Texas Prison Bid'ness

Today is International Human Rights Day.  A day when people from across the world come together to reaffirm the basic rights that all people are entitled to, regardless of “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”  On December 10, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.  The United States played a key role in securing the adoption of the UDHR.  The UDHR has since become the foundation of the modern UN human rights system, or in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt “the international Magna Carta.” 

While December 10^th is a day for celebration, a day where we look back on the progress we have made, it is also a day for action, a day to speak out against the injustices and depravations of basic human dignity that still occur on a daily basis.  In Texas, we need not look far to see that our state and our nation have too often failed to uphold these basic rights.  The numerous immigration detention facilities in Texas provide a clear case in point. 

As frequent Texas Prison Bid’ness readers no doubt know, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) locks up approximately 400,000 each year at a cost of $1.9 billion.  To accomplish this horrendous feat, ICE contracts many of these detainees out to the for profit private prison industry, including to a number of private facilities in Texas.  The result: a massive transfer of public funds to private corporations that wastes scarce tax dollars and results in the depravation of basic human rights.  Just last week, ICE transferred immigrant women out of the Jack Harwell Detention Center in Waco, a private jail operated by Community Education Centers, a for-profit private prison corporation after reports from inside the facility alleged a lack of access to medical care, including for pregnant women; spoiled food; no contact visits; and virtually non-existent access to attorneys.  Allegations such as these do not signal the existence of a few bad apples, rather they clarify the structural flaw in the private prison model: the legal obligation to both ensure basic human dignity and maximize shareholder profit.  These obligations are mutually exclusive.    

Want to do something to stop this abuse?  Join the Waco Dream Act Alliance, Hope Fellowship Church, Texans United for Families, Grassroots Leadership, and those affected by the immigrant detention system at a vigil in Waco for detained immigrants on International Human Rights Day (Saturday, 12/10).  The vigil will begin at 2pm at Heritage Park at Third and Austin and will highlight the more than 10,000 immigrant detention beds (and the humans suffering in them) in Texas.

(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.

Picture from KGBT-TV4 HarlingenMore than one hundred organizers from across Texas held a vigil Friday for the 4,200 immigrants in detention in the Rio Grande Valley and called for the closure of the controversial Willacy County Detention Center in Raymondville (Protest at Willacy County detention center, Oct. 16, 2009). The 3,086-bed Willacy County Processing Center, a private prison operated by Utah-based Management and Training Corporation (MTC) and partially constructed of Kevlar tents, is the nation's largest immigrant detention center.

In announcing the vigil, organizers pointed to evidence that alternatives to immigrant detention exist which are more humane, more effective, and more fiscally responsible than immigrant detention.

A Vera Institute study from 2000 showed that 91% of immigrants on a supervised release program attended all of their immigration hearings, and the cost of the supervision program was $12 a day, compared with the more than $30 a day ICE pays MTC to detainee immigrants at Tent City.

The Vera Institute concluded:

"Using community supervision as a substitute for detention... will increase the efficiency of the expensive detention system, and it will allow those who win relief, mostly asylum seekers, to avoid the pains of detention altogether."

In calling for closure of the Willacy County Detention Center, organizers cited Raymondville Prison Aerial Shotdismal conditions which have been reported by former detainees and local news outlets. The Director of the facility in 2007 admitted to NPR that prisoners at the facility were forced to eat meals with their hands, and Harlingen's KGBT-TV reported that internal documents showed numerous documented cases that the facility fed immigrant detainees rotten or contaminated food including food infested with maggots.

The vigil also drew attention to the plight of more than 1,800 detainees held at the Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC), located about forty miles southeast of the Willacy County Detention Center. The prison holds ICE detainees, with subcontracting services by Ahtna Technical Services Incorporated (ATSI). PIDC detainees have been on rolling hunger strike for several months protesting violations of their due process rights, inadequate medical attention, and physical and verbal abuse from ICE and ATSI officers.

Our own Bob Libal was interviewed by KGBT Channel 4's Ryan Wolf at the vigil. Check KGBT-TV's coverage out here.

The vigil was sponsored by the Southwest Workers Union, Grassroots Leadership, Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity & Action (CASA), La Union del Pueblo Entero, Proyecto Libertad, Texans United for Families, Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera, ACLU of Texas, American Friends Service Committee - Austin, Border Ambassadors, and Texas Indigenous Council.

Previous Tent City Coverage from TPB-

Are the Hurricane Dolly Evacuations Putting Tent City in Financial Trouble? (09/09/2008)
Raymondville MTC Guard Accused of Stealing from Detainees (04/13/2008)
Guards at MTC's "Tent City" Accused of Immigrant Smuggling (11/20/2007)
MTC Prison Populations Growing, Partially Off Texas Expansion (10/23/2007)
Protests to Private Detention Centers Continue to Grow (09/04/2007)
Willacy County Goes $50 Million More in Debt to Expand MTC’s Tent City (08/30/2007)
More Detention Nightmares: Maggots in the food at MTC's Raymondville Prison (08/04/2007)
1,000 More Beds for Raymondville (AKA Prisonville) Detention Center (07/17/2007)
Raymondville Private Prisons and Prison Scandals Have Long History (06/17/2007)

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.