Jeff Crawford said he recognizes local residents were concerned about some of the decisions made during the Sunday, March 2 Farmville ICA detainee escape. As such, he came before Prince Edward supervisors on Tuesday, March 11, providing information and answering questions. 

“First and foremost, I’d like to sincerely apologize for that incident,” Crawford said. “We fully understand the seriousness of it and are committed to preventing incidents like that from occurring.”  

Ultimately, he added, the escape was the result of two key factors. The first was “a staff member who failed to perform their duties the way that we expect, and in accordance with our training.” The second factor involved “vulnerabilities within our physical security measures. Together, those two things created an opportunity for these individuals that should otherwise not have existed.” 

He’s talking about the four men who escaped from the Farmville ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention center, which is managed by Immigration Centers of America (ICA). On Sunday, March 2, sometime between 2:15 p.m. and 2:45 p.m., four men escaped from custody. 

Eventually over the next 36 hours, 27-year-old Jose Lovo-Bautista, 22-year-old Byron Toledo-Henriquez and 25-year-old Jose Rodriguez-Rosales were all captured. They’ve been turned over to the U.S. Marshals service and now face federal charges for the escape attempt. As of March 13, that leaves 22-year-old Wilmer Isaola-Medina still on the run. But why did it take nearly 6 hours for ICA Farmville to notify police about the escape? And why wouldn’t they share photos of the men, to aid in the search? Crawford said he knew people have questions about the whole thing. 

Farmville ICA goes through a review 

While the escape happened just after 2 p.m., Farmville Police weren’t notified until 8:35 p.m. that same night. Crawford said that’s because he and his staff had reached out to their federal partners first, after taking time to confirm an escape had taken place. The reason, he pointed out, is since this was a federal crime, local and state law enforcement are somewhat limited in what they can do. 

“Because we’re an immigration facility for the federal government, on the state level, there’s no corresponding state statute violated when people escape, it’s a federal offense,” Crawford said.  “So even local law enforcement is somewhat restricted in the assistance they can give us, because there’s no corresponding state crime for which they can take action. If the offenders commit a crime in the process of escaping, then that gives the state and local law enforcement agency some authority under the law to take action.” 

Instead, Crawford said, the U.S. Marshals service and ICE take the lead in a case like this. 

He acknowledged that nobody on the local side was informed before 8 p.m., not police and not the county administrator. Supervisors also asked why there were no photos shared of the men who were on the run. Crawford said that was an ICE decision. 

“In situations like this, we ultimately contract with immigration and customs enforcement, they are in the driver’s seat,” Crawford said. 

In fact, he added, it was several hours after that 2:15 p.m. escape when ICA Farmville staff confirmed an escape had taken place. 

And what happened to that employee who failed to perform his duties, Supervisor Odessa Pride asked. 

“That person is no longer in our employ,” Crawford said. 

Company makes some changes 

Overall, Crawford said his operation will be making some changes to prevent another escape attempt from happening. 

“We conducted a full internal review to assess exactly what transpired,” Crawford said. “As a result, we’ve implemented some comprehensive retraining for 100% of the facility personnel. The training is going to focus on our existing policies and procedures and the critical consequences of lapses in being vigilant and allowing ourselves to be complacent.”

They also plan to look at and address the physical security vulnerabilities, he added. 

Crawford said he also recognized the need for some external perspective on how things operate. 

“I plan to bring in some external consultants that will assess the facility,” he added. “We obviously believed our physical barrier was adequate and this incident exposed some weaknesses in that. So it’s imperative that we identify any other potential areas where that could be a factor.”  

The Prince Edward contract 

In early 2024, the Town of Farmville stepped away from their contract with the detention facility. Prince Edward jumped in to take its place. 

The facility operating charge, that is basically what the company tells Homeland Security is the cost of operating, comes to $2.65 million monthly. ICA Farmville charges $14.69 per bed per day, as long as the number of detainees stays at 459 or below. If it climbs from 560 to the maximum of 736, then the Department of Homeland Security gets charged $32.06 per detainee. But DHS doesn’t pay ICA Farmville. Homeland Security pays Prince Edward County, which takes out the county’s own agreed upon fee and gives the rest to the company. 

So each day, detainees are counted, the number is reported and Homeland Security each month gives Prince Edward the money, based on what ICA Farmville charges. The county also gets paid in this deal. As part of the subcontract with ICA Farmville, Prince Edward takes a daily payment per detainee out of what they get from Homeland Security. The subcontract anticipates a minimum of 264 detainees per day, again a bump from what has been allowed. If the facility houses up to 459 detainees on a given day, Prince Edward gets paid $2.50 for each. If the number is above 459, the county gets paid $4 per detainee. 

Crawford told the board Tuesday night that in 2024, the company invested about $14.7 million into the local economy. About $13.2 million of that comes through salaries for the employees. They averaged 222 employees last year. It’s closer to 249 so far this year with current hiring plans. Full staff would be at 298.