Lawsuits

ICE Makes Changes to Hutto, Lays Groundwork for Expansion of Family Detention

Nicole — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:37:23 -0600

Recent media reports at the T. Don Hutto detention center, a prison owned by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), highlight changes to the private prison. The notorious Hutto facility has been the target of numerous protests and a lawsuit as a result of its use to incarcerate immigrant families; some detainees as young as newborns. Press reports state that government officials are using a media blitz to lay the groundwork for additional family detention facilities that will be added to federal prison capacity over the next year.

According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News, reporter Hernán Rozemberg states:

Mired in controversy since its opening in May 2006, the 512-bed center has been through several makeovers. Administrators opened it for a swift media tour Tuesday to show how much has changed since the first tour 14 months ago.

Last year, the use of family detention at the private prison was resulted in litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School. The lawsuit settlement required CCA, which contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Williamson County, to meet comply with several standards that change the conditions of confinement at the prison.

ICE officials, like Gary Mead, stated in an Austin American-Statesman article written by Juan Castillo, that they learned a lot as they moved to lock up children and their parents:

"Candidly, when (Hutto) opened, we were new to the family residential facility business. We learned a lot," Gary Mead, acting director for detention and removal at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Tuesday.

As a result the changes required by the settlement and to improve public relations, the private prison recently opened its doors to the media to advertise changes underway at the facility. Despite any aesthetic changes and additions of certain amenities, the facility in Taylor, Texas is fundamentally still a prison.

Specifically, certain structures such as cell walls and the location of toilets in the space where someone sleeps cannot be altered. However, that does prevent the news media from participating in the coordinated public relations campaign According to news reports those changes include:

Metal toilets changed to porcelain;
Curtains to surround the toilet and shower area;
Eliminating the razor wire that surrounds the private prison;
Outdoor recreation area that includes two soccer fields, a volleyball court, and tow playgrounds;
Exercise area including treadmills and stationary bikes;;
Planned fieldtrips for the children who are imprisoned; and
Salad bar and a "hot bar" in the cafeteria — and the more homestyle recipes are a hit with the mostly Central American detainees thanks to one of them working as a cook.

Regardless of these changes, Hutto continues to be a private prison. What continues to be disturbing is that ICE is going to expand the policy of locking up families. Once again this represents a failed social policy as the United States continues to rely on incarceration even though Congress has insisted on alternatives to family detention.

Given that ICE is implying that they are looking to expand family detention capacity, we will monitor these developments.

The New Yorker features Hutto

Nicole — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:49:46 -0700

The New Yorker magazine features the T. Don Hutton facility its latest edition. The article entitled "The Lost Children," by Margaret Talbot offers a comprehensive analysis of the policy issues that led to family detention at Hutto. The article is available in the March 3rd edition of the magazine and should be available online over the next few weeks.

The article charts the flawed policy changes undertaken by the Department of Homeland Security. Specifically, Talbot mentions that immigrant detention increased by 79% in 2006 from the previous year due to the end of "catch-and-release" in 2005.

Yet, the article also mentions that the government recommended several alternatives to incarceration for undocumented immigrants and their children including the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program which allows people waiting for their cases to be decided to be released to the community provided they are tracked by:

electronic monitoring bracelets;
curefews; and
regular contact with a caseworker.

The government established several pilot programs and determined the community supervision of undocumented immigrants is effective; 90% of the people enrolled in these programs show up for their court dates.

The article also features a comments by our Judy Greene who emphasizes that clear problems with private prison facilities include their ability to circumvent the release of information regarding their facilties such as use of force against prisoners.

The article provides a wealth of information regarding Hutto and the policy changes that created it. We invite you to obtain the last copy of the New Yorker to add to your library. We will update the post with the link when it becomes available. read more »

7 Youth Sue GEO Over Coke County Sexual Abuse

Bob — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:32:47 -0700

Seven youth incarcerated by the Texas Youth Commission at GEO Group's now-shuttered Coke County Juvenile Justice Center have sued the company alleging sexual abuse facilitated by a guard who was a registered sex offender. According to the story from the Associated Press:

The young men allege they were mentally, physically and sexually abused in 2006 and early 2007 by a guard who was fired in March, after state officials learned he was on the public sex offender registry.

He had worked for seven months at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, operated by Florida-based GEO Group Inc. The facility housed Texas Youth Commission inmates until the teens were removed in October because of squalor and mismanagement.

