''The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.'

Horrors at ICE prison in California: nooses found hanging in majority of cells

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general’s office released a report this week detailing the inhumane conditions prevailing at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center in California’s Mojave Desert. The report was the product of an unannounced visit by inspectors this past May, nearly one year after three deaths occurred within a three-month period at the facility.

The report outlined numerous horrors, including denial of medical and dental care, the use of punishing confinement prior to conclusive rulings on allegations of inmate infractions and the terrible revelation that nooses fashioned out of bed sheets hung in at least 15 of the 20 inspected cells.

Inspectors were met with lackadaisical responses from guards, “When we [DHS] asked two contract guards who oversaw the housing units why they did not remove the bed sheets, they echoed it was not a high priority,” the report states.

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In March 2017, Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba, 32, a Nicaraguan, was found hanging from bed sheets in his cell and later died on life support. Gonzalez-Gadba was facing his second deportation and had previously been deported in April 2016 to Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America.

Just days before Gonzalez-Gadba’s suicide, he reported having been sexually assaulted, but medical staff ignored his claim and never bothered examining him. At the ICE facility, inmates are subjected to daily physical, mental and sexual violence.

As of August 2017, there had been at least five attempted suicides at the facility in less than one year, according to 911 calls. One detainee told inspectors he witnessed “a few attempted suicides using the braided sheets by the vents. ... The guards laugh at them and call them ‘suicide failures’ once they are back from medical.” The callousness exhibited by ICE’s contract employees mimics that of Border Patrol agents, who tend to treat immigrants with ruthless inhumanity.

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Investigators also noted that detainees were improperly and prematurely placed in disciplinary segregation for alleged misbehavior, prior to any attempt to determine whether they had committed the alleged infractions. “During our visit to the Adelanto Center, there were 14 detainees in disciplinary segregation. Through our file review, we found that the Adelanto Center inappropriately placed all 14 detainees in disciplinary segregation before they were found guilty of a prohibited act or rule violation.”

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Daily atrocities against immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are the status quo of Washington, DHS, the Border Patrol and ICE. The appalling revelations at Adelanto further underscore the reactionary Democratic Party-led political charade being conducted over the Kavanaugh* hearings.

The country is littered with private, for-profit prisons, supported by both parties. Where are the public hearings on the physical, sexual and mental abuses committed against immigrants, refugees and inmates alike across America’s vast prison system? No such abuses will ever make media headlines, as it does not serve the interests of the ruling elite as it carries out its reactionary in-fighting in the run-up to the November midterm elections.

This didn't start with Trump of course and this is not only happening to immigrants. This is happening in prisons across the country and private contractors are making millions in profits and demanding that occupancy stays above 90%.

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Betty Clermont

WindDancer13's picture

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

moneysmith's picture

Every day, I think, "Okay, it can't possibly get worse than this [whatever atrocity is in the news], right?" And then I'm proven wrong.

Worse, most people don't seem to care. Their solution is, "If they don't like the way they're treated, they shouldn't come here." And in a supposedly Xtian nation.

I don't even know which is worse anymore -- how bad the country has become or how many people are just fine with the way things are going.

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Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare

snoopydawg's picture

@moneysmith

It just got worse. Kavanaugh* was confirmed with the help from Manchkin. And he's still getting a pass for it on daily insanity!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Out here in the "free" world, if I knew you were in an environment where suicide or suicide attempts were common, and I noticed you made yourself a noose, I could be charged with some lesser included crime contained in the negligent homicide statute. I would be criminally liable as a party to the attempted or the actual crime.
Especially if my job was to keep you safe.
A prison guard is a security guard. They are to keep prisoners both safe and secure.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

It's just not keeping them from hurting themselves, the guards are also inflicting sexual and physical assaults on them just because they have the power to do so.

Then there's the immigrant camps where guards drug the children that they are supposed to be caring for. But hey that's okay because they shouldn't have tried to sneak into the country right? If they had stayed home none of this would be happening to them. I can't believe how many people think like that. Ugh

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.