Inside section L300 of the California City Detention Facility, a man lay on the concrete floor of its “day room,” blood gushing from his ears and mouth, according to a detainee who wishes to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation.
This detainee told L.A. TACO that the man had jumped headfirst from the second floor, falling about 15 feet at around 10 a.m. on August 22. The anonymous source did not see the man jump but witnessed the aftermath and spoke with other detainees who had. The detainees who saw the incident did not want to speak with the media directly for fear of retaliation.
According to our source, a guard screamed “code one, medical emergency” into his walkie-talkie, as detainees surrounded the man, trying to render him aid. The guard was new and appeared not to know what to do, the source told L.A. TACO.
“ I call this place the land of the living dead,” the anonymous detainee tells L.A. TACO. “You know, hell on Earth.”
He remembers someone turning the man on his side—the man gasping for air, his eyes opening and closing. Medical staff arrived after 15 minutes. The source did not see a neck brace placed on the man before he was moved to a gurney, where he continued to bleed.
The anonymous source recalls overhearing a staff member mention that 911 would be called over a walkie-talkie. The injured man disappeared from the dormitory with medical staff, and a guard later told the source that the man had been taken off-site for treatment.
“ I call this place the land of the living dead,” the anonymous detainee tells L.A. TACO. “You know, hell on Earth.”
L.A. TACO reached out to the Kern County Fire Department, which confirmed an incident had occurred at 9:21 a.m. on August 22, 2026, at the address of the California City Detention Center.
When pressed for more details, the public information officer for the Kern County Fire Department declined to confirm whether the incident was indeed regarding a man who had jumped inside the facility and refused to provide any further details regarding the incident, citing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) concerns.
The source says that staff inside the facility are often pushed to their limits, working 16 to 18 hour days.
“It's like everybody's on their breaking limit here at CoreCivic,” he says.
The man who jumped kept to himself often, and other detainees were worried about his mental health. The source says detainees raised concerns about the man with detention facility staff but never saw any changes.
Detainees requested a medical evaluation be conducted on the man to assess if there was a risk of him hurting himself or others.
The detainee who allegedly jumped is a Haitian man in his mid-20s, who is said to have fled his home country after multiple family members were killed by gangs, the source says. He came to the U.S. through the Temporary Protected Status program, which the Trump administration recently terminated.
The detainee who allegedly jumped is a Haitian man in his mid-20s, who is said to have fled his home country after multiple family members were killed by gangs,
the source says.
The man was living in Miami, Florida, when he was detained and transferred to California City Detention Center, where he had been for a couple of months. In the last conversation the anonymous source had with the man, he recalled him being stressed out, begging for help, and saying that he was scared to go back to Haiti. The source says the man was on a phone call with his family when he walked out of his room and jumped.
A guard told the source this week that the man had survived.
“Fifteen feet would not necessarily kill someone if [they] landed on their feet,” Dr. Joseph Nwadiuko, a physician and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who has researched immigration detention for the past seven years, tells L.A. TACO. “But if it were a head injury (which the head bleeding would indicate), then his risk is much higher.”
The man's whereabouts and condition are unknown. L.A. TACO searched the ICE detainee locator system, which yielded no results for the name provided.
Dr. Nwadiuko says if the individual survived the fall, significant injury could have occurred, including neurologic injury. He says it's likely there would be a significant amount of long-term damage that the patient would have to deal with.
Our source also says that, around seven months ago in the same dorm, he witnessed another man jump from the second floor of the facility. He watched the man pace before he climbed over the bar. The man jumped.
Our source also says that, around seven months ago in the same dorm, he witnessed another man jump from the second floor of the facility.
The source says the guard who was in the dormitory at that time wasn’t aware of the man climbing over the rail. He says the guard only became aware when the man landed and broke his feet. The man is said to have survived and was deported about a month ago.
In September of last year, he also recalls seeing a man hang himself. During lunchtime, a person allegedly locked themselves in a room and covered the windows. The man's “bunkie" called one of the facility officers so they could open the door, since he was locked out. The source says he heard the man walk into his dormitory and scream.
That’s when the anonymous detainee says he stood up and saw a man hanging with a string from the piece of metal where detainees often hang their clothes. The detainees alerted the officer, who had initially not looked into the dorm. He says the officer did not have anything on him to cut the man loose, as he struggled to hold the man's body weight.
Within a couple of seconds, he says another officer came in to help, and they were able to get him down. The source says he doesn't recall seeing the man make any movement, or even that he was breathing. He didn’t know the man's name, only that he was in his thirties and from China.
In September of last year, he also recalls seeing a man hang himself . . . The source says he heard the man walk into his dormitory and scream.
California City Detention Center was previously leased as a state prison before it was closed in 2024 as part of the state's efforts to end private prisons. It began operating as an immigration detention center in August of 2025. Since its reopening, allegations of inhumane conditions have plagued the facility, and a lawsuit was filed by several detainees over the conditions inside.
