ICE, Campbell County jail denied insulin to diabetic detainees, put miscarriage victim in solitary confinement

On July 27, 2026, U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore (D-WI), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), and Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) conducted a congressional oversight visit to the Campbell County Detention Center in Newport, Kentucky, a county jail that holds ICE detainees under a federal detention contract. The representatives went to check on three constituents held there — Ricardo, Octavio, and Anabell — and reported finding diabetic detainees denied access to insulin and given pre-diabetic medication instead, with detainees describing having to buy their own food and medication from the jail commissary. Ramirez said detainees told her they were relying on canned beans for protein because the jail would not provide diabetic-appropriate meals.

The representatives said Anabell, a Wisconsin constituent, had miscarried while in ICE custody at the facility, was denied access to her own medical records, and was placed in solitary confinement after returning from a three-day hospital stay. Campbell County Jailer James Daley denied broad knowledge of the case but confirmed a detainee matching that description had been placed in an isolated single cell in the jail's medical wing, which he described as necessary for her care rather than punitive. Daley separately said the jail does provide a diabetic diet option and disputed that detainees lack access to medical care, while declining to discuss individual detainees, citing federal privacy restrictions.

The visit came amid record ICE detention levels — more than 65,000 people nationwide as of the visit — and a sharp reduction in ICE's medical-claims spending after the Department of Veterans Affairs terminated its agreement to process ICE detainee medical claims in October 2025, leaving the agency without its prior mechanism to pay for off-site care including prescription medication. Ramirez said she had opened a congressional inquiry into that lapse and would push for an in-house psychologist and expanded insulin access at the Campbell County facility. Campbell County participates in ICE's 287(g) program, under which local jails are paid to hold immigration detainees, including people transferred from other states.