Texas Prison Bid'ness

June 2007 Hutto protestCorrections Corporation of America's controversial T. Don Hutto immigrant family detention center in Taylor, Texas will be the target of a march, vigil, and protest concert this weekend in conjunction with World Refugee Day. 

National organizations Amnesty International and the League of United Latin American Citizens will join a host of Texas groups including my organization Grassroots Leadership what should be the largest protest at Hutto since the World Refugee Day vigil in 2007. 

JUNE 19: Live Music Fundraiser: Dragon Rojo, Karma, Bajo Influencia, DJ Murdock, DJ Victima. Show starts a 8pm at the Twin Palms (214 Anderson Lane, Austin, Tx). Suggested Donation: $3. For more information, call Matt (512.669.9968) or Omar (469-396-7815).

JUNE 20: March and Vigil at T. Don Hutto.  Please join us for a vigil in Taylor, Texas, to honor World Refugee Day June 20th. The vigil is being organized by a coalition that includes Williamson County residents, the Border Ambassadors, Amnesty International, and the national chapter of LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens). For more information, please contact Jay J. Johnson-Castro Sr. (830)-734-8636; jay at villadelrio dot com.

Noon: Meet at Heritage Park, 4th and Main Street, Taylor, Texas.*
1 pm: Walk from Heritage Park to T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center.*
2-4 pm: Vigil at TDH, including music and speakers.

More information, including an impressive list of vigil endorsers, is available at the T. Don Hutto blog. 

Congrats to our friends Renee Feltz and Stokely Baksh over at the Business of Detention have been nominated for a People's Voice Webby Award for best student website!  The site features great interactive material on the unprecendented growth of the private immigrant detention industry in Texas.

The deadline for voting is April 30th, and Business of Detention has easy-to-follow instructions on how to register and cast your vote.

Emerald Companies is refusing to give up on the idea of a proposed private detention center in Mineral Wells, despite a recent rebuffing by that community's city council ("ICE facility put on chill," Mineral Wells Index, April 16) according to an interview with the company's COO Steve Afeman in the Mineral Wells Index ("Emerald open to alternate locations for ICE center," April 21),

Emerald Companies is open to looking at other site locations in Mineral Wells for the proposed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention center, according to Chief Operating Officer Steve Afeman.

Mayor Mike Allen's decision to postpone any city council action on Emerald's specific use permit application at the proposed location northeast of Mineral Wells Municipal Airport in order to look for other potential sites has delayed the project but not killed it, according to Afeman.

“It's a curve in the road, it's not a dead end,” Afeman said. “It's still a good project, the need's still there.”

Afeman said he has been told that the main opposition from city leaders has been about the location near the airport rather than the prison itself.

Emerald entered into a 90-day option agreement, with the option for an extension, in January with the Industrial Foundation to buy nearly 62-acres northeast of the airport for $1 per acre. Emerald must meet certain criteria, including obtaining a specific use permit from the city, within the deadline to purchase the land.

As I've written before, it is unclear if this proposed facility is actually being solicited by ICE or if Emerald is merely saying that ICE wants a detention center.  Private prison corporations are notorious for building speculative prison beds, a practice that Emerald employed in its failed bid to build a family detention center in Caldwell County.  In that case, Emerald was rebuffed twice before finally giving up on the county and moving on, apparently to Mineral Wells. 

We'll keep you posted on developments from Mineral Wells.

A group of Bishops of the United Methodist Church recently released a statement directed toward President Obama that calls for the end of all private detention centers.  The statement encourages the president to work for:

• A pathway to citizenship for immigrants;
• Reunification of immigrant families who have been separated by immigration itself or due to workplace raids and ensuing indefinite detentions and deportations;
• More visas for short-term workers to come into the United States in safe, legal, and orderly ways;
• Legal protection to all workers who come to stay for a certain period of time as well as for those who stay permanently, including the right to bargain for higher wages, protest poor working conditions, and preserve their human rights whether they are documented or undocumented;
• Elimination of privately-operated, unregulated detention centers;
• An end to all indiscriminate raids.

