By: Genesis Castro, GALEO Student Intern
The state of Georgia currently houses 4 detention centers that detain immigrants awaiting deportation proceedings: North Georgia Detention Center in Gainesville, Atlanta City Detention Center in Atlanta, Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, and Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, the largest immigrant detention facility in the nation. The American Civil Liberties Union[i] published a report in 2012 detailing atrocities faced by the detainees at these centers that violated International and National Civil Rights laws, including physical abuse, being fed spoiled or expired food, and the use of “segregation” or solitary confinement. When the ACLU interviewed detainees for its report, the most common reason that many detainees ended up in detention centers was because of traffic stops. Others were detained after reporting crimes, including domestic violence, and only 1 out of the 68 detainees that were interviewed was apprehended at the border. Below is a brief summary of each detention center and list of conditions:
Stewart Detention Center
Location: Lumpkin, Ga, 143 mi Southwest of Atlanta
Public or Private: Private; Managed by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)
Population/Capacity: Male; 1,725 beds
Facility Specific Complaints:
- Expired/inedible food • unclean drinking water • instances of blatant racism •inadequate options for legal representation •unsanitary living conditions •lack of supervision from guards (numerous rape allegations by other detainees) •shortage of medical staff (no physician for almost two years between 2009 and 2011) •improper classification of detainees for security purposes •physical and verbal abuse from guards •improper punishments including overuse of solitary confinement • foreign objects in food
North Georgia Detention Center
Location: Gainesville, Ga
Public or Private: Private; Managed by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)
Population/Capacity: Male and Female; 502 beds
Facility Specific Complaints:
- Restrictive bathing privileges in segregation •inadequate maternity services for pregnant detainees •shortage of medical staff •shortage of bilingual medical staff
Atlanta City Detention Center
Location: Atlanta, Ga
Public or Private: Public; Contracted with the U.S. Marshal Service and ICE by the Atlanta Department of Corrections
Population/Capacity: Male; 1,725 beds
Facility Specific Complaints:
- Lack of bilingual workers •lack of access to updated legal materials •expensive phone calls •mixing of detainees of different security levels and with the general prison population •restricted showering privileges • unsanitary segregation units •sharing solitary confinement units with mentally ill inmates •foreign objects found in food including cockroaches •expired milk •lack of medical and religious food accommodations •lack of outdoor recreation •verbal and physical abuse
Irwin County Detention Center
Location: Ocilla, Ga (188 mi Southeast of Atlanta)
Public or Private: Private; Managed by Detention Management, LLC
Population/Capacity: Male and Female; 1,201 beds; 512 beds for immigrant detainees
Facility Specific Complaints:
- Remoteness •bilingual orientation materials unavailable •lack of due process (many detainees are not given a list of pro bono attorneys) •shortage of resources and delays in accessing the law library •high phone usage costs •insufficient clean linens and undergarments resulting in infections •rancid food and food with foreign objects in it •insufficient eating times •improper food accommodations for medical conditions •verbal abuse •infections and rash outbreaks from receiving used and soiled underwear
Complaints heard in all facilities:
- Malnutrition stemming from malnutritious and poorly portioned food •insufficient time to eat •insufficient recreation times •delays in receiving medical care •insufficient hygiene products including sanitary napkins •insufficient mental health services •low or no wages for work •lack of attorney-client confidentiality during phone conversation and no-contact visits •no-contact family visits •use of segregation (solitary confinement), especially on detainees needing mental health services
Notice that 3 out of the 4 detention centers are privately run facilities. This means that private companies (Corrections Corporation of America and Detention Management, LLC in these instances), contract with federal and state governments to oversee state-run facilities or build their own, to house people who are criminals and/or immigrant detainees. While private prison companies attempt to market themselves as the most cost-effective way for governments to take care of their incarcerated populations, spending on corrections has increased 72% since 1997, to $74 billon in 2007[ii]
It’s important to note that while private prison companies oversee both private prisons and detention centers, and that the number of both facilities has gone up, this blog focuses more on private detention centers, which is where some undocumented immigrants who have been detained by Immigration Custom and Enforcement (or ICE), are held as they await their court proceedings. Private detention centers are contracted through the federal government, and while federal contracts do not have a minimum occupancy rate at each detention center, ICE’s detention budget stipulates that at the national level, 34,000 immigrants must remain detained on a daily basis. [iii]ICE detained over 442,000 individuals in 2010, and the U.S. House of Representative approved a budget allocating $2.75 billion for detention and removal. [iv]
There are many organizations in Georgia fighting to close down detention centers and to alleviate conditions for detainees and their families. El Refugio[v] is a hospitality house located across the street from Stewart Detention Center, that offers free meals and lodging for families who are visiting loved ones at Stewart on the weekend. Volunteers also visit detainees who might not have family nearby, and donate supplies to detainees before they face deportation. The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia studies and publishes reports on conditions at the detention centers in Georgia. Alterna, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), GA Detention Watch, and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), are other organization in Georgia that serve detainees and work to end immigrant detention in Georgia. [vi]
The controversy over immigrant detention has been receiving more attention on the national level as well. A group of Democratic House Members [vii]including Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40), Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), and Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (IL-04), visited two immigrant detention centers in Texas, and held a press conference[viii] on June 24 detailing the appalling experiences they witnessed in the detention centers. On that same day, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced changes to family detention practices (family detention centers are detention centers that house families, including women and children, as they go through asylum proceedings), but not an end to family detention centers. [ix]
While there are many organizations engaging with politicians to close immigrant detention centers, the most important thing United States citizens can do to support any cause they are passionate about, it to go out and vote for politicians with the same interest as theirs. If you are not already registered, you can register to vote in Georgia here
[i] http://www.acluga.org/files/2713/3788/2900/Prisoners_of_Profit.pdf
[ii] http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/gaming_the_system.pdf
[iii] http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about/
[iv] http://www.acluga.org/files/2713/3788/2900/Prisoners_of_Profit.pdf
[v] http://elrefugiostewart.org/about-el-refugio/
[vi] http://elrefugiostewart.org/about-el-refugio/
[vii] http://roybal-allard.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397857
[viii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8AWeX2qAqQ&feature=youtu.be
[ix] http://unitedwedream.org/press-releases/dhs-secretary-announces-changes-family-detention-refuses-end-practice/
NOTE: The opinions express in this blog are the opinions of the author only. It is not to be assumed that the opinions are those of GALEO or the GALEO Latino Community Development Fund. For the official position on any issue for GALEO, please contact Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of GALEO at jerry@2014old.galeo.org.