Thread: State ALCU rips ICE over detention practices

State ALCU rips ICE over detention practices
December 11, 2008 6:00 AM
Immigrant detainees held for long periods in overcrowded state and county jails are subject to human rights violations ranging from inadequate access to medical services to abusive treatment by guards, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

The report, entitled "Detention and Deportation in the Age of ICE: Immigrants and Human Rights in Massachusetts," faults U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for failing to adequately supervise local jails that the agency pays to house non-criminal detainees who are awaiting deportation or fighting a legal battle to stay in the country.

"The real problem is nobody knows what is going on in these facilities," said Laura Rotolo, an ACLUM staff attorney who authored the 72-page report.

The ACLUM started researching the report in January 2007 after receiving reports of inhumane conditions at detention facilities around the country, including several in Massachusetts, she said.

Three months into the project, an ICE raid at the former Michael Bianco Inc. leather factory in New Bedford grabbed the national spotlight as immigration officials rounded up 361 undocumented workers. ICE has since been criticized by immigrant advocates and elected officials for its poor handling of the raid, including separating mothers from their young children and shipping detainees to detention centers in Texas.

For the ACLUM study, Ms. Rotolo and a group of law school students interviewed 40 immigrant detainees (none were involved in the Bianco raid) who were held at jails in Bristol, Essex, Franklin, Plymouth and Suffolk counties. The 22-month-long project included interviews with lawyers and immigrant advocates and analysis of government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the report, their research uncovered a range of abuses, including superficial inspections of prisons, detention periods lasting longer than the law allows, immediate transfers of detainees who complained about conditions or treatment, crowded cells where civil detainees lived side by side with criminal inmates, inadequate access to bathrooms, unhealthy food and unclean water.

"ICE's heavy-handed approach to federal immigration enforcement, together with its hands-off approach to supervising local facilities leads to dangerous consequences for the thousands of persons inside immigration detention," according to the report.

A separate white paper, researched by ACLUM and funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, focused on medical care access and found that receiving non-routine care was a difficult process, often requiring detainees to enlist help from lawyers.

The ACLUM released its findings to ICE and asked for comments five months prior to publication, but has yet to hear back from the agency, according to the report.

ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier told The Standard-Times that the agency had received a letter from ACLUM and is in the process of "responding fully" to its contents.

"ICE takes all allegations with regard to conditions of confinement and mistreatment very seriously," Ms. Grenier said.

She said the letter has been sent on to ICE's Office of Detention and Removal Operations "to look into and take any necessary corrective actions." But she warned that without specific dates, staff names and other information it would be difficult to verify specific claims made by detainees whose identities were hidden in the report.

ICE hires independent auditors who monitor conditions at local conditions to make sure that they comply with the agency's detention standards, Ms. Grenier said.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson said an auditor visits Dartmouth detention facilities four times per month to check that they meet ICE standards and to ensure that detainees are "properly cared for." He said the auditor reviews medical records and certifies that detainees get to see doctors "in the proper amount of time."

"ICE has been instrumental in providing oversight to make sure we are meeting the highest standards," he said.

He denied that any of the abuses outlined in the report had occurred at detention facilities in Dartmouth, which include an old gymnasium in the Bristol County House of Corrections that has been converted into a dormitory and a new ICE facility, built in June 2007.

"We have probably one of the best facilities run in the nation," he said, noting that it has twice received national accreditation.

According to the ACLUM report, on any given day there are approximately 800 immigrants and asylum-seekers in detention at state county jails. These facilities are overcrowded at up to 2½ times their capacity and receive federal funding at rate of between $80 and $90 a day plus guard hours.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., released a statement saying the report "highlights some of the consequences of a broken immigration system, including inadequate supervision and poor regulation at ICE in recent years. ... This report is a reminder that we need significant changes from the top down."

He said he is looking forward to working with the new presidential administration to pass the Families First Immigration Enforcement Act, which he introduced following the Bianco raid. The act would require ICE to employ safe and humane polices and procedures when dealing with the arrest, detention and processing of anyone involved in workplace raids.

The ACLUM report includes a list of recommendations to improve conditions for detainees, including:


Congress should pass detention standards for all facilities holding ICE detainees and mandate oversight of those facilities.
ICE should stop transferring people who report on unsanitary conditions or abuse issues.
ICE should upgrade systems to track in real-time the location of detained persons and the length of their detention.
Massachusetts should address overcrowding in county jails by expanding release alternatives for criminal inmates.
County jails should ensure that detention conditions protect basic rights of bother criminal and civil detainees and should train staff on the special needs of the civil detainee population.

Contact Becky W. Evans

at revans@s-t.com

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbc ... /-1/NEWS06

Prisoners of invasion war against the United States. Send these prisoners to the prison off our shores.

According to the report, their research uncovered a range of abuses, including superficial inspections of prisons, detention periods lasting longer than the law allows, immediate transfers of detainees who complained about conditions or treatment, crowded cells where civil detainees lived side by side with criminal inmates, inadequate access to bathrooms, unhealthy food and unclean water.




While they don't specifically say that the "immigrants" interviewed were Latinos, it's strange how these complaints are identical to the conditions which prevail in Mexican jails as well as those in other Latin American countries

Personally, I'd like to see evidence and proof but since it doesn't exist I won't hold my breath.



A separate white paper, researched by ACLUM and funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, focused on medical care access and found that receiving non-routine care was a difficult process, often requiring detainees to enlist help from lawyers.


What a joke!! Try being an American citizen who has done nothing wrong and see how difficult it is to receive non-routine medical care

But, of course, it is expected that illegal alien criminals should be granted everything they need and want at the snap of a finger, no questions asked.



These freaking people make me sick.