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Gadsden: Always-full jail where intent meets reality
County says too little space, too many hassles
Sunday, August 06, 2006
By LEE ROOP
Times Staff Writer lee.roop@htimes.com
GADSDEN - In a modern, multistory building here, 300 illegal immigrants sit locked inside the only public jail in Alabama that will take them.

That's 300 every day - full capacity every day.

It's 300 every day in spite of a fleet of six buses that hauls dozens back home to Mexico each week and more to federal court appearances across the South.

Dozens in, dozens out. But 300 are here every day.

"They ask every day if we'll get bigger," said Etowah County Chief Corrections Officer Scott Hassell, referring to the federal agents who share his jail.

"This is all we need," Hassell said. "If you build a 10,000-bed facility, they'll fill it up and want more."

The Etowah County Detention Center is where the immigration debate in Alabama becomes concrete and steel, lunch trays and jail uniforms.

It's where intent runs up against reality. Because even if America wanted to arrest and deport every illegal immigrant, where would they stay while the hearings and paperwork are completed?

"The infrastructure won't support it," Hassell said.

Housing illegal immigrant inmates is easy in one sense. Most of them - 70 percent by Hassell's estimate - are Mexican nationals awaiting deportation hearings or awaiting deportation after hearings in Atlanta.

Most of those - 95 percent - are men, Hassell said, and most aren't violent. Perhaps that's because they know they can come right back into the country if deported. Hassell and his deputies routinely see the same faces twice, even three times.

"We are seeing some gang members, but 90 percent are not bad guys," Hassell said. "Most of them speak English."