The Appeal

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We are a worker-run newsroom reporting on the harms of the criminal legal system. You can support our work here: https://theappeal.org/donate/ Sign up for our newsletter: https://theappeal.org/newsletter-subscribe/

Private prison PACs donated approximately $675,000 to members of Congress, and private prison executives donated close to $380,000. Most of the approximately 60,000 people detained by ICE are locked up in for-profit immigration jails. People in these facilities, including children, have reported that they’re held in atrocious conditions. Of the 48 people who died in ICE custody between January 21, 2025, and April 1, 2026, about 62% were detained in for-profit lock-ups, according to data collected by lawyer and journalist Andrew Free.
Palantir executives donated more money to Democrats than Republicans. They donated a total of about $880,000 to 67 Democratic members of Congress and about $420,000 to 48 Republicans. The five executives at ICE contractors who donated the most amount of money to members of Congress were Palantir’s Alex Karp, Mehdi Alhassani, Shyam Sankar, and Akash Jain, as well as GEO Group CEO George Zoley.
How We Reported the Story Using Federal Election Commission records, we compiled information on every member of Congress who received campaign contributions from the top contractors for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) either through the company’s Political Action Committee (PAC) or executives. Our analysis only includes contributions made to committees directly controlled by the candidates for the 2022, 2024, and 2026 election cycles.
Is your congressmember taking money from ice contractors? The Appeal and In These Times have compiled information on every sitting member of Congress who has received donations from ICE’s top contractors and published the results of our investigation in a searchable database.
Read more at theappeal.org. https://theappeal.org/york-county-pennsylvania-restraint-chairs-everett-palmer/
We have stories of people who have defecated on themselves, thrown up on themselves, been denied access to toilets, food, water. Restraint chairs are sadistic. Tanisha Long, Abolitionist Law Center
Over the last ten years, at least two people died shortly after they were confined to restraint chairs in york county prison. On April 7, 2018, Everett Palmer, Jr. was picked up on an old DUI charge and booked into York County Prison. Over the next two days, Palmer’s mental health deteriorated. In response, guards tased him, placed a spit hood over his head, and strapped him into a restraint chair. He died shortly thereafter. The County settled with Palmer’s family for $1.5 million.
about 30% of jails did not use restraint chairs at all from 2018-2024, including the state’s largest jails Pennsylvania’s two most populous jails did not use restraint chairs at all from 2018 to 2024. The Delaware County jail, which had a monthly population of about 1,200, and Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, which had a monthly population of about 2,200, reported zero uses of the restraint chair.
A map showing restraint chair usage by county in Pennsylvania. York County is a deep shade of red, while most other counties are gray or light pink. The map is titled "Unrestrained: York County uses restraint chairs more than any other county in the state."
YORK COUNTY PRISON USED RESTRAINT CHAIRS 1,295 TIMES According to The Appeal's analysis, from 2018 through 2024, Pennsylvania's York County Prison used restraint chairs a total of 1,295 times—more than any other county in the state.