DLR Group faces backlash over work on ICE detention centre

American architecture studio DLR Group has been linked to the conversion of an Oklahoma prison into an ICE detention denter, leading to employee backlash and a commitment to stop work on ICE-associated facilities.

According to reporting in the American magazine Mother Jones, in February 2026, DLR Group employees discovered the studio had worked as a subcontractor for the Tennessee company CoreCivic to convert the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Oklahoma, into a detention centre for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Former DLR Group communications employee Andrew Osborne, who has now left the studio, learned of the DLR Group's involvement with the facility's design, despite internal messaging to the contrary.

"Enough of a connection"

"I learned through publicly verifiable sources that DLR Group, despite telling me that they haven't, had continued to work with CoreCivic, and that CoreCivic has continued to lease their facilities to ICE," Osborne told Dezeen.

"While it's an indirect connection, it was enough of a connection for me to be very upset about it."

A spokesperson for DLR Group, which has an established arm for criminal justice design, confirmed its work for Diamondback Correctional Facility, adding that the design work was already completed at the time of the revelation.

Following the employee outcry, DLR Group said it will "not perform work for ICE detainment or deportation facilities" going forward.

DLR "will not perform work for ICE" going forward

After the exposure, DLR Group said it hosted an "open and thoughtful discussion about the role of design in the current justice system", according to a DLR Group spokesperson.

"Following this dialogue, DLR Group made explicit, firmwide commitments: we will not perform work for ICE detainment or deportation facilities, nor participate in projects that expand facilities owned or operated by private providers with a financial interest in increasing incarceration," said DLR Group.

DLR Group CEO Steven McKay also reportedly said that the studio would donate the $300,000 in profits from the Oklahoma project, according to Mother Jones.

Under the Trump Administration, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has carried out a much-publicised round of immigration enforcement around the country. The conditions in the facilities have been questioned after reported deaths in ICE custody.

In response to the growing number of arrests, ICE has been quietly buying large, unused, often suburban or rural facilities around the country to convert into detention centres for those in custody.

A PDF detailing ICE's Detention Reengineering Initiative was sent to the office of New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte, which states the conversion of facilities "to meet the growing demand for bedspace and streamline the detention and removal process, focusing on non-traditional facilities built specifically to support ICE's needs".

According to Bloomberg News, companies such as Disaster Management and Amentum have worked with ICE to transform and manage the facilities.

"Prison design relies on good faith"

To Osborne, the messaging from the company is unclear.

"Anyone who is in prison design knows that the success of that design relies on the good faith of the people actually operating that facility," Osborne told Dezeen.

"You can make the most progressive design in history, but if the people operating it aren't dedicated to improving conditions of incarceration and are dedicated to treating people in custody more humanely and trying to essentially get them out of prison as fast as possible, then the design matters for absolutely nothing.

"The burden ultimately falls on those who are operating the facility, and that's why the most important consideration for any architecture firm that would undertake this work is the good faith and progressive sensibility of the client. And there's no reason to think that that ICE will ever be a good-faith or progressive client."

DLR Group was recently selected to redesign California's San Quentin State Prison into a rehabilitation centre following a Nordic model of prison design, according to the studio.

Two members of DLR Group wrote an opinion for Dezeen in 2024 detailing how "design can immediately and practically reduce the number of people in custody"

The studio says it remains committed to changing the way that design is implemented in the justice system.

"DLR Group recognises that we work within a justice system that is not always equitable or just. Our Justice+Civic studio seeks to influence change and transformation across these institutions. There are no simple answers, but our commitment is to engage thoughtfully and work toward a more just system," said DLR Group.

The photo is via Google Earth.

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