Detention Center Death Case Goes to Court! More Health Care Neglect/Abuse by a Privately Owned Prison!

In August, 2008, Jason Ng, a 34-year-old computer engineer from New York, died from complications of cancer and a fractured spine after being denied medical care at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, and a Vermont jail where ICE contracts for detainee bed space. Ng was denied proper medical care and legal access at Wyatt, where he spent the final month of his life as his undetected, undiagnosed cancer withered his body, and fractured spine left him unable to walk.
Ng, a computer engineer from China, paid the ultimate price for overstaying a visa, and getting lost in a sprawling system that some have likened to a gulag. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not comment because of a continuing investigation. But court affidavits tell a story of shocking neglect:
Although he complained of excruciating back pain for months, and grew ever frailer in custody, officials at the Rhode Island detention center where he was being held denied Mr. Ng an independent medical evaluation and even a wheelchair. At one point, according to the affidavits, he was shackled and taken in an ambulance for a two-hour drive to Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to stop appealing his case and accept deportation. When lawyers finally persuaded a judge to insist on suitable medical treatment for Mr. Ng, the long-deferred diagnosis was dire. Prison officials had said IT WAS ALL AN ACT. It was terminal cancer — and a broken spine. Mr. Ng was taken to the hospital, and died five days later.
“It’s clearly a violation of human rights; we believe that it’s a criminal act to deny someone medical care and cause their death like that,” said Shannah Kurland of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association.
Kurland and other speakers cited documented accounts by the media and human-rights organizations of detainees’ deaths in ICE custody across the country. That includes a Brazilian illegal immigrant who died in 2007 after convulsing at the ICE office in downtown Providence.
Ng's widow and naturalized citizen Lin Li Qu filed a lawsuit today, 2-9-09, suing the owner of the Detention Facility and Federal immigration authorities. The lawsuit alleges Jason Ng was denied medical care at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility. It says he was taunted and abused by staff who accused him of faking illness.

We can only hope Janet Napolitano and Dora Schriro, her special advisor on Detention and ICE Removal, complete investigations of the Detention Centers, particularly those privately owned with histories of prisoner abuses and take actions to not only correct the problems but in many cases, close them!
References:
R.I. lawmakers seek federal probe into death

Mr. Ng’s Death

Cornell Companies - wikipedia

Widow sues over man's death at immigration center

As U.S. Economy Worsens, India plans for the Exodus of U.S. H-1B Visa Skilled Workers Back Home to India

The ministry of Indian affairs (MOIA) is setting up a new fund to help distressed Indian workers abroad, including in the U.S., who are likely to return home to India after losing their jobs in the next 12-18 months.

"There is likely to be an increase in the number of Indian workers returning in 2009 and a decline in the numbers going out,” the MOIA official said. Currently, the ministry estimates that around 150,000 Indian workers return back home every year at the end of their work contracts. The fund, which is being created as a safety net in case of larger numbers of workers returning to India in dire straits, will extend support to the returnees to set up their own enterprises and develop entrepreneurial skills. Margin money in the form of interest-free loans could be extended. “We will also help the workers in reskilling and becoming ready for the job market again,” Mr Ravi said.

H-1B Visas:

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States under the Immigration & Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.
The regulations define a “specialty occupation” as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human endeavor including, but not limited to, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a minimum. Likewise, the foreign worker must possess at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and state licensure, if required to practice in that field. H-1B work-authorization is strictly limited to employment by the sponsoring employer.

Indian H-1Bs grew steadily from 1989 clearly becoming the largest category in 1994, then doubling in size by 1996, and quintupling by 1999—a remarkable pattern of growth and accounting for nearly half of all visas issued in 1999 (47 percent). No other country during the lifetime of the program has so completely dominated the H-1 visa.

Reference:

MOIA mulls new fund for returnee Indian workers

H-1B Temporary Workers: Estimating the Population

H-1B Visas - wikipedia

DHS's Border Surveillance Program: Does it Work? Is it Big Brother? Or are we again allowing a Contractor to serve as Big Brother?

Recent news reports suggest the US Border Patrol has secured new technology that has the ability to "see" for up to 10 miles away and scan 180 degrees in about 10 seconds." The hype says "the system detected about 40,000 potential undocumented immigrants in the last three months of 2008." The key word here is "potential." In reality, the system has many bugs. Reports indicate it cannot tell the difference between a human vs a prairie dog. For $500,000 a tower, you would think the technology would better serve the Department of Homeland Security.

On the other hand, many on the ANTI side are opposing the new technology, especially the unmanned drones. They are saying this type of technology is one step away from "Big Brother." Who is to stop DHS from spying on good ole US neighborhoods they wonder.

I am a bit torn on the subject.

I agree that in this age of potential terroristic threats, we do need security on all borders, ports and terminals. I say ALL because we should not focus on just the southern border, but all borders, ports and terminals!

I also agree that we should use technology vs a 2000 mile border fence. I don't believe we should give our civil liberties away, however. So, who is to say what is the right answer?

The other down side of the story is that we are allowing one vendor, Boeing - as SBInet, to manage the project. This raises the question, are we contracting away our nation's security to the highest bidding contractor? Remember the bad experiences we've had with Blackwater and Halliburton.

My only hope is the new DHS, under Janet Napolitano, will be open enough to let us every day Americans know what is going on and have the ability to provide our input on whether policies are working or not working. Additionally, she should prevent this program from turning into "Big Brother."

