ADELANTO, Calif. _ Alexander Burgos Mejia was in his bunk at the Adelanto Detention Facility on a Tuesday evening in July when he heard a guard scream.
Walking into a common room, Burgos Mejia saw a man hanging from the second floor with a bedsheet around his neck, he recalled in an interview. A guard was trying to lift the man, and Burgos Mejia ran to help her before other officials arrived and cut the man down, he said.
The July 11 incident was the fifth report of an attempted suicide at the immigration detention center since December, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department 911 call logs obtained by the Los Angeles Times through a public records request.
The incident unnerved Burgos Mejia, 28, who came to the U.S. earlier this year from Honduras, fleeing gangs and seeking asylum, and has been detained since.
"I think doing something like that is something that has crossed the mind of all of us who are locked up here," he said.
As soon as he arrived at Adelanto, Burgos Mejia said, he felt like he was treated like a criminal, not a refugee.
"It's the most horrible (feeling)" he said. "From the moment that they chain you up from your feet and hands."
Government officials say the Adelanto Detention Facility is subject to "rigorous operating requirements" and is tightly monitored to ensure those standards are met. When problems are identified, they are promptly addressed, officials say.
But complaints about the facility have grown particularly loud this year following the suicide attempts and three deaths since March, with multiple hunger strikes by detainees.
Located in the high desert 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, the Adelanto Detention Facility can house nearly 2,000 men and women. Officials say more than 73,000 detainees have passed through since it opened in 2011.
Among those held there are asylum seekers, people caught in immigration sweeps and those identified by authorities as potentially deportable after landing in jail. Some have lived in the U.S. for decades; others were sent to Adelanto soon after crossing the border.
The GEO Group, which operates dozens of private prisons and detention centers around the country, owns and operates the facility.
GEO Group receives a fee of up to about $112 per day per detainee from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with the city of Adelanto serving as a go-between.
Detainees and advocates have long complained of medical neglect, poor treatment by guards, lack of response to complaints and other problems. Government inspectors have also noted significant deficiencies at the facility _ often related to medical care.
The Times interviewed detainees and their lawyers and advocates, and examined local law enforcement reports, city records and federal reviews dating to 2011, when the facility opened.
In November 2011, an ICE contractor conducting an annual review faulted the facility because "medical officials were not conducting detainee health appraisals within 14 days of arrival, and registered nurses were performing health assessments" without proper training or certification.
Ten months later, a report by ICE's Office of Detention Oversight found that many requests for medical care were delayed and medical records were not promptly reviewed.
That report also said that the death of detainee Fernando Dominguez Valdivia in March 2012 followed "egregious errors" by medical staff and could have been prevented.
In 2014, another report by the Office of Detention Oversight found Adelanto deficient in 26 areas _ including 16 related to the facility's efforts to prevent and intervene in sexual abuse cases.
After the 2015 death of Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos, inspectors again found fault with Adelanto.
In the months before he died, Morales-Ramos submitted two complaints to Adelanto officials.
"To who receives this, I am letting you know that I am very sick and they don't want to care for me," he wrote in one. "The nurse only gave me ibuprofen and that only alleviates me for a few hours. Let me know if you can help me. I only need medical attention."
Morales-Ramos had been detained since his 2010 arrest on a warrant issued in El Salvador for conspiracy involving aggravated homicide.
His case persisted for years, and he was transferred to various detention centers until landing at Adelanto in May 2014. He complained throughout his detention of gastrointestinal and other problems and was given pain relievers and medicine for constipation and diarrhea.
Eventually, a doctor who examined him found an abdominal mass that was "the largest she has ever seen in her practice," according to the review conducted after his death. Based on its size, the tumor had likely been present for months.
The report on his death, prepared by the Office of Detention Oversight, said Adelanto failed to provide Morales-Ramos with timely and comprehensive medical care, among other lapses.
ICE officials declined an interview request.
In a written response to questions, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said detention centers have undergone reforms in recent years to ensure "that those in ICE custody receive timely access to medical services and treatment."
Those reforms include assigning medical coordinators to the agency's field offices who can closely monitor complex cases, Kice said. Immigration officials have also simplified the process for authorizing detainee healthcare from outside providers, she said.
Pablo Paez, a spokesman for GEO Group, also declined an interview request.
In a statement, he said "the Adelanto Detention Facility has a long-standing record providing high-quality, culturally responsive services, including comprehensive around the clock medical care, in a safe, secure, and humane environment that meets the non-penal, non-punitive needs" of immigration detainees.
"We take all reviews and audits with the utmost seriousness and when necessary implement prompt corrective actions," Paez said.
He said that during its most recent annual audit the facility was found to be "in compliance with 100 percent of the mandated ICE standards." He did not provide a copy of that report.
The Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request for copies of all recent inspections of the Adelanto facility in early June, but they have not yet been provided.
