Category: Detention

“You too must love the alien resident…for you became alien residents…” The God of Abraham (Deut 10:19)

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

Afternoon amigos…

Little has changed! Folks need reminders. How and why their hearts harden against the poor foreigner is baffling to me. Such arrogance! Such haughtiness!! Such meanness and cruelty!!!

Below (see the myspace link) are but a few of the many-many results from Monday’s Hutto Vigil VIII and related events. Attached is a special publication for Indiana children…about Hutto…

View Full Size (1mb)

Jay

P.S. Be especially sure to check out FREE the CHILDREN on MySpace. This is a phenomenally successful effort by a couple of our sharpest media savvy gals.

The following materials appeared previously as site announcements–gm

Monday, May 7, 10am – sundown, at the T. Don Hutto prison for migrant families, Taylor.

They can keep Joan Baez from singing at Walter Reed. They can stop the UN from peeking inside Hutto prison. But they can’t stop the vigils. (Joanie, you can sing for us, anytime.)

In accordance with an announcement issued on April 27 from the Geneva offices of the United Nations, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge G. Bustamante, was expecting to tour the T. Don Hutto prison camp for migrant families on Monday, May 7.

Access Denied: UN Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante
Photo: Wabash College

On Thursday May 3 the Department of Homeland Security said that the UN’s visit to Hutto had never been approved. Will the USA keep the UN Rapporteur from visiting the migrant prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America?
Writes Jay Johnson-Castro: We will be protesting the inhumane imprisonment of innocent children. We will also be protesting the refusal of Chertoff (Bush) to grant access to Sr. Jorge Bustamante the special investigator for the United Nations…Human Rights Commission. We are adding a feature to this eighth vigil. It will be a walking vigil. For those who can…we will be walking up and down Welch Rd. We’re calling it Hutto Walk-Jericho. It will be an all day event…during the all day vigil. While some hold down the vigil at the entrance of Hutto, others will walk up one side of Welch Rd. back down the other carrying placards. If you have a placard, a megaphone, a camera, a camcorder, a sound maker that you want to bring…bring it. Bring water, good shoes…and a good hat.

“We have a new sign out here. It says ‘Let the U.N. Do its Job!” says Jay Johnson-Castro via cell phone from Taylor, Texas.

“Toddlers are not terrorists!” chants the spirited crowd of 20 as Jay huffs and puffs into the phone to keep up with the Jericho walkers. The time is 1pm Central Daylight.
“LULAC is here, the Texas Indigenous Council, the Democratic Party of Williamson County, a few new residents of Taylor, and Teye. We also have members of Galleon from San Antonio and Chicago.”

Walking beside Jay is the new reporter for the Taylor Daily Press, Tessa Moll. A car honks several times in friendly rhythms.

“Yeah, that’s a gentleman who came out to take some pictures,” explains Jay. “Now he’s leaving.”

At 10:00 a.m. Jay met television media who had come on time from San Antonio and Univision. In the play area across the street at the T. Don Hutto prison, they could see a handful of children outside in prison uniforms. A few hours later, there were many more children on display in the play area, and none were dressed in prison clothes.

“It’s all for show,” says Jay. “Another deliberate trick by this willfully dishonest administration. They rule by deception and distraction. But we know we have a role out here, and the role is the voice of the people.”

Word through the grapevine says UN Rapporteur for Human Rights of Migrants Jorge Bustamante is in the Austin area, still working on permission to visit Hutto.

“We’re outraged that the USA will not allow a Human Rights Rapporteur to inspect the human rights of Hutto. But we also look at it as something that works well with our message.”

“No Child Behind Bars!” comes the next chant. The Jericho walk continues into the day. . . . See Video Report from KXAN-TV

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch / OpEdNews / Indymedia Houston / North Texas / UrukNet

There are at least 50,000 of them: migrants of “irregular visa status” who have crossed the border into China, partly to escape persecution from North Korean authorities, partly because of hard times.

“Human traffickers systematically target the women, who are usually hungry and desperate, by approaching them in the border region and promising them food, shelter, employment and protection. Once the traffickers have gained the women’s confidence, the women are lured to an apartment, confined and then sold to local men.”

And so it becomes the duty of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants to write a letter to the government of China. Actually this letter is sent by two Rapporteurs, including the one who handles questions of torture. As with many of the letters sent by the Rapporteurs, several months pass without reply.

