Center, forcing him to crawl through mold and feces to shower

On March 5, 2026, Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) disclosed at a House Judiciary Committee hearing that Rodney Taylor, a 47-year-old double-amputee Gwinnett County barber held for more than a year at the CoreCivic-run Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, had been denied a shower stool for six days and then, once given one, was forced to remove his prosthetics and crawl across a bathroom floor covered in mold, feces, and bodily fluids to reach the shower. McBath told DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that Taylor "is at the mercy of other detainees just to get food, since he can't get himself to and from the cafeteria," and called his treatment "despicable" and "inhumane torture that no person should have to endure." Taylor's wife, Mildred Danis-Taylor, separately told Capital B News that her husband had lost significant weight and that his prosthetics were poorly fitted, causing new medical complications.

Taylor was born in Liberia with severe limb deformities and came to the U.S. on a medical visa at age 2; he became a double amputee after childhood surgeries. He worked as a barber under a valid work permit and had a pending green-card application when ICE arrested him in January 2025 over a burglary charge from his teenage years, for which Georgia had pardoned him in 2010. McBath told the committee that she and 19 other House Democrats had sent Noem a letter the previous month detailing Taylor's declining health and the shower-access denial; Noem responded that she was "unfamiliar" with Taylor's case and would look into it, saying Stewart was "held to the same standards as all of our federal detention standards, which are the highest in the nation." The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to Capital B News's requests for comment on the conditions described.

Taylor's mistreatment unfolded continuously over his detention rather than on a single day; this entry is dated to March 5, the hearing at which it became a matter of public and congressional record, because no earlier reporting independently established the same facts.

Updates

2026-04 — DHS told McBath Taylor's conditions met detention standards [5]

After McBath visited Taylor at Stewart in person, she said DHS had responded to the congressional letter "claiming that they're following all of the standards and the protocol that are issued in their codes that they're supposed to abide by." A DHS spokesperson told WABE that Taylor had refused offered medical treatment and that "ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens." McBath said what she heard directly from Taylor "definitely is not the case."

2026-05 — Taylor released from ICE custody after sustained advocacy [6, 7]

Taylor was released from Stewart Detention Center in early May 2026 following a yearlong public pressure campaign by his family, advocacy groups, and federal lawmakers. (Sources differ on the exact release day -- WTOC and Capital B News both describe a weekend release reported Monday, May 4, 2026, consistent with May 2; a direct interview with Taylor published by 285south.com states May 1. Left at month granularity pending a source that resolves the conflict.) At a subsequent press conference, Taylor said "Stewart Detention Center is not equipped to handle people with disabilities," describing black mold in the facility's drinking water and toilets and sinks that often did not work properly. His release is a non-abusive resolution to the conditions documented above and is noted here for the record, not as a new abuse.

2026-07 — Taylor's immigration case remained unresolved months after release [8]

An NPR/WABE report found Taylor's legal status was still unresolved as of July 2026; he had been released on conditional parole under ICE supervision, wore a monitor, and continued regular ICE check-ins as his deportation case proceeded. His attorney said ICE gave no reason for the release, and ICE did not respond to questions about it. DHS said in a statement that Taylor had been "consistently uncooperative with detention and medical staff regarding all accommodations," which Taylor and his attorney dispute.