Mukta Joshi, an investigative reporter for Mississippi Today, is seeking tips about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions at the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez as she begins a yearlong fellowship at The New York Times, Joshi said.
Joshi said the Adams County facility houses more than 2,000 ICE detainees and that the federal government limits access to ICE detention centers. She said they are not inspected as often as state prisons and that only immediate family members and lawyers may visit detainees. Joshi also noted the jail is owned and operated by CoreCivic, a private company, and said it is not subject to public records laws.
Over the coming months, Joshi said she will publish reporting on the facility each Friday morning on the Mississippi Today website, on social media and in the outlet’s Friday newsletter. She said her first dispatch will publish March 27.
Joshi asked anyone with information about the detention center, its staff or people held there to contact her. She said she will not use a source’s name or parts of their message without first contacting them. She provided a Signal handle, @mmj.2178; an X account, @mukta_jo; an email, mukta.joshi@nytimes.com; and a mailing address: P.O. Box 12267, Jackson, MS 39236.
Joshi said she has spent nearly two years reporting on police misconduct and the power of sheriffs in Mississippi and will focus her fellowship reporting on ICE detentions, a topic she said has drawn national attention though has received less local coverage.
