The reason that so many inmates from Pike County are being boarded in the Wayne County Correctional Facility since this summer is Pike County’s renegotiated federal contract to house almost three times as many Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at Pike’s facility.
Information supplied by Pike County Clerk Krista Gromalski on request showed that the new contract allows for 76% of the capacity at Pike County Correctional Facility to be reserved for ICE, up from 26.7%. The correctional facility in Blooming Grove Township has a capacity of 375. The ICE contract reserves room for 285 detainees, leaving 90 beds for county inmates. Previously, 100 beds were reserved for ICE.
The majority of inmates at Wayne County Correctional Facility are transferred from Pike. The Wayne County commissioners and their counterparts in Pike County approved the new intergovernmental agreement in July.
As of Aug. 20, Wayne County Clerk Andrew Seder reported that the inmate population in Wayne had more than doubled from a year previous. The inmate population that day was 153, up from 67 the year before.
Seder reported that as of Sept. 2, there were 98 inmates from Pike County, 54 from Wayne County, three from Berks County; two from Susquehanna County and one each from Huntingdon and Wyoming counties.
Gromalski said that Pike County had a previous agreement with Wayne County to board inmates, but it was used little, mainly when there was a conflict with other inmates or staff that was resolved by transferring the inmate to Wayne County.
ICE requested a renegotiated contract with Pike in 2025.
The Pike County Correctional Facility was opened in 1995, and the following year began boarding ICE detainees under the oversight of the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Philadelphia.
Gromalski said that negotiated terms of Pike’s federal contract have changed over the years. She said that this is “just a continuation of the relationship” with the federal government.
The revised ICE contract pays Pike County $178 a day per detainee, up from $120. Gromalski said that the cost incurred by the Pike County Sheriff’s Office to transport inmates to and from the correctional facility near Honesdale is figured into the ICE contract.
Minutes of the Pike County commissioners show that the intergovernmental agreement with Wayne County was approved 2-1 on July 15. (The Wayne County commissioners approved it the next day.) Following the recommendation of the Pike County Prison Board, the Commissioner Chairman Matthew Osterberg made the motion, seconded by Commissioner Ronald Schmalzle.
Commissioner Christa Caceres, who voted no, explained that she opposed sending their inmates outside the county out of concern for parents who would potentially be farther away from their children, and potential liability due to housing inmates elsewhere.
Caceres also explained her reasoning for supporting the renewal of the long-standing agreement with ICE.
She said the detainees are supervised by county correctional officers with no direct oversight by ICE personnel. ICE detainees housed in Pike have access to the same programs and services provided to county inmates. Caceres said this includes receiving tablets to communicate with family and friends along with almost 3,800 electronic programs available in over 100 languages.
She also noted that there have been no serious complaints by ICE detainees of mistreatment, which she credited to the leadership and oversight of Waren Craig Lowe and his staff. Caceres lauded the warden for offering an open door to anyone who would like to tour the facility.
Given the significant fiscal contribution to the county over these decades, Caceres said it would not be responsible as a county leader to end the agreement with ICE without another plan in place.
ICE inspection reports available at the ICE website reported that the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) conducted a compliance inspection at the Pike County Correctional Facility in February 2025.
“ODO interviewed 43 detainees, who each voluntarily agreed to participate,” the report states in part. “None of the detainees made allegations of discrimination, mistreatment or abuse. All 43 detainees reported satisfaction with facility services.”
Belle Hodges Smith has expressed concern at commissioners’ meetings about ICE and whether detainees are receiving due process.
“You don’t know that they’re there unconstitutionally. That’s your opinion, not our opinion,” Osterberg responded to Hodges Smith at the Aug. 19 meeting.
Osterberg said at the July 15 meeting that Pike County could not fulfill the federal contract without the agreement with Wayne County. He said that if they had terminated the ICE contract instead, Pike County taxpayers would face a five-mill increase. He said the ICE revenue generates $5 to $6 million for Pike County.
