Orange County sheriff denies medical neglect claims at county jail

Orange County Sheriff’s Office has dismissed allegations of medical neglect inside the county jail as unfounded rumors, even as the Goshen facility remains under scrutiny for how it treats ICE detainees and handles health care.

The Orange County Jail, also known as the Orange County Correctional Facility, has housed federal immigration detainees since 2008. In April 2026, county officials told legislators on the County Legislature’s Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee that onsite audits of the ICE detainee units found no issues, and that the jail is audited three to four times a year. Sheriff’s office Chief Meredith McGovern said detainees are transferred to another facility when they leave the jail, not released from custody there.

Those assurances have not quieted the criticism. New York Lawyers for the Public Interest released a report on October 9, 2025, titled Denied Care, Denied Dignity: Systemic Medical Failures in Immigration Detention at Orange County Jail. The group said it reviewed medical data from 19 detainees between January 2022 and May 2024 and found repeated problems in four areas: follow-up care after illness or injury, treatment for chronic conditions, access to medication, and nutrition and language access.

The complaints extend back years. On April 20, 2022, six immigrant-rights organizations supplemented a civil-rights complaint to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, saying detainees reported retaliation, medical neglect, racist abuse and deplorable conditions at the Goshen jail. In 2023, ICE detainees held a hunger strike over poor conditions and mistreatment at the facility, underscoring how persistent the grievances have been among people held there.

County Legislator Genesis Ramos said the central issue is not simply the building’s physical condition, but how detainees are treated and what is said to them inside the ICE unit. Advocates continue to press Orange County to end its ICE contract, arguing that the jail’s repeated denials do not erase the pattern of complaints that has followed the facility for years.