A report by a state disability rights group and findings by an external monitor appointed by a federal judge found the facility had failed to provide adequate healthcare. The external monitor report also found the facility was non-compliant in providing timely and responsive emergency services. The monitor flagged the facility’s distance from the nearest hospital as a factor that heightens the risk.
“A long transport time means a patient sent in non-clinical transport may deteriorate en route without medical monitoring, equipment, or the ability to intervene,” says the report.
Erika Arhuiz Vega was detained at California Detention Center and was allegedly denied dialysis and deported in declining health—she passed away shortly after arriving in Peru. In an earlier statement to L.A. TACO, CoreCivic said that she passed away after leaving their facility and denied any claims about her being denied medical care.
Public outrage and pushback have been consistent against the Mojave Desert facility and against California City officials' approval of business license and site plan review applications for CoreCivic, which operated the facility at the time.
CoreCivic sold the facility to the federal government for $732.6 million last July. A second appeal hearing was held by California City officials on August 25, just days after the incident occurred, when community members and people impacted by the detention center spoke out against the detention center. Bertie Hernandez, the deportation defense senior manager of California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, tells L.A. TACO.
“The legal team from California City did not disclose this information, which is very important information to disclose when making such an impactful decision that will affect the rest of the community,” Hernandez says.
“. . . we have been telling the city, the city planners . . . the planning commission . . . the city council, right, for more than a year that it was only a matter of time before a death or an attempted suicide were to happen, and now we're here. And so what is gonna be the response?” says Hernandez.
" . . . it was only a matter of time before a death or an attempted suicide were to happen, and now we're here. And so what is gonna be the response?” says Hernandez.
The California City Council denied the two appeals challenging the approval of CoreCivic’s business license and site plan review on August 25.
Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, there have been at least 10 deaths in detention that have been ruled as suicide or are presumed to be suicides, according to L.A. TACO’s immigration enforcement-related fatality tracker.
An Associated Press investigation revealed seven deaths attributed to suicide in ICE detention, the most in any fiscal year. ICE inspection reports reviewed by The New York Times revealed over 150 lapses from 2020 through 2025 in facility protocols that would have prevented or allowed for intervention in situations of self-harm and suicide. Their report found that some facilities failed to adequately monitor detainees who were on suicide watch.
“The alarming mental health concerns inside California City are unfortunately emblematic of the type of neglect found across the detention system nationwide,” says Karen G. Hernández, the Southern California detention organizer for Freedom for Immigrants.
Freedom for Immigrants manages The National Immigration Detention Hotline, which is available inside every ICE detention facility. The organization's volunteers assist detainees in immigration detention.
“People in ICE custody routinely report to our hotline how they are deprived of critical mental health support and even their most basic medical needs. This neglect compounds the already abusive and deliberately isolating conditions, leading many to describe detention as psychological torture,” Hernandez says.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 2025 Detention Standard, detainees undergo a suicide risk evaluation upon entering detention facilities. The standards require facilities to have appropriate staffing levels and video monitoring to prevent self-harm and suicide.
There have been at least 52 deaths in ICE custody and seven following release from ICE Custody. In June, the Department of Homeland Security released a memo that said the agency would no longer be reporting deaths that occurred after detainees were released from ICE Custody.
“We can confirm that none of the incidents referenced in your inquiry resulted in a death. Federal privacy law prevents us from discussing any individual's medical condition, treatment, or mental health status,” said Steven Owen, Vice President of Communications at CoreCivic, in a statement to L.A. TACO.
Owen said mental health evaluation can be requested by detainees at any time, and staff and other detainees can refer someone for an evaluation. He said CoreCivic has comprehensive suicide prevention and intervention practices that meet the ICE National Detention Standards 2025. Staff receive suicide prevention training during orientation and at least annually thereafter.
“When suicidal ideation, threats, gestures or other indicators of self-harm are identified, staff are expected to act promptly to protect the individual's safety and ensure appropriate clinical evaluation, supervision and care,” said Owen.
He referred our questions regarding a specific detainee to ICE for further comment.
The Kern County Sheriff's Coroner’s Department told L.A. TACO that there was no individual reported dead that matched the name L.A. TACO provided in Kern County.
L.A. TACO searched the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's case search, which yielded no results for the individual.
Dr. Nwadiuko says that there is significant concern about the staffing capabilities within the California City Detention Center, specifically in regard to providing mental health care, according to a report released on the facility that he reviewed.
“Even just one suicide attempt should worry individuals. The fact that you're having multiple suicide attempts . . . it leaves you speechless,” says Dr. Nwadiuko.
L.A. TACO received the following statement from DHS after publication:
“There was no suicide or death at the California City Detention Center on August 22, 2026,” said a DHS spokesperson in a statement to L.A. TACO.
The spokesperson said it is ICE Policy to notify parties and report deaths of detainees in a timely way.
L.A. TACO also reached out to DHS and the California City Council for comment on this story. We will update this story if we hear back.
