Texas Prison Bid'ness

(Orginally posted on the ACLU of Texas Liberty Blog)

Today, the ACLU of Texas filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of women immigrants seeking asylum from sexual abuse and violence who have suffered sexual assault at the hands of detention officers. Horrific as these women’s cases are, they are symptomatic of a much larger problem.

Last night (Oct. 18, 2011), PBS Frontline correspondent Maria Hinojosa took a penetrating look at the Obama administration’s vastly expanded immigration net, punitive approach to immigration enforcement, and the secretive world of immigration detention that is so rife with serious problems and abuses.  Among those problems is the sexual abuse of immigration detainees, which the ACLU has helped expose by acquiring government documents through the Freedom of Information Act that provide a first-ever window into the breadth of this national shame.  ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero was featured during the program, titled "Lost in Detention," discussing those FOIA documents and the Obama administration’s record on immigration more generally.

ACLU of Texas Senior Staff Attorney Mark Whitburn said, “Unfortunately, we believe these complaints are just the tip of the iceberg. Government records reveal that since 2007, 185 complaints have been made to the Department of Homeland Security about sexual abuse in ICE custody, 56 of which were from facilities in Texas.  Immigrants in detention are uniquely vulnerable to abuse, and those holding them in custody know it,” Whitburn added.  “Many do not speak English, many – like our plaintiffs – have fled violence in their home countries, and are terrified of being returned.  They may not be aware of their rights or they may be afraid to exercise them.”

The ACLU today launched a page on the www.aclu.org website devoted to the issue of sexual abuse of immigration detainees and a special blog series that will run through October examining the consequences of locking up tens of thousands of civil detainees every day.

Also last night (Oct. 18, 2011), CNBC debuted a new documentary entitled "Billions Behind Bars: Inside America's Prison Industry," a critical investigation of the multi-billion dollar corrections industry and how mass incarceration is a windfall for one particular special interest group: the private prison industry.  Among other things, the program featured an ACLU case challenging the brutally violent conditions at the Idaho Correctional Center, operated by Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest private prison company.  As part of its promotion of the documentary, CNBC has posted on its website an op-ed by the National Prison Project's David Shapiro discussing the nefarious reality that private prison executives rake in multi-million dollar compensation packages while over-incarceration continues to harm the nation as a whole.

Later this month, ABC will air a special program on immigration detention that will feature several pieces of ACLU work, and as more information about air time becomes available we will let you know.

A former Corrections Corporation of America supervisor at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor has pled guilty to federal charges of sexually molesting detained women as they were being transported to the Austin airport.  According to the Statesman blog post (Claire Osborn, "Former worker at detention center pleads guilty to molesting women," September 7, 2011) on the story,

"A former residential supervisor at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor pleaded guilty this week to molesting women he was transporting them from the center to the airport or bus terminal.

Donald Dunn pleaded guilty to two federal deprivation of rights charges, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Dunn admitted to touching illegal female immigrants “in a sexual manner” between December 2009 and May 2010, the release said. He said that he would stop the vehicle along the way, order them to get out and convince them he was conducting a legitimate search, it said.

Dunn has not been sentenced but faces up to one year in federal prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for each charge, the release said."

Dunn has already served a year in state prison for the crimes.  See our previous coverage of sexual abuse at Hutto:

• Update on Hutto Guard Convicted Charges Related to Sexual Oppression, May 18, 2011
• Sentence rendered for Hutto guard convicted of groping detained women, November 21, 2010
• Court appearance for T. Don Hutto's accused groping guard, September 11, 2010
• Human Rights Watch report details sexual assaults in ICE-contracted detention centers, August 26, 2010
• Former CCA Supervisor arrestested in sexual assault cases at Hutto, August 20, 2010
• Reactions to Hutto sexual abuse scandal, Wednesday, June 2, 2010
• ICE investigating CCA for sexual assaults against women detained at T. Don Hutto, May 29, 2010
• No One Held Accountable in Hutto Sexual Abuse Case, January 22, 2008
• Problems Pile Up at Hutto: Employee Fired for Inappropriate Contact, May 23, 2007

A wrongful death suit by the family of Mario Garcia against LCS Corrections' Brooks County Detention Center in Falfurrias, Texas will be going to trial in February, according to a new report from Andy Lizcano at KZTV ("Brooks Cty Dead Inmate Lawsuit," July 8):

"His family is suing the jail and some of it's officials. Kathy Snapka represents Garcia's family. 'It is our allegation that the prison disregarded his very, very serious medical condition and that's why days after he was sent to Brooks County he died,' she said.  ...

