Thread: S.C.: Deportation prisons proposed

Posted on Sun, Apr. 20, 2008
Deportation prisons proposed
Sheriffs wish to ease strain on local facilities
By Robert Morris

Under a new proposal, three regional prisons would hold all of South Carolina's illegal immigrants as they await deportation, officials said, easing the burden on local jails but raising the concerns of some advocates for the poor.

Several counties in North Carolina also have been considering similar prisons.

Under South Carolina's current system, illegal immigrants who commit crimes are held in county jails while they wait for the Department of Homeland Security to transfer them to Atlanta, the closest federal immigration court. Sheriffs of some S.C. counties already complain that their jails operate every day above their capacity, and removing inmates slated for deportation to a special holding facility could help.

Drafted by the S.C. Sheriffs' Association after discussions with the governor's office and federal immigration officials, the new plan divides the state into three broad regions, and places an approximately 400-bed jail in each region.

"These locations would give us an opportunity to warehouse foreign-born illegals awaiting deportation," said Beaufort Sheriff P.J. Tanner, one of the primary designers of the plan.

The facilities, planned to be more similar to county jails than state prisons, are expected to cost $12 million to $15 million, said Jeff Moore, executive director of the sheriffs' association.

The state Department of Corrections would run them, offsetting its costs through the daily per-prisoner reimbursements from the Department of Homeland Security under what is known as the 287(g) program.

In South Carolina, only York County is now receiving those prisoner subsidies. Many other counties around the country, including Horry and Beaufort, applied for the program, but few have been granted recently, state officials said.

"Homeland Security made it known some time back that they were not going to grant any more of these special provisions," said Joel Sawyer, spokesman for the governor's office.

Federal immigration authorities indicated that a regional concept might have more success in finding federal tax dollars, leading to the sheriff's three-prison proposal.

"When the 287(g) program started, there was such an influx of people wanting to be involved in the program," said Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson. "It's easier to do it on a regional level than for each individual county to do it."

The plan would ease the burden on both county jails and state prisons, pulling out the state's estimated 400 illegal immigrants serving sentences of less than a year, Tanner said.

The idea is still in its conceptual stages and could change drastically, said Thompson, who has helped with early planning. The Sheriffs' Association sent a letter at the beginning of April to the Department of Homeland Security, Tanner said, and their approval is the next necessary step.

Officials must also figure out who will pay to build the prisons. If state money is involved, the legislature must approve it. Wording in the pending immigration bill calls for all local jails in the state to screen inmates for citizenship, but Sawyer said the prison plan could go forward even if the immigration bill does not.

"This is something that needs to happen irrespective of what happens with the state immigration bill," Sawyer said. "This is just a way to alleviate some of the overcrowding problems."

The Charlotte area has been looking for a similar solution in recent months. Mecklenburg County was under consideration for 1,500-bed facility for illegal immigrants, but federal officials then shifted their attention to Gaston County. In March, Gaston officials decided against that facility, opting to use extra room in their own proposed jail instead for the possible deportees.

Tammy Besherse, an attorney for S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center which advocates for the poor, acknowledged that some families of illegal immigrants may not like seeing their loved ones transferred to a jail several counties away for relatively minor offenses but said the state has a legal right to house inmates where it sees fit.

A larger problem, Besherse said, is that by concentrating all the immigrants in their own jails may raise the issue of "separate but equal" facilities, that are not really equal at all.

"There would be a lot of potential for the undocumented immigrants to receive substandard treatment, food, etc.," Besherse said in an e-mail. "These guards will now know for a fact the inmates aren't here legally. That could lead to abusive situations."

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/l ... 23147.html

SC sheriffs back 3 regional jails for illegal immigrants
The Associated Press
Related Content
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. --South Carolina sheriffs back a plan to build three regional prisons in the state to hold illegal immigrants as they await deportation.

Several sheriffs tell The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News that the plan would remove the inmates from overcrowded county jails, where they take up valuable space as they await officials to transfer them to the closest federal immigration court in Atlanta.