We applaud the Bishops in taking a stand to encourage the president to addres immigration and eliminate private detention centers

A controversial proposed Emerald detention center in Mineral Wells will be the subject of a public meeting, albeit one facilitated by the private prison company, on Thursday, according to an article in the Mineral Wells Index ("ICE detention facility public hearing set for Thursday at MWHS," March 31).

The Mineral Wells City Council is hosting a question-and-comment time Thursday evening at the Mineral Wells High School cafeteria on the proposed Emerald Companies correctional and detention facility.

Emerald will be presenting information on the proposed facility to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at the 6:30 p.m. meeting. The public will also have a chance to comment on the project. The meeting was scheduled after city council members agreed to table the issue of a land use permit at the March 17 city council meeting.

Emerald Companies entered a 90-day option agreement in January with the Industrial Foundation to obtain nearly 62 acres northeast of the airport to build a detention facility. 

Several things jump out at me about this story.  First, this hearing appears to be an attempt by Emerald to diffuse criticism that was aired at a hearing earlier this month.  Particularly, Mineral Wells residents spoke against the potential economic negative impacts that the prison could bring to the community, a concern confirmed by the research on the subject. These concerns, amongst others, led Caldwell County residents to reject two similar detention centers last year.  

Second, while Emerald has consistently stated that this facility will be an ICE detention facility, I'm skeptical that ICE has actually solicited this facility.  Rather, I'd imagine that this facility is being built on speculation that they will get an ICE detention contract, which, given Mineral Wells location an hour and a half west of Dallas, does not seem to be a given.

Third, I wonder if Emerald will address lawsuits and scandals that have dogged several of its facilities, including its detention center in La Salle County.  In that county, ongoing disputes over the management agreement have led the county to sue Emerald over breach of contract issues last year.  The complaint is attached to this post.

We'll let you know what happens in Mineral Wells tomorrow.  

An influx of federal prisoners from the United States Marshals Service will help bailout a troubled south Texas private prison, according to a story in the Corpus-Christi Caller-Times ("Prison Firm Rehires 40," March 6th),

As federal prisoners began arriving at the privately owned LCS detention facility in Robstown on Friday, a company official said employees who were laid off in January have been rehired.  In response to the influx of prisoners into the 1,100-bed facility, which has sat empty since it opened in September, the prison has called back some 40 employees who were laid off in January, bringing the current number of employees up to 75, said Dick Harbison, LCS vice president of operations.

“It’s full steam ahead right now,” he said. And beginning Monday, the company plans to hire another 80 employees with starting pay at $11 an hour.  The news comes a week after Nueces County Judge Loyd Neal and the U.S. Marshals agreed on a temporary price tag for prisoner housing.

LCS will get roughly $44 per prisoner per day under the terms of an addendum to the contract already in place for housing prisoners in Hidalgo County.  Harbison on Friday could not confirm how many bus loads of prisoners were being delivered to the facility.

While the story doesn't make it clear where these prisoners will be coming from, U.S. Marshals prisoners are mostly pre-trial federal detainees, meaning people awaiting trial for federal violations.  As several sources have noted, an enormous increase in the number of low-level non-violent border-crossers being criminally prosecuted under a Department of Justice program called Operation Streamline has pushed the detention system to the max.   

In fact, as Bloomberg News-Service noted a year ago ("Bush Crackdown on Illegal Aliens Stretches Marshals to Limit," March 12, 2008), these criminal prosecutions are already overwhelming the U.S. Marshal system.

The 600 marshals stationed on the border with Mexico are dealing with as many as 6,000 new defendants a month. That's taking them away from other tasks such as capturing escaped prisoners and rounding up sex offenders, according to Justice Department documents obtained by Bloomberg News. 

Data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse and reported in the New York Times ("Push on Immigration Crimes Is Said to Shift Focus," January 11) confirms that the mandatory prosecution of border-crossers is taking resources away from other, more serious criminal prosecutions,

Immigration prosecutions have steeply risen over the last five years, while white-collar prosecutions have fallen by 18 percent, weapons prosecutions have dropped by 19 percent, organized crime prosecutions are down by 20 percent and public corruption prosecutions have dropped by 14 percent, according to the Syracuse group’s statistics. Drug prosecutions — the enforcement priority of the Reagan, first Bush and Clinton administrations — have declined by 20 percent since 2003.