According to the lawsuit, Garcia had a known seizure disorder and was on medication for it. And that he suffered from seizures and headaches while in jail. It also says jail officials 'breached their duty of care to Garcia by ailing to care for his medical needs.

The Brooks County Death Certificate lists Garcia's cause of death as seizure disorder. The nueces county medical examiner's autopsy says the same thing.

The defendants in the case are LCS Correction Services, which owns the jail, former jail warden Miguel Niderhauser, and Dr. Michael Pendleton, former head of the jail's medical staff.

On Janaury 23rd 2009, just days after Garcia's death, we reported that LCS President Dick Harbison told us Niderhauser resigned and Pendleton's contract was terminated."

We'll keep you posted on developments from this story.  See our previous coverage of the Mario Garcia case:

• January death in LCS's Brooks County Jail results in lawsuit, July 28, 2009
•  Inmate Dies at LCS' Brooks County Detention Center, January 16, 2009

MTC's Tent CityLate last week, the Department of Justice formally charged a former Management and Training Corporation guard at the company's notorious "Tent City" detention center in Willacy County with sexual assault of a detained woman.  Ending years of rumors about sexual assault at the facility, the DOJ issued a press release about the charges:

" The Justice Department today announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Contract Security Officer Edwin Rodriguez, 31, of Raymondville, Texas, with sexual abuse of a female Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee who was under his supervision at the Willacy Detention Center, a federally contracted detention facility in Raymondville, Texas. 

 Rodriguez is charged in a one-count felony indictment returned by a Brownsville, Texas, grand jury under seal on June 21, 2011, with the felony offense of sexual abuse of a ward.  The indictment was unsealed following Rodriguez’s arrest on June 22, 2011. According to allegations contained in the indictment, Rodriguez engaged sexual intercourse with a female detainee on or about Oct. 26, 2008, while she was being held in official detention pending deportation."

As we've reported, the "Tent City" detention center (so-named because of its construction out of a series of Kevlar pods) has been rocked by allegations of sexual assaults, immigrant smuggling, spoiled food, and protests for years. 

The accusations may have finally caught up to the facility.  Last month, ICE announced that it would be discontinuing its contract with the detention facility.  However, as ICE left its contract with Willacy, the Bureau of Prisons has stepped in to provide a contract for the facility. 

According to the KRGV report ("Change to Willacy County Detention Center Could Boost Coffers," June 21) , county officials believe the contract will be more lucrative for the county (and for MTC, who, according to a company press release (PDF) will make a $532 million over 10 years off the new contract):

"The Willacy County Detention Center is currently contracted to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It's functioning as place where illegals are held before deportation. That will change soon. The future changes come down to revenue.  'We are going to be making more money in the long run,”' says Willacy County Judge John F. Gonzales Jr.

The Willacy County Detention Center is a 3,000 bed facility. Gonzales says the building is making the county just less than $1 million a year right now. He says the money will more than double with a new business deal. In a few months, the Willacy County Detention Center will become a federal prison."

However, many questions remain unanswered.  Will the facility continue to have major operational problems?  Will a lawsuit come out of the sexual assault and conditions complaints from the facility?  Will the BOP, which has had notoriously lax oversight of it's privately-contracted facilities, be able to ensure that basic standards are met at this facility? 

Perhaps the most important question is who will fill these 3,000 beds?  According to the MTC press release, Tent City will now incarcerate "federal, low-security, adult male, short term sentenced, criminal aliens."  To me, that sounds a lot like folks who have been convicted of "illegal re-entry" under Operation Streamline.  These folks are one of the quickest growing segments of the federal prison population, and were, prior to Streamline, usually processed through the civil immigration system.  So, is this the same group of immigrants filling Tent City under a different contract?