Orange County Undersheriff Evelyn Mallard said Wednesday that the vast majority of individuals detained by ICE in Orange County Jail (OCJ) are charged with “severe crimes.”
“I will say 99%—every now and again there's somebody that's just immigration—but most of the people that come in are people that are also charged with a crime, and they're severe crimes. They're not someone that the Court said something about traffic infractions. That's not the case. They're penal law charges,” Mallard said about Orange County Jail’s ICE detainees.
Orange County Jail has had a contract to house Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees since 2008, she said.
She was delivering a report in response to a formal request by Orange County legislators to answer questions about the jail – specifically the way ICE detainees are treated.
That effort was led by Democrats Matt Fascaldi and Genesis Ramos, who said they’ve been receiving phone calls from constituents asking about conditions in OCJ.
Over half of ICE detainees held in New York jails in 2025 had no criminal charges or convictions, according to federal data, New York Focus reported.
The questions Fiscaldi and Ramos put forward related to a 2025 report from the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, that detailed systemic medical problems for ICE detainees inside the facility, including lack of care and medicine for people with chronic conditions.
Lawrence Catletti, a Corrections administrator in the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, said medical treatment is top-notch.
“It's the same, if not better, than getting an appointment in public… So they have immediate attention when they need it,” Catletti said in reponse to a question by Legislator Sparrow Tobin about treatment of people with chronic health issues.
Specific abuses in the report, which did not include patients’ full names, include someone who allegedly did not receive physical therapy for a progressive degenerative spinal condition, denial of medication for chronic back pain, and someone undergoing a tooth extraction without anesthesia.
Sophie Dalsimer, co-director of health justice at NYLPI and co-author of the report, told Documented in 2025, that they receive “some of the highest level of abuses and the highest number of referrals” from Orange County Jail.
Undersheriff Mallard questioned the veracity and origin of the allegations, saying “I'm going to say it's rumors, because I have not seen anything that is actually - they say it's documented but it appears to be coming from verbal allegations from one person to the next to the next. None of those people have come into the jail and reviewed our medical records. We haven't seen any of the people signing HIPAA releases to see the documentation, so I don't know where the allegations are coming from.”
Mallard said OCJ is one of the most audited jails in New York and is accredited by the American Correctional Association.
Catletti also mentioned there has recently been a higher rate of turnover in the jail, with ICE detainees staying for shorter periods of time.
The NYLPI’s report on medical abuse called out the former health care provider, Wellpath, which filed for bankruptcy in 2024 following thousands of lawsuits about its poor medical care.
Mallard said OCJ began contracting with YesCare to provide health care services since 2025.
Nevien Swailmyeen, the health justice advocacy manager at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, said it’s difficult for people in OCJ’s ICE unit to speak up because of fear of retaliation and punishment.
She said since YesCare took over health care in OCJ, her group is continuing to hear similar reports to those heard before 2025.
“I'm sorry to say that the same trends that you're seeing in the report are the same trends that we're still seeing today,” Swailmyeen told WAMC.
YesCare and Wellpath did not respond to immediate requests for comments.
During Wednesday’s meeting Mallard acknowledged people could potentially receive subpar medical treatment, if they are not letting the jail know about any medical conditions they have upon entering, like someone who has an opioid-use disorder but doesn’t admit it.
“If you don't tell me that coming in, I don't know to give it to you, because you're telling me, ‘No’. Some of this is going to be on the information that we receive. So, could somebody slip through the cracks that way? Certainly,” Mallard said.
Legislator Fascaldi, who called for the report, said he is concerned by what he described as a disconnect between the allegations of mistreatment in the jail and the sheriff’s office’s response. But, he said, some of those reports are years old, and he intends to keep pushing for more answers.