Or take the case of “Ms. Suprihatin, a 23 year old Indonesian domestic worker living in Hong Kong.” On April 24, 2005, she was rushed to the Queen Mary Hospital after falling 19 floors. Her employer assured authorities that Ms. Suprihatin had jumped out of despondency over her inability to help relatives caught in the recent tsunami.

But two friends of Ms. Suprihatin tell another story. They say she has no tsunami relatives. She was pushed from that window, she told them before she died on May 3. Chinese authorities in Hong Kong have promised the Rapporteur that if sufficient evidence is forthcoming, criminal charges will be filed.

Since his appointment on July 29, 2005 as UN Rapporteur for the Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante has tended to these letters, writing to governments of the world, informing them about migrants who are being mistreated often to the point of death, and waiting to receive return signals that the governments care.

In his first annual report of correspondence on March 27, 2006, Mr. Bustamante was able to thank the government of the United States of America for a “prompt and detailed reply” regarding a migrant worker from India who was held captive for four years in New York by a UN diplomat from Kuwait. USA authorities acknowledged the suffering involved and noted that they had to contend with certain protections of diplomatic immunity.

This week, as Mr. Bustamante tours a global frontier of migration north of the Rio Grande, USA authorities are not behaving so splendidly. The April 27 press release from Geneva was clear as could be: Mr. Bustamante would be visiting the USA with particular interest in migrant detention centers such as the T. Don Hutto prison in Taylor, Texas. He would visit Hutto, said Geneva on April 27. Oh no he wouldn’t, said the USA on May 3. And news of the government’s refusal flew out across the AP wire.

“This is really good news, folks!” said Texas border activist Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. “This whole thing more than amply exposes the epitome of Texas corruption . . . and how it goes all the way to the White House. Corruption that is the stench of Washington . . . and traumatizes our own country and the entire world.”

In fact Johnson-Castro had chatted by telephone with Rapporteur Bustamante on April 30. The Texas activist wanted to stage a proper show of solidarity with the Rapporteur’s appearance at Hutto. Neighbors holding signs, a few words over a bullhorn. All at a safe distance across the street. There have been seven of these little vigils since mid-December, 2006. Today’s will be vigil eight.

And, yes, Mr. Chertoff, there will be a vigil today. Maybe a little louder and a few folks larger than the one planned last week, but there are some things the Department of Homeland Security does not yet control. And Hutto Vigil VIII is one little sign that citizens of the USA still consider themselves part of a global “yearning to breathe free.”

The vigil will last from 10 a.m. to sunset and will include a back-n-forth walk across the street from Hutto prison all day long. As with previous vigils, the focus will be on the children inside. About 200 children at any given time are locked up at Hutto for the fact of being migrant children. Up until today, USA authorities could claim they were sort of proud of the way these children were kept. But proud authorities don’t go around hiding from UN visitors, now, do they?

“The Special Rapporteur intends to carry out his work within the framework of
international human rights instruments, and considers the International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families a major
instrument for the promotion and protection of the human rights of migrants,” wrote Bustamante for his first annual report of December, 2005.

The convention on migrant rights is another of the UN treaties that the USA has failed to embrace. Johnson-Castro is ever fond of mentioning the convention on child rights as another.

“The Special Rapporteur also refers to the fact that reluctance to recognize the demand for the labour of migrant workers, which is a common factor among host countries, acquires heuristic importance when it becomes clear that there is some relationship between that reluctance and the appearance of anti-immigrant ideologies often tinged with xenophobia and racism. Denial of demand is an important issue as it is one of the main factors that leads to irregular migration, a situation at the core of much of the abuse and numerous human rights violations suffered by migrants.”

Of the 200 or so children now incarcerated with their parents at Hutto prison, how many would say that their families looked forward to working in the USA? How many would say their families had reason to believe that they would be put to work, hard and fast, by yanqui employers? We know a few children of Hutto whose families had worked quite long and hard in Texas.

One thing the Rapporteur would like to see is honest data collection on “de facto” employment practices involving “irregular migrants” so that we can look the facts straight in the face and stop lying about them. Yet, it is the great American genius to put precisely those people to work hardest who have been best disabled from claiming very much in return. As the Rapporteur says, this is the “heuristically interesting” line of analysis that gets you from hard workers to racism every time, and not just in Texas, where these dynamics are assumed to be inbred.

