Watchdog says ICE staff used chokehold, stabbed detainee at Louisiana center
A DHS watchdog said Winn staff used a chokehold and stabbed a detainee with a pen, deepening scrutiny of Louisiana’s immigration jails.
A Department of Homeland Security watchdog said staff at Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, used a prohibited chokehold to gain control of one detainee and stabbed another in the hand with a pen when an officer could not close a housing-unit door.
The findings came in an unannounced inspection issued June 2 by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, which said its detention reviews are meant to assess conditions affecting detainee life, health, safety and well-being. At Winn, the report added to a record of repeat federal scrutiny at a facility that has already faced years of complaints and corrective action.
ICE posted an inspection document for Winn covering January 13-15, 2026, and earlier oversight had also been recorded at the same facility in 2023. A separate 2025 PREA audit found Winn met 35 standards, had no standards exceeding requirements, one non-applicable standard and five non-compliant standards. The corrective-action period for that audit ran from May 12, 2025, through November 8, 2025.
The latest findings landed against the backdrop of broader criticism of Louisiana’s immigration detention network. On August 26, 2024, a coalition led by immigrant-rights groups including the ACLU and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights said nine Louisiana ICE detention facilities routinely failed to comply with minimum standards of care. The coalition described restrictive five-point shackles, prolonged solitary confinement, cockroach-infested food and lack of access to feminine hygiene products.
Federal oversight has continued to intensify. On October 30, 2024, DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties opened a new investigation into Winn Correctional Center after years of advocacy and complaints about abusive conditions. In May 2025, Rep. Ritchie Torres, Rep. Adriano Espaillat and 37 House Democrats asked DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to investigate conditions in Louisiana ICE facilities.
The scrutiny reflects the size of Louisiana’s role in the immigration detention system, where many people are held in private facilities far from their legal and family support networks. With Winn now flagged for prohibited force and an alleged stabbing, the central question is no longer just what happened inside one housing unit, but what consequences follow when federal inspectors document abuse in a state that has become one of the nation’s largest detention hubs.
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