One of the plaintiffs, who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Friday, alleges that guard David Andrew Lewis let several inmates into his cell. They sexually assaulted him with a broom handle while Mr. Lewis watched, according to Dallas lawyer Bob Crill.

As we reported in October, TYC finally closed Coke County after a report by the agency's Ombudsman and inspectors showed the facility to have unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

This isn't the first time Coke County was implicated in a sexual abuse scandal. As Judy noted back in July, the juvenile detention center was home to one of the worst scandals in private prison history back in the 1990s when GEO, then called Wackenhut, hired a man who’d been arrested for a sex offense against a child, to work as a "lead
careworker" at the prison, which then held young girls.

The man sexually assaulted 15 year-old Sarah Lowe, and continued to harass and threaten her after her release. Wackenhut settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount of money. Lowe, distraught because the lawsuit allowed the company to avoid responsibility for the assaults, committed suicide the same day the settlement was finalized.

This time around, the alleged wrong-doer says that he disclosed his offense, indecently exposing himself to a 5 year-old when he was 15, to the company and was cleared to work in the prison. According to the AP story,

Bob Crill, a Dallas lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said one of them alleges that Lewis allowed several inmates into his cell and then watched as they sexually assaulted the plaintiff with a broom handle.

Another of the plaintiffs, 18-year-old Deon Olthoff, of Granbury, said Lewis would stand too close to inmates as they showered and later started barging into Olthoff's cell to assault him. Olthoff was serving time for a parole violation after being convicted of burglary.

"He just came in and started choking me, and getting on top of me, and grabbing my hands and pulling them behind my back and stuff like that, and grabbing me in private areas," Olthoff said.

We'll keep you updated on this and the host of other lawsuits and scandals facing the GEO Group in Texas. read more »

Family of Scot Noble Payne Sues GEO Over Dickens County Conditions

Bob — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:19:41 -0700

The family of Scot Noble Payne, the Idaho inmate who committed suicide after describing horrendous conditions at GEO Group's Dickens County lock-up, has sued the private prison corporation. The lawsuit, which is attached, names both the GEO Group and many of it's top executives, including Chairman of the Board and CEO George Zoley and Chief Operating Officer Wayne Calabrese, amongst others.

The lawsuit alleges that:

GEO corporate officers executed a strategy of deceit and corruption in operation of Dickens and other facilities around the country, including making illegal payments to governmental entities in exchange for contracts,
Payne was held in deplorable conditions, including a filthy and cold solitary confinement cell with a blanket, sheet, and pillow that were covered with blood and human excrement, and
Conditions at the facility and GEO's negligence were responsible for Payne's suicide.

Payne's suicide and a subsequent investigation threw GEO's Dickens County lock-up into the spotlight. Idaho removed its prisoners from the facility this summer after the Department of Corrections' Health Director called the prison the worst prison facility he had ever seen, and an AP report called the facility's conditions "squalid."

Scot's mother, Shirley Noble, provided moving testimony to the state Senate Committee on Criminal Justice in October. As Nicole reported earlier this week, GEO lost the contract to operate the Dickens jail, with private prison corporation CiviGenics to take control of the facility.

Reactions to Hutto Settlement: A Good First Step, Much More To Go…

Bob — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 09:30:18 -0600

Protesters at Hutto DemonstrationLast week’s settlement between the ACLU, University of Texas Immigration Law Clinic and other lawyers representing children in CCA’s T. Don Hutto family detention center and the Department of Homeland Security has brought a variety of reactions.

Vanita Gupta, a lead lawyer from the ACLU said of the settlement, "Though we continue to believe that Hutto is an inappropriate place to house children, conditions have drastically improved in areas like education, recreation, medical care, and privacy."

The settlement improves conditions at the facility and installs a Federal Magistrate to monitor the prison, amongst other changes.

Barbara Hines of the UT Immigration Law Clinic said "We are hopeful that by limiting the population at Hutto to families in expedited removal except in exigent circumstances, and adopting more meaningful release procedures, that the length of stay for children will be significantly reduced.”

Still, most advocacy groups and media observers think the settlement is only a first step, with the ultimate issue of incarceration of innocent children and their families at Hutto still a pressing concern. Some of the reactions have included:

The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, who together with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, issued the important Locking Up Family Values report in February on family detention called the settlement “a good first step” but the agency “remains concerned that finding alternatives to detention for families is not a priority.”

LIRS’s Annie Wilson was “proud that our report has led to concrete results at Hutto,” but added that “now it's time to take the next steps. We've demonstrated time and again that there are more humane alternatives that work.”

