During a visit to Georgia’s largest immigration detention center, a federal investigator found a clinic that was “among the dirtiest medical rooms I have ever seen in a US correctional facility.”
At another Georgia facility housing Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, a nurse ignored a request from an asthma patient to see a doctor urgently about concerns about his inhaler. The nurse reported that the detainee “was seen visiting the sick,” although this was not true.
In Atlanta, an immigrant inmate died after not receiving adequate medication to treat his diabetes and high blood pressure.
That was among the findings documented in inspection reports commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which NPR obtained and released earlier this week. Of the 26 facilities inspected over a three-year period during the Trump administration, three were in Georgia. Across the country, experts identified a range of violations, including racial discrimination against detainees, retaliation, “barbaric” treatment of a mentally ill migrant and cases of negligence that endangered lives.
In Georgia, most of the findings focus on inmates’ problems with accessing health services, in apparent violation of ICE policy, which requires facilities to provide “comprehensive medical and mental health care to noncitizens from the moment of their arrival… and throughout their detention”. “
“moral failure”
The system of immigrant detention is more civil than criminal in nature. It relies heavily on private prison companies: According to an analysis of ICE data by the American Civil Liberties Union, as of July 2023, over 90% of the roughly 31,000 people detained in ICE custody were in private facilities.
Experts hired by the Office of Civil Rights and Liberties to audit immigrant detention centers have “specific expertise” in areas such as medicine, mental health, etc., according to NPR, which obtained copies of the inspection reports after years of court proceedings and the use of force. This enabled them to find problems that other government inspectors might have missed.
“These reports are testament to the moral failure of our country’s immigrant detention system and the waste of taxpayers’ money to enrich private prison corporations,” said Erin Argueta, senior counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project. “The system of immigrant detention is inhumane, does not promote sound public order and must be ended.”
In a statement, a DHS spokesman said the agency is “continuously reviewing and improving civil detention procedures to ensure noncitizens are treated humanely, protected from harm, receive appropriate medical and mental health care, and receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled.” To have a demand.” “
Findings from Georgia
When federal inspectors from the Bureau of Civil Rights and Liberties visited the Stewart Detention Center in South Georgia in early 2017, the total number of detainees exceeded 1,800. As of July 2023, that facility was averaging about 1,200 inmates per day, reflecting the Biden administration’s decreasing reliance on immigrant detention relative to its predecessors.
According to inspectors, Stewart’s medical staff was “inadequate” given the large number of detainees. Because the clinic was also limited in size, those requiring medical observation were treated in solitary confinement units, a violation of ICE standards that “confuses the therapeutic room with the punishment room and undermines trust between inmates and doctors.”
The clinic, which had not been cleaned for weeks, was dirty. Among other things, the inspectors found peeling paint and pills scattered on the floor.
In a statement shared with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a spokesman for CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates Stewart, said inspection reports released by NPR are “out of date” and “do not reflect the facility’s current operations.” He also noted that CoreCivic only began managing Stewart’s medical clinic facilities in 2018.
“The safety, health and well-being of those entrusted to us are our top priority,” he said.
Amilcar Valencia is the co-founder and director of El Refugio, a non-profit organization that supports Stewart inmates.
“El Refugio and many local and national human rights defenders have, for years, raised the alarm about the dangerous conditions and abuses that immigrants are subjected to at this facility,” he wrote in a statement shared with the AJC.
“We know what’s really going on at Stewart Detention Center because we communicate with people every day. We visit people. We get their letters. We take your calls to our hotline. The experiences they share with El Refugio have been consistent throughout the years: neglect, abuse and inhumane treatment.
At the Atlanta City Detention Center, detainees told inspectors they feared reporting grievances would result in retaliation against staff. Other detainees said they were threatened with a lockdown if they did not sign up for the voluntary work program, which included cleaning and hygiene duties.
ACDC, which ceased incarceration of ICE inmates following a 2018 decision by then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, was also where an inmate died shortly after being admitted to the facility. According to inspectors, the man reported upon arrival that he needed medication to treat diabetes and high blood pressure. The nurses did not notify the doctor, opting instead to rely on generic treatment options. The prisoner collapsed shortly thereafter.
“Nurses should be given clear guidelines as to when the doctor should be contacted,” the inspection report said.
At a third Georgia facility, the still-open Folkston ICE Processing Center (FIPC), a nurse ignored an asthma patient’s request to see a doctor but said he was examined.
“The nurse’s documentation bordered on falsification and it was negligent not to see a patient who had urgently requested medical assistance regarding treatment with an inhaler,” one inspector wrote.
Inspectors at Folkston also found negligence and at least one other “serious error in clinical judgement” in the treatment of detainees in need of medical care.
GEO Group, a private prison company that operates FIPC, said in a statement from a spokesman that it has “a long-standing commitment to respect for the human rights of those in our care and to ethical practices in all aspects of our services.”
Inspections of immigrant detention centers have not resulted in better conditions, according to a report by the US Government Accountability Office.