Of course, all these criminal prosecutions mean a drastic increase in detention bed capacity, and no one is making out richer on this policy in Texas than the private prison corporations.  According to the Department of Justice, U.S. Marshals detention bed capacity has increased from 18,282 to 56,290 between 1994 and 2007.

Companies like the GEO Group - with a new 1,500 bed detention center in Laredo, an expansion in Val Verde, and a new 500 bed detention center in Maverick County - and smaller companies like LCS - Robstown and Brooks County - are expanding capacity and making money off this trend. 

The question remains, however, will the Obama administration turn off the spiget and begin to reverse Operation Streamline and the ever-increasing demand for detention beds?  If it does, it could spell trouble for the private prison companies and communities like Robstown that have gambled their futures betting for prisoners.

Emerald Corrections appears to be fast-tracking a proposed immigrant detention center in Mineral Wells, according to an article in the Mineral Wells Index ("ICE facility project heating up; Federal detention facility plans moving forward," February 13),

Emerald Companies will be submitting permitting and zoning plans to the city this week as the next step toward building an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainee facility in Mineral Wells.

“I see no stumbling blocks or hindrances at this point,” Steve Afeman, chief operating officer of Emerald Companies, said.

The Mineral Wells Industrial Foundation and Emerald Companies entered into an option agreement Jan. 15.

“Basically, they’ve got 90 days to exercise their option … or they don’t get the land,” Industrial Foundation’s Steve Butcher said. “This makes us [feel the project] is moving ahead.”

Mineral Wells is already home to a state-contracted Corrections Corporation of America pre-parole and transfer facility that was the site of four smuggling arrests last year and at least one riot.  See Nick's three part investigative series for more information. This facility also seems to spark considerable interest in our readers, with many family members commenting on conditions at the facility and many defenders of the prison posting lengthy rebuttals of our posts.

The major questions that jump out to me on the current Emerald proposal are:

1. Is there a need for yet another ICE detention facility in Texas?  See the Detention Watch Network's map of detention facilities in Texas for a graphic illustration of the growing system of immigrant detention in Texas.  Is there any guarantee that the Obama administration will continue the policy of ever-expanding detention capacity?
2. Who will pay for the financing of this facility?  Several counties have floated substantial debt to build federal detention centers, often to mixed results.  More information on this practice available at PublicBonds.org. 
3. Is there already a contract for ICE detainees to be held at the facility or is this a speculative prison in a place where Emerald is hoping for a contract.  These are certainly different propositions. 

We'll let you know if we discover the answers to these questions and more news from Mineral Wells.  

The second major riot in two months has left significant damage at the GEO Group's Reeves County Detention Center, according to a story by the Associated Press ("Company says Texas prison's damage 'significant,'" February 3),

The company that runs a federal prison in West Texas says "significant" damage from the second riot in less than two months has left the facility unable to resume normal operations.

The GEO Group Inc. said in a statement Tuesday that inmates in two of the Reeves County Detention Center's three units remain under staff view in a central area of the complex. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company says inmates remain "cooperative and compliant" after a riot that started Saturday afternoon.

The company says there have been no serious injuries to staff or inmates.

However, CNN ("Texas riot quelled, inmates damage buildings" February 1) claims that there were at least three inmate hospitalizations, including an inmate with a severed fingers.  The prisoners are apparently protesting for better medical care, according to an AP video story with some dramatic footage ("Company Says Riot at Private Texas Prisons" February 2).  The December riot was based on similar problems with medical care, including the mysterious death of an inmate. 

Some reports from advocates monitoring the situation have indicated that man prisoners have been moved to the Emerald facility in Sierra Blanca.  In addition, the National Network for Immigrant Rights has posted a call to action to defend the rights of the immigrants held at the facility on their blog.

I was proud to speak along with 22 Williamson County residents and other central Texans at the Williamson County Commissioners Court meeting against the contract renewal for the controversial T. Don Hutto family detention center in Taylor, Texas. On December 23rd, the Commission voted 4-1 to renew, with Commissioner Lisa Birkman voting in opposition.

