"Working to End Injustice in Detention Centers" — Workshop #6
March 19, 2007
Since the "war on terror" began, significantly more individuals are being rounded up and put into detention centers. The reasons for their detention have varied. Some were rounded up after 9/11 simply because they were Arab or Muslim or from Southeast Asia. They were profiled and slammed into cold cells throughout New York and New Jersey. If you've read the Inspector General's reports on 9/11 detainees, you know that many of them suffered severe abuse, were not permitted to make phone calls to their lawyers or their families, and often their families had no idea where their loved ones were jailed.
The recent "war on immigrants" has resulted in another wave of detentions. It's so easy now for police to profile people based on how they look. To guess someone's nationality based on color of skin or other physical features. But even if you're a U.S. citizen but you can't find your papers - you run the risk of being detained, as has happened to many people. Sometimes you're put in a county jail. Sometimes in a detention facility - often the facility is run by private corporations, cutting every possible corner in expenses - food, sanitary conditions, medical care - all cut rate.
Sometimes it takes one person's cry for help to stir us to action. When BORDC learned about a 9 year old Canadian boy being held with his parents at the T. Don Hutto Facility in Taylor Texas - it seemed an opportune time to take a look at the situation there and see if we could mobilize some local action. So, we asked a few grassroots volunteers who've worked to end injustice in their local detention centers.
Detention Center Panelists
Flavia Alaya is a BORDC board member and a member of the NJ Civil Rights Defense Committee (NJCRDC). She worked with allies in Paterson, New Jersey to shut down a detention center in the Passaic County Jail in 2006 and continues to work for justice in New Jersey
Jeannette Gabriel has been in the forefront of the activist movement to define administrative immigration detention as unconstitutional. She has had a leadership organizing role with the NJCRDC in its effort to end the Passaic County Jail detention contract, and continues to publish, speak, and mobilize around immigrant and worker rights.
Timothy Smith is Chairperson/Founder of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee - Tacoma. The group works to educate and inform the residents of the City of Tacoma of threats to their civil liberties and monitor agencies which pose those threats. He is a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer.
- BORDC Detention Center webpage
- Detention Watch Network is a national coalition in the United States that addresses the detention crisis and helps detainees and their loved ones make their voices heard. It's been in operation since 1997.
- Detention Watch Network "Learning About Immigration Detention"
- New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee (NJCRDC)
- NJCRDC's link, Free the Detainees gives visiting hours, information about the newsletter, and ways you can help.
- Tacoma Bill of Rights Defense Committee (Contact Tim Smith)
- ACLU Hutto Detention Facility Campaign
- ACLU Fact Sheet on H.C.R. 64, a bill in the Texas legislature
- ACLU Fact Sheet on Family Detention
- Report from Human Rights Watch on U.S. Jails (old report, but very comprehensive)
- Human Rights Watch report on children
To get involved in working to end detention center injustice in your community, contact BORDC organizers Ben Grosscup (east of the Mississippi River) or Hope Marston (west of the Mississippi River).