Taylor activist Jose Orta noted that the dozen protests outside the prison had an impact, but that “the facility retains its essential character as a medium security prison. The rights of children simply must come first. Simply put, you don't put innocent children in prison. The settlement agreement is a good first step but our work as concerned citizens has only just begun. We will continue to hold vigils and protest the detention of innocent children. T. Don Hutto as a residential center is flawed, inconsistent, and in violation of national and international standards.”

Less enthusiastic was Ralph Isenberg, the Dallas businessman who had been influential in the release of several Hutto families. Isenberg, in an interview with Dallas’s WFAA, argued that “had this thing gone to court I believe the judge would have shut this facility down because the fact still remains, you don't put children in prison."

Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston Chronicle had possibly the most pointed commentary on the settlement. “A limited settlement may be good news for many Hutto detainees. But it isn't the answer,” she wrote. “It will take an act of Congress to ensure humane treatment for immigrant children. As we've seen, we can't count on ICE officials to act on their own. It took federal litigation to persuade them to allow teddy bears.”

Texans United for Families, an advocacy coalition that I work with, applauded the settlement, while vowing “to increase its advocacy for closure of the prison and for more humane alternatives to detention of immigrant children and their families.”

The next vigil at Hutto is planned for September 29th.

Yet Another GEO Group Lawsuit Filed Friday: Pearsall Detention Lockup

Kathleen — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:03:56 -0600

The latest civil suit against GEO Group for mistreatment of a prisoner in Texas was filed Friday by attorneys for Miroslava Rodriguez-Grava, a legal permanent resident of Mexican descent who was held in GEO's Pearsall lockup, the South Texas Detention Center. The prison is about 45 minutes from downtown San Antonio in Frio County, and holds people who are awaiting their immigration status hearings or in some cases are awaiting deportation.

From the filing document: (I have changed the "Defendant" and "Plaintiff" references to make for easier reading).

Although aware that [Rodriguez-Grava] required special treatment and reasonable accommodations due to her mental disability, [GEO Group] failed to provide such treatment and accommodations.

[GEO Group] also failed to provide [Rodriguez-Grava] with her prescribed medication.

[GEO Group] also failed to provide adequate and regular psychiatric treatment to [Rodriguez-Grava].

As a result of [GEO Group's] failures to address [Rodriguez-Grava's] medical needs, [Rodriguez-Grava's ]physical and mental condition deteriorated requiring that she be placed in segregation and isolation.

Despite numerous requests for medical treatment and reasonable accommodations by [Rodriguez-Grava] and her immigration lawyer, [GEO Group] refused to remedy the situation. Instead, [GEO Group] retaliated by purposefully misdiagnosing her condition, denying her adequate treatment and reasonable accommodations, removing her crutches and stripping her naked and placing her in an isolation room.

During the course of [Rodriguez-Grava's] confinement at [GEO Group's] facility, [GEO Group's] agents ridiculed [Rodriguez-Grava] on a regular basis because of her disability. [GEO Group's] employees taunted [Rodriguez-Grava] by telling her she is not truly sick, that she is faking her illness, that she has no rights in the United States, and that she will soon be deported to Mexico.

The Pearsall lockup was built in 2005, originally by Corrections Services Corporation, which was later acquired by GEO Group. Although the company paid $40 million for construction of the prison on "donated" land, the original agreement locked the city of Pearsall into picking up the tab for utilities to the prison: water, sewer, and gas, along with a tax abatement. No word yet if the city will be on the hook for any payouts to settle civil suits... what seems to be a standard business expense in the private prison business.

Thanks to the Settlement, ICE Can Now Have Monitors at Hutto

Kathleen — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:46:20 -0600

Crib in a Hutto cellICE has not yet posted their statement about the Hutto settlement to the press room of their website (9 AM PT August 29th), which is surprising, given that to hear them tell it, the settlement is even better for them than it is for the children who have now been released from Hutto. From the Houston Chronicle:

ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda would not answer questions about the settlement on Monday, but she released a statement that defended conditions at Hutto and welcomed the outside monitoring.

The judge's participation "will help improve communication about the facility and end any misconceptions and allegations falsely made about the Hutto facility," the ICE statement said.