The Austin Chronicle, covered the vote this way ("T. Don Hutto: Lipstick on a Doberman," January 9),

Before voting to renew a 2006 contract naming the county as administrator of the center (and Correc­tions Corporation of America as operator), officials described the prison as if it were a home away from home where children laugh and play and are provided plenty of gym equipment and 22 computers. "The international language, the smile, hasn't been removed from the children's faces," said Precinct 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison. "I talked to a little boy, and he liked it there," said Precinct 2 Commis­sion­er Cynthia Long. Then came a shout from the audience: "How would you like it if your child was in there?"

The court's newfound humanitarianism stood in stark contrast to its purely financial justification for signing the contract in 2005 and its panic in 2007 over possible county liability for an alleged sexual assault by a guard and employment of undocumented workers at the center. The new court perspective did little to appease the gathered protesters, who still remember when the first children were spotted in prison garb by Taylor residents and who have since sponsored vigils, walks, and forums that have fueled an international outrage over T. Don Hutto as a prison for children. Only Precinct 1 Com­mis­sion­er Lisa Birkman broke with her past record, casting the lone dissenting vote Tuesday.

The vote took place just two days before Christmas and three days after more than 100 activists gathered for holiday vigil and toy delivery outside the prison. Organizers have vowed to continue pressure to close Hutto and end family detention both locally and nationally. The Austin-American Statesman ("New Citizens Group Forms in County," January 14) reports that another local group, the Hutto Citizens Group, has formed in part to oppose Williamson County's contract for Hutto.

Nationally, Grassroots Leadership's website and the T. Don Hutto blog have more information on a 100 Events to End Family Detention in the First 100 Days campaign. The first event protest will be held on January 21, the day after inauguration day, calling on the Obama administration to make administrative changes for a more just immigration system. See the flyer at La Nueva Raza.

2007 Hutto ProtestCCA's T. Don Hutto family immigrant detention center continues to draw protests and media scrutiny. On December 7th, the WilCo Family Justice Alliance held a vigil protesting Williamson County's involvement in the ICE contract to detain immigrant families awaiting immigration hearings. According to the Austin-American Statesman ("Vigil opposes renewing Hutto center contract," December 8),

More than 100 Central Texans gathered for a vigil outside the Williamson County Courthouse on Sunday night, asking Williamson County commissioners to end a contract with the T. Don Hutto Residential Center.

County commissioners are to vote in January on extending the contract with the center, a former medium-security state prison in Taylor that holds 385 people, including 92 children, who are awaiting immigration hearings.

Retired pastor Milton Jordan said that closing the center is a moral issue for all the county's residents.

"The practice of incarcerating families and children, with little regards to their civil rights, is destructive ... to our community as a whole," Jordan said.

Protesters held signs that said "Prison is no place for children" and "Shut down T. Don Hutto" while singing the civil rights standard "We Shall Overcome."

They also donated toys, clothing and calling cards to detainees that will be delivered Dec. 20, said Sherry Dana, a member of the WilCo Family Justice Alliance, which organized the vigil with several other groups.

I'll be at a vigil this Saturday, December 20th at the prison itself delivering toys to the immigrant families held inside. Details are below. See our friends at the T. Don Hutto blog for ongoing coverage.

Hutto Toy Delivery and Vigil to End Family Detention
Saturday, December 20th, 3-5pm, T. Don Hutto Detention Center (1001 Welch, Taylor, TX)

Please join Texans United for Families, Grassroots Leadership, WilCo Family Justice Alliance, Border Ambassadors, CodePink Austin and other organizations and individuals from across the state in the third annual December vigil to end family detention, Saturday, December 20th, from 3-5pm. Organizers will deliver more than 500 toys to the facility in time for the holiday season. Toys should be made in the US, in their original packaging, and not on a recall-list to be accepted into the facility. A carpool will leave 2604 E. Cesar Chavez in Austin at 2pm for the Hutto detention center. Contact: Bob at (512) 971-0487 or blibal(at)grassrootsleadership.org