So it will be important as we look for pictures of protesters at Hutto, chanting into a subtropical Spring, that we remember clearly this is not just about Texas. When the Rapporteur wrote the following words in September, 2006, he was talking about migrants across the world:

“The situations in which violations of the human rights of this group are alleged to have occurred during the period under review, giving rise to the intervention of the Special Rapporteur, include allegations of: (a) arbitrary detention, including of children; (b) inhumane conditions or detention; (c) illtreatment in the context of border control; (d) deaths as a result of the excessive use of force by members of the police and security forces; (e) collective deportations, summary expulsions and violations of the human rights of deported persons; (f) impunity for crimes committed against immigrants; and (g) gender violence.”

Remember, Hutto Vigil VIII begins with what
we see in t
hat imperial war zone called “the six flags o’ Texas” but it connects most deeply to everything else that otherwise goes unheard.

The Texas Department of Famliy and Protective Services (DFPS) has exempted the Corrections Corporation of America from regulations pertaining to children inside the The T. Don Hutto prison for immigrant families in Taylor, Texas. In the following analysis, Sarah Boone looks at public records of the decision as shared in pdf format by San Antonio Current reporter Dave Maass.–gm

OVERVIEW OF HUTTO/TDFPS INTERACTION

By Sarah Boone

Thanks to two pdf files shared by San Antonio Current reporter Dave Maass [pdf1, pdf2] we have records of the following written exchanges between the T Don Hutto Family Residential Center Management of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), The Williamson County Judge, and Texas Department of Family Protective Services (TDFPS) regarding whether or not Hutto should be exempt from TDFPS licensing:

• 4/17/2006 Letter to Williamson County Judge, with materials from handbook given to detainees and an outline of proposed changes to better accommodate detainees.
• 5/22/2006 Letter to TDFPS requesting exemption, including copy of contract between Williamson County and CCA, modified on 5/1/2006.
• 6/14/2006 Letter from TDFPS stating that Hutto did not fall under that agency’s licensing for day care facilities.
• 3/28/2007 Follow up letter from Hutto stating that changes had been made and again requesting exemption.
• 4/13/2007 Letter from TDFPS stating that Hutto still was exempt from TDFPS supervision.

In the 4/17/2006 letter, CCA management outlined the programs they were providing for ‘residents.’ In more than ten pages of information, the majority of which came from the ‘handbook’ that is given to detainees prior to their arrival at Hutto, I found numerous statements that contradict information gleaned through detainee’s conversations with their attorneys during and after incarceration.

1. Detainees will not need any money while at Hutto.

2. Phone calls should be limited to 15 minutes or less.

Detainees state that they must purchase a CCA telephone calling card for $20 in order to make calls.

3. Library materials appropriate for native languages, to
the greatest possible extent will be available.

This also has been repudiated by detainees, since ‘which’ nationalities, languages and
dialects are subject to constant change.

4. CCA envisions a tremendous array of indoor and outdoor activities
for juveniles and adults, including informal intramural competitions,
etc., incorporating the traditions of their countries.

A blatant lie. A map of the facility was in the packet. It showed no recreation room or designation of outdoor play or recreation area.

5. Information regarding free legal services is provided to all families.

Again, repudiated by detainees.

6. CCA is examining potential software-based-aids …..to assist
children with language and academic skills.

These aids were not available for nearly one year.

7. CCA will furnish living skills instructions to both adults and
children.

Repudiated by detainees.

8. Volunteer Services – TDHRC will reach out to area volunteers
to facilitate religious, recovery and cultural programs.

If no ‘outsiders’ are allowed ‘inside,’ how was this possible?

9. CCA’s experience has prepared it to interface with practitioners
of diverse faiths and traditions.

If this is true, why did Guards refuse to allow daily prayers by Muslims?

10. Programs: CCA will provide a broad array of programs due to
its familiarity with the needs of migrants and immigrants including
experience in operation of extensively programmed facilities.

CCA’s familiarity is with PRISONS, (that’s what an extensively programmed
facility is.) The ‘residents’ at Hutto are not convicted felons.

11. Hutto stated it intended to provide education for all children age 5
and over ‘who intend to enroll in school.’ English as a second-language
will be taught to all, along with arts, science, social studies and math.

Initially the ‘school day’ was supposedly 4.5 hours, during which time 11-year-olds
who spoke English fluently and whose entire education had been in the US schools,
were being taught one plus one equals two.

12. Adults were to be taught English in a format that was not dependent on
bilingual familiarity or instructor’s familiarity with the detainees’
native language.

This did not occur.