That's a fascinating argument for monitoring: that the presence of a monitor at a prison could end any false accusations of mistreatment, rather than end any actual mistreatment or address any issues of confinement that concern the children held there. Okay... so maybe ICE could've ended some of those false accusations by letting a leading UN expert on the human rights of migrants, Jorge Bustamante, take a look at Hutto back in May, instead of inviting him and then abruptly cancelling his visit.

Breaking News: Government Settles Hutto Lawsuit

Bob — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:24:36 -0600

The Associated Press is reporting that the government has settled the lawsuit brought by the ACLU and others over the detention of immigrant children at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor, Texas.

The Hutto detention center, a converted medium-security prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), has come under fierce criticism from human rights activists and immigration lawyers. The trial against ICE by several Hutto families was set to open today (Monday) but Judge Sam Sparks had already told Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this spring that the families were likely to prevail.

The settlement does not close the prison or release all the children incarcerated there, but does better conditions at the jail. According to the ACLU's statement released today:

Additional improvements ICE will be required to make as a result of the settlement include allowing children over the age of 12 to move freely about the facility; providing a full-time, on-site pediatrician; eliminating the count system so that families are not forced to stay in their cells 12 hours a day; installing privacy curtains around toilets; offering field trip opportunities to children; supplying more toys and age-and language-appropriate books; and improving the nutritional value of food. ICE must also allow regular legal orientation presentations by local immigrants' rights organizations; allow family and friends to visit Hutto detainees seven days a week; and allow children to keep paper and pens in their rooms. ICE's compliance with each of these reforms, as well as other conditions reforms, will be subject to external oversight to ensure their permanence.

Since the lawsuit was filed, all of the 26 children named in it have been released from Hutto. The last few were just released prior to the settlement, moving out of the lockup to live with family members while they await hearings to determine their asylum cases. One child formerly locked up in Hutto, 12-year-old Andrea Restrepo, is quoted by the ACLU:

"I feel much better, I feel tranquil, I can do things now I couldn't do there," said Restrepo. "I am trying to forget everything about Hutto. I feel free. It was a nightmare."

Despite the settlement, the ACLU continues its opposition to Hutto and "remains adamant that detaining immigrant children at Hutto is inappropriate, and calls on Congress to compel the Department of Homeland Security to find humane alternatives for managing families whose immigration status is in limbo."

Family of Idaho Prisoner who Committed Suicide in Texas GEO Group Prison Files Suit

Bob — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:15:58 -0600

The Associated Press’ John Miller is reporting that the mother of Scot Noble Payne, the Idaho prisoner who committed suicide in GEO’s Dickens County Detention Center, has filed suit against the Idaho Department of Corrections for $500,000, the maximum amount allowed under the state law.

The suit alleges "inhumane treatment and illegal and unconstitutional conditions of confinement" in the prison. The AP article quotes Shirley Noble, Scot Noble Payne’s mother, as saying “Just being in the filth and degradation of that cell was sufficient to drive somebody into suicide.”

Since Payne’s suicide, Idaho’s prison health care director described the Dickens conditions as the worst he’s ever seen and said that physical conditions in Payne’s cell “would have only enhanced the inmate's depression that could have been a major contributing factor in his suicide." Idaho has since moved about half of the prisoners at Dickens to another GEO Group detention center, and will move the rest to the lawsuit-ridden Val Verde detention center.

Read some of our previous coverage on Idaho prisoners in Texas GEO Group prisons:

And prior coverage from Grits for Breakfast is collected here.

Is the Government Rethinking Hutto Prison in Light of Lawsuits and Bad Publicity?

Kathleen — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:11:27 -0600

The US House has proposed funding more immigration detention options that are less like a prison and specifically noted that children should not be in jail-like settings. Examiner.com reports:

The $36.3 billion House Homeland Security spending bill would increase spending for immigrant detention alternatives to about $55 million.

The measure directs ICE to give families priority in alternatives to detention programs that use electronic monitoring, telephone call-ins and supervision to ensure people show up for detention hearings. The Intensive Supervision Appearance Program recently reported 93 percent appearance rate at court hearings, the House spending bill says.

The committee says in the bill that families with children should not be housed in jail-like settings, denied access to recreation or basic education instruction. (emphasis added)

Crib in a Hutto cell: Watch Hutto videoThis call to move children out of prison-like detention may be in light of the protests, lawsuits and bad publicity that the Hutto prison, run by Corrections Corporation of America, is amassing. The Texas Observer reports that the lawyers representing the Hutto families have filed 10 new complaints, since the government has released most of the people originally involved in the lawsuits.

The Hutto families' case goes to trial in August.