"It's easier to do it on a regional level than for each individual county to do it," said Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson.

The current plan calls for the three prisons to hold up to 400 inmates each. State prison officials will run the facilities, which will be paid for through a program with the federal Department of Homeland Security, said Jeff Moore, executive director of the state Sheriff's Association, whose organization drafted the plan with help from the governor's office and federal officials.

But the proposal is a work in progress awaiting approval from Homeland Security and could be changed considerably, officials said.

Officials also have to figure out who will pay to build the prison. If state money is involved, the plan will need to be approved by legislators.

Families of illegal immigrants could be angry their relatives are housed several counties away, but the state has the right to house inmates where it sees fit, said Tammy Besherse, an attorney for the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, an advocacy group for the poor.

The group is also worried concentrating illegal immigrants in a few jails may lead to substandard care in those facilities, Besherse said.

"There would be a lot of potential for the undocumented immigrants to receive substandard treatment, food, etc.," Besherse wrote in an e-mail to the Myrtle Beach newspaper. "These guards will now know for a fact the inmates aren't here legally. That could lead to abusive situations."
http://www.charlotte.com:80/205/story/589300.html

They don't need prisons, just freakin buses ! No papers get your criminal ass on the bus and go back to the dictator who sent you .

I got a feeling these prisons are not meant for illegals but suckers like the sleeping Americans . Because when the spoiled fools finally wake up hungry and cold, they will want to talk back .

Now we're talking, only the feds already have these detention centers set up. If they aren't using them for deportation purposes, what are they planning on using them for? Hmmm..could it be for us who will rebel against the North American Union or even amnesty itself? What a screwed up bunch of traitors.

Bryant likes regional lockups for illegal immigrants
S.C. sheriffs' plan would tap into federal money
By Matt Garfield · mgarfield@heraldonline.com
Updated 04/22/08 - 1:48 AM

York County Sheriff Br-uce Bryant is among the S.C. law enforcement officials backing a plan to build three regional prisons for illegal immigrants awaiting deportation.
Sheriffs are eager to remove the inmates from crowded county jails, where they take up valuable space before they're transferred to the closest federal immigration court in Atlanta.

"These locations would give us an opportunity to warehouse foreign-born illegals awaiting deportation," Beaufort Sheriff P.J. Tanner, one of the primary designers of the plan, told The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News.

Sheriffs view the regional prison idea as a way to accomplish what York County already is doing, Bryant said Monday.

In October, Bryant's agency became the first in South Carolina to tap into technology from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to determine an inmate's immigration status.

No other county in South Carolina has gained approval to use that approach, known as the federal 287(g) program. If inmates are found to be illegal, they are taken by federal officials to begin deportation proceedings.

About 40 agencies use the program nationwide. Others have applied but haven't gained approval from the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, the hope is that a regional approach would allow the costs to be shared -- and also pull in more help from Washington.

"It just wouldn't behoove immigration (officials) to try to put a 287(g) program in every county jail," Bryant said. "I think it'll work well for the counties to be able to get together."

An average of 25 illegal immigrants are deported from the York County detention center each month through the 287(g) program, according to county figures. Since October, Bryant said 192 have been deported.

The idea is already stirring alarm among advocates for the poor. Some fear it would unfairly punish families by housing their loved ones in facilities several counties away.

Concentrating illegal immigrants in a few jails also might lead to substandard care in those facilities, said the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center.

"These guards will now know for a fact the inmates aren't here legally," the center told The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. "That could lead to abusive situations."

Under the new proposal, three prisons would hold up to 400 inmates each. Other specifics are unknown, such as who would shoulder the cost and where the sites would be.


http://www.heraldonline.com/109/story/503477.html

They don't need prisons, just freakin buses !

