Author: mopress

In 2003, Good Jobs First and Grassroots Leadership collaborated on a 56 page report about Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Get the pdf report from the Good Jobs First Corporate Research Project. Grassroots Leadership, you may recall, spurred the isssue of the T. Don Hutto prison camp by organizing a mid-December vigil. Jay J. Johnson-Castro walked to that vigil from the Texas Capitol, and the rest is history.
Thanks again to Jay J. Johnson-Castro for sending along the link.–gm

A photo of the Ibrahim girls during happy days at home in Richardson, Texas. (From left) Zahra, Rodina, Faten, and Maryam. In early November, the girls were abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Zahra (an American citizen) was placed into the care of her uncle Ahmad, while Rodina, Faten, and Maryam were jailed with their pregnant mother and older brother. They remain in jail at the T. Don Hutto Prison Camp in Taylor, Texas where they are clothed in orange prison uniforms. Their father is jailed in Haskell, Texas. Despite the family’s pending appeal for asylum, US authorities are seeking deportation. You will find materials about the intolerable Ibrahim ordeal archived here.

EXCERPT from Salaheddin Ibrahim’s petition for asylum.

During summer 2000 the Israelis attacked Al Fandaqumiyah with tanks, airplanes and gunfire. I was away from the house when the attack started, and ran home. I went up on the roof. The Israelis fired gas bombs and one of them broke the window of my kitchen and fell inside the house. I came down from the roof and threw the bomb back outside. It was hot, but not too hot to scoop up and quickly throw out. The children were sick and Hanan and I ran with them out of the house. Maryam, who was two years old, was overcome by the gas and unconscious.

I ran with the children and my wife with shooting all around us, and the children were crying and my wife was crying. We stayed outside in the olive grove until the Israeli troops left the village. Then we went back in the house. Maryam had awakened but she was very sick. She had great difficulty breathing. I called my neighbor and asked him to come with me to the pharmacy to buy medicine for Maryam. I was afraid and wanted the neighbor Abdel Ba Set Raba to come just so I would feel safer. I intended to explain the problem to the pharmacist so that he could provide what Maryam needed.

I drove to the pharmacy. There were two others from my village in the pharmacy, but while we were in the pharmacy the Israeli soldiers came in and ordered us out. When we went out they confiscated our identity cards. The soldiers told me to go remove an object in the street, but I told them I had to take medicine to my daughter. They thought the object might be a mine or a booby trap. They cursed me and told me to do what they ordered me to do.

I refused and they shot near my head and demanded that I go. I went and recovered the object that was in the street. It was just a bag. Then they forced us to sweep the street clean. After about 45 minutes the soldiers left. I went into the pharmacy and got some pills that were supposed to enable Maryam to breathe. I gave her the medicine and she recovered….

Maryam is 4 years old. She is afraid of policemen in uniform, but the older children understand that they are safe in the United States. In Palestine, when the older children heard shooting or saw helicopters or Israeli soldiers, they would cry and run into the house and pull the bed clothes over their heads. They often were afraid to go to school, and, if they were too terrified to go, we would let them stay at home.

Read the full petition forwarded by attorney John Wheat Gibson.

email from Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Jan. 20, 2007

Hola y’all…

You’re receiving this because you know about the immoral and illegal incarceration of children from 6 months old and on up…from some 20 different countries…at the Hutto prison camp in Taylor , TX .

We have all recently learned that the Williamson County lease agreement with Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) expires in 11 days…on Jan. 31.

We want to encourage the Williamson County Commissioners to champion the freedom of the children. They can be their heroes…on the local, statewide, national and even international levels. All they have to do is show the courage to say NO to the practice of holding children in the Hutto prison camp.
Or…they can be viewed as accomplices of this demented practice of imprisoning children on American soil…right here in Texas …right in their own county…for profit. They have the legal authority to make a difference. We trust that they will?

So…one month after the Christmas Eve Vigil…we will be holding a new vigil. A “Don’t renew the lease to imprison children for profit!!!”. “Chertoff and the ICE Company…or the children”. “Not one more day of imprisoning children”. ”ICE and CCA violating International Children’s Rights”. Or…whatever else you feel best describes your reason for participating in this vigil.

After considering two dates…almost all prefer an early evening vigil on January 25. Some have already made arrangements to be there. The vigil will officially be held between 5:30 and 6:30pm. That way working folks who would like to can attend.

One of those who will be attending is reporter Sarah Bush. Sarah will be interviewing those in attendance at the 25th vigil…for the program “Latino USA” that will air nationally on NPR.

For those of Williamson County who oppose the incarceration of children in the Hutto prison camp, here’s a suggestion. What if you draft and deliver a letter to the Commissioners Court this coming Tuesday, asking/requesting/petitioning/demanding them to give 120 days notice to ICE…and NOT renew the lease with CCA?

Come join us. Bring a banner. Bring a poster. Sun sets about 6pm.

Please feel free to share…and extend this invitation.

Let our presence be seen and let our voices be heard. The international community is watching to see how grassroots America responds to this immoral and criminal conduct that has being committed by the Federal-Corporate Complex and their money laundering schemes. They have been observing that “We the people of the United States of America ” really do care about freedom and justice…and that we do not believe in imprisoning children…let alone for profit!!!

Now the international community will observe how we employ democratic principles, exercise our freedoms and our rights…with the weapons of reasoning, truth and information sharing. Along with a deep conviction of the heart…we will bring a halt to this and other similar demented practices.

Jay

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Border Ambassador

Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Del Rio, Texas, USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico

Does the CCA Lease Expire Jan. 31?

Take a look for yourself, at agreements between Williamson County, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Imprisonment of Women and Children (forwarded by Jay J. Johnson-Castro in PDF format [400 kb]).

Bottom Line: ICE pays $2.8 million per month for up to 512 prisoners (plus $19.23 per hour for off-site guard services, $125,000 per month for medical care, with contraceptives, immunizations and off-site medical care billed at additional cost). After that, $79 per day extra per head, plus $8 for medical care. For its trouble, the county collects $1 per day per child or adult imprisoned from CCA, the company that books the amounts from ICE stated above.

In January 2006, Williamson County Commissioners approved a one-year agreement with CCA. In April 2006 they approved the prison contract with ICE “indefinitely unless terminated in writing” with 120 days notice.

Public minutes of the April 18, 2006 Commisioners Court [Agenda Item 25] announce a change in “per diem and detainees” for ICE but do not indicate that the contract length with CCA is also being changed to “indefinitely.”

For these reasons, Jay Johnson-Castro says the County’s agreement with CCA expires at the end of this month, Jan. 31, 2007.

“What I am asking is…Will the Williamson County Commission choose Chertoff and CCA over the children?” says Johnson-Castro. “Will they become local, state, national and
international heroes and choose the children over Chertoff and CCA?”
Note: “Rick” mentioned on page one is, according to a reliable source, Rick Zinsmeyer, Director of Community Supervisions and Corrections for Williamson County.