13. The proposed changes included changes that should have been made prior
to housing children and women at Hutto:

• Changing the facility from a ‘secure’ to ‘non-secure’ facility
• Providing stuffed toys and craft items for children
• Screening shower areas and having covers for cell doors
• Playground equipment
• Removal of razor wire
• Safety items, such as ladders, to access top bunks
• Additional portable classroom space
• Attorney-Client and family visits in accordance with pp 32 & 33 and Exhibit 1 of the Flores v. Reno settlement

We know that many of the above (along with other proposed changes) were not carried out until just prior to the ACLU/press tour in February, 2007.

14. A major proposed change was to provide palatable and nutritious meals,
age specific to children’s needs. A dining room was to be provided for
meals and special dietary needs by children and adults were to be addressed.

There is proof that many children were still loosing weight as late as February, 2007 and a personal conversation with a prior detainee revealed that there had been no real improvement in the meals since this letter was written.

15. The staff was to be trained in all applicable aspects of detainees’ rights under Flores vs. Reno as well as the rights and responsibilities of juveniles and understanding of children/youth lifestyle and culture.. Additionally, the staff was instructed that the parents were to be the primary disciplinarians and staff intervention was allowed unless ICE was first contacted – – unless ICE could not be reached. Only minimum force was to be used against children.

Children were being punished in the same manner as prisoners, by lowering of cell (room) temperature and threatened or real separation from their mothers. Additionally, the staff was instructed that the parents were to be the primary disciplinarians and staff intervention was allowed unless ICE was first contacted – – unless ICE could not be reached. Only minimum force was to be used against children. Note: we finally now see employees in ‘friendly’ polo shirts and khakis rather than ‘police’ uniforms.

16. The government is to provide juvenile case workers.

How is it possible for CCA to promise child case workers on one hand and to secure exemption from DFPS regulations on the other?

17. All employees will undergo the same background investigation as all other CCA
Employees.

Are there any additional safeguards for the children, i.e., no history of family violence?

18. ICE and the provider understand that due to the ‘urgency’ of making these changes that there was no time for research to see if Hutto is subject to regulation by any
loc
al, state, or federal agency.

This should have been determined before the lease was ever signed with CCA.

19. The ‘revised’ contract with Williamson County shows a MONTHLY payment
Of $2,801,643 for up to 512 detainees, or $5471.96 (if at full capacity) plus
A per diem of an additional $79 per person if there are more than 512.

ICE is paying $124,732 for medical expenses for up to 512, and $8.01 per
Day for each detainee in excess of 512. Yet, prenatal care has been minimal; mothers-to-be report that they are handcuffed and blindfolded for trips to the Round Rock hospital and then are cuffed to the examining table while there.

20. On an “Exemption Determination” Form submitted to TDFPS, it was stated that school Hours were to be from 8:30-11:30 and 2 – 4:30, with instruction for Pre-K through grade 12. The staff is to escort the children from their room (cell) to the classrooms. While in the classrooms the CCA Staff, including officers, teacher’s aids, coordinators and program facilitators will supervise the children.

How many children are in a class? Are the children grouped by age, nationality, or what/how? What consideration is given to their knowledge of English – – has CCA taken into
account that many have been in the US long enough to be fluent in English?

21. NOTE: we are now told that the school day is 7 hours in compliance with State of Texas regulations.

Why was it not set at 7 hours initially and how/why could TDFPS ‘approve’
a shorter school day for these children under the ‘no child left behind’ regulations
as well as under State of Texas regulations?

22. On June 14, 2006, TDFPS ‘approved’ the plan basically due to a parent always being present at the facility. On March 28, 2007, Hutto again asked for exemption based on the changes that they had made in the past year that include:

• Admitting that some families are detained for more than 90 days
• The school day has been increased to 7 hours, with 5 core subjects and
  two enrichment subjects (not described)
• The Pre-K program has been eliminated and children under age 5 remain
  with their moms during the day
• The only time children under age 4 are separated from their parents is
  in a medical emergency or when the parent must meet with an attorney
• Children now eat lunch with their peers, however following lunch, parents are
  allowed into the cafeteria to visit with their children.

It is appalling that the TDFPS cannot/will not/has not stepped in to demand that it be allowed to have at least one full-time employee ‘on-site’ to protect the rights of these children. Obviously the hundreds of thousands of dollars with which CCA and the other for-profit prisons have lined our office-holders’ pockets have bought silence.

SHAME ON THE STATE OF TEXAS!

Appendix: Texas Gives Chidren to CCA

In a letter dated April 13, a representative from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) waives regulation of children held by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).