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT! THE BORDER IS A FEW HOURS AWAY, WHY DO THEY NEED PRISONS? BUS THEM OUT! AS FOR THE OTM'S ....BOAT THEM OUT BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM. IF THEY ARE HERE LEGALLY THEN THEY CAN PROVE IT. IF THEY HAVE NO PROOF THEN THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE HERE AT ALL. PUT THEM DIRECTLY ON A BUS OR BOAT. WHEN EACH BUS OR BOAT IS FULL START UP THE ENGINE. LEAVE SOME EMPTY SEATS SO THE BUSSES CAN PICK UP THOSE TRYING TO CROSS INTO THE USA ON THE WAY. GIVE EM BLANKETS, GIVE EM FOOD.....BUT SHIP THEM OUT.

S.C. Sheriffs Push for Jails for Illegals

April 24, 2008

York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant was in Columbia today, drumming up political support to build special jails for illegal immigrants.

Under the plan, illegals would be kept in separate facilities
operated in part by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As WBTV's Trent Faris reports, York County is spearheading the effort.
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In an average week, York County law enforcement officers arrest around 25 possible illegal immigrants a week.

I say possible because it isn't until they get to the Moss Justice Center in York that they determine whether or not they are illegal.

That process is called the 287-G program.

"It identifies illegal nationals that come into our detention center who are illegal aliens in this country," said Under Sheriff of York County Robbie Hudgins.

Hudgins says the program is nothing really new.

In North Carolina, Mecklenburg, Gaston among other counties, have the programs too.

But in South Carolina, York County is the only one.

But sheriff agencies in the state want to take this holding program to the next level.

"To develop regional facilities possibly three or four in the state to do the same program that we're doing here in York county," Hudgins said.

The new facilities would be under the State Department of Corrections.

There, illegal immigrants would be held and processed before being transported to the Immigration Court in Atlanta, instead of sitting in already over crowded county jails.

Finding the funding to build them is another hurdle

Hudgins explains, "you would receive federal funding, but it would be a shared responsibility from the different governments that are involved."

And that's why Sheriff Bruce Bryant, along with other sheriff's in the state, were in Columbia today. They are trying to find money to build jails where each would hold around 400 inmates.

Since October of last year, the 287-G program has identified and deported over 200 illegal aliens from York County.

http://www.wbtv.com/news/topstories/18143094.html

Regional jail proposal an idea worth pursuing
Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008


The S.C. Sheriffs Association is right to push for help dealing with illegal immigrants held in local jails.

The group wants to see three, 400-bed regional jails built to house prisoners identified as illegal immigrants as they await deportation.

Today, many illegal immigrants who commit crimes are held in county jails while they wait for the Department of Homeland Security to transfer them to Atlanta, the closest federal immigration court.

The sheriffs are looking for much-needed relief for crowded county jails.

Housing these prisoners isn't the job of county governments. Illegal immigrants are a federal responsibility, and local and state governments should not have to bear the cost of the federal government's inability to secure our borders or develop a viable guest worker program. Nor should they pay for the federal government's inability to deport people who have been identified as being here illegally.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner has been trying to get officers here trained to identify illegal immigrants under the federal 287(g) program. But the Department of Homeland Security has all but stopped adding agencies to the program. Right now, 41 state and local law enforcement agencies across the country participate in the program. In South Carolina, only York County participates. Mecklenburg County, N.C., just across the state border, also participates.

Federal immigration authorities have indicated that a regional concept might have more success in attracting federal tax dollars, leading to the regional prison proposal.

Under the sheriffs' proposal, the state Department of Corrections would run the regional facilities, expected to cost $12 million to $15 million to build.

The idea is to offset the costs through the daily per-prisoner reimbursements from the Department of Homeland Security under the 287(g) program.

But that's not exactly a princely sum. The federal government pays $30.30 a day per inmate, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The inmate must have at least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions and must have been incarcerated at least four consecutive days.

Even with the proposal, Beaufort County still faces an overcrowded jail. In February, Beaufort County jail director Phil Foot reported that jail officials were looking into the immigration status of 43 of 376 inmates. Even if all 43 were removed, the jail would be over its 245-prisoner capacity.

Still, regional jails to hold illegal immigrants would provide important financial and logistical relief for county jails. And it would shift at least some of the cost back where it belongs -- to the federal government.

http://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/story/483807.html