Since it appears this program is well underway, all we can do at this point is wait and see.

References:

40,000 Undocumented Immigrants Detected By New Border System (hype)

Proposed SBInet Texas Mobile Project

Why “Open-Borders” makes for bad neighbors

SBInet , Boeing wikipedia

Bailout Fiasco: Billions to Banks, Zilch to Small Business! How One Small Business is Fighting Back!

The news is consumed with talk of our failing economy, Bailouts and Stimulus packages. From Wall Street to Bank Bailouts, the Senate is busy working out the details of the various plans. One example: It has been reported Bank of America received $20B in US government aid and $118B worth of guarantees against bad assets. Meanwhile, small businesses are collapsing across the nation. Will the Stimulus plan now in Congress also include plans for Small Business and Main Street Americans?

Here is the story of how One Small Business is Struggling to stay in business and is Fighting back:
Rogelio Castro is the American born son of Pedro and Lucy Castro who immigrated to the US in 1945. His parents founded La Guadalupana Company in Chicago, specializing in tamales and other home-made products. Over the decades their business grew and prospered. In 1992 Rogelio expanded production and opened a USDA-approved plant, making La Guadalupana products available across the Midwest. By 2003, La Guadalupana had sales of more than $1.5 million. It was no wonder LaSalle Bank (later merged with Bank of America) came calling to win their business. The Bank was full of promises, with offers of loans to help them expand nationally. The wooing worked and Castro switched Banks. The bank’s sales tactics were compelling. Grow, Buy, Borrow to your heart’s content. The Castro’s were convinced to extend themselves beyond their previously set limits and attempted to purchase another business in Ohio. Through this time, the bank merged with Bank of America. As small bank written promises were broken by uncaring national Bank’s policies, not only did the Ohio sale fall through, but the National Bank attempted to foreclose on their business, sending letters to clients and suppliers alike, informing them of their financial woes, disparaging their brand. The bank’s actions violated their agreement, but beyond that, caused the Castro’s to lose market-share from 80% to 50%.
While many small businesses might fold under such pressure from the mighty National Banks, the Castro’s decided to fight back! They took the big National Bank to court and demanded the Bank cease and desist their tactics. An Emergency Temporary Restraining Order Hearing is set for Monday, 2-9-09, at 2:30 central at the Daley center.

This is not the end to this story. Perhaps Castro will be successful in court or perhaps not and his business will fail. His fate, as all of ours, lies not only in the judgement of the courts or in the halls of Congress, but most significantly, in our Country's ultimate economic destiny.

Collateral Damage: ICE's Failure to Focus on Felonious Criminals!

A new report from the Migration Policy Institute details the FAILURE of the National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP), led by ICE, to remove fugitive aliens. Even though the NFOP budget has soared from $9M to $218M since 2003, the results have been a reduction of convictions of criminal aliens from 39% to a mere 9%. As I have been reporting for some time, ICE has taken the EASY WAY OUT. They boosted the rate of ICE Raids to meet their NFOP targets. The findings of this report details that ICE has resorted to targetting non-criminals, including seamstresses, meat-packers and technical workers, just to meet their arrest quotas.

The Migration Policy Institute Reports:

Since 2003, no immigration enforcement program has experienced a more dramatic increase in funding, nor expanded its staffing and operations more rapidly, than the National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP). This initiative, led by US Immigration and Customer Enforcement (ICE), a componenet of the US Department of Homeland Secuirty (DHS), is intended to improve national security by locating and removing dangerous fugitive aliens. ICE defines "fugitive" as a person who has been ordered deported, excluded, or removed by an immigration judge, but has not left the country; or one who has failed to report to DHS as required. ICE further distinguishes between those fugitives who have a criminal history or are otherwise dangerous, and those who have no criminal history whatsoever. NFOP dipatches Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) across the country to arrest fugitives. While NFOP is focuses specifically on residential operations targeted towards fugitives, it is only one of the federal initiatives that result in the apprehension and removal of departable noncitizens, including those with criminal convictions.

The NFOP budget has soared over 23-fold in recent years, from $9 million in fiscal year 2003, its first year of operation, to more than $218 million in FY 2008. Moreover, the program has experienced a 1,300 percent growth in personnel since its inception. ICE estimates that the program has apprehended more than 96,000 persons through FY 2008. At the same time, NFOP has been at the center of many of the country's most controverisal immigration enforcement operations in the past several years...

The report concludes that NFOP has FAILED to focus its resources on the priorities Congress intended when it authorized the program. In effect, NFOP has succeeded in appreheding the EASIEST targets, NOT THE MOST DANGEROUS FUGITIVES. Furthermore, the program's structure and design appear to encourage officers to jeopardize their own safetye alienate communities, and misdirect expensive personnel resources.

ICE needs to more rigorously and comprehensively manage and evaluate the program to ensure that there is appropriate oversight of operations and guidance for FOT officers.

MESSAGE TO JANET NAPOLITANO -- Please read this report and be guided by the report's recommendations!

ICE Raids - Detention Centers Not About Immigration, All About Money!

What did Deep Throat Say? "Follow the Money!"
In 2007/2008, ICE stepped up their raids across the country. Ask yourself WHY!!

Let's start with three of the largest, most recent ICE raids. In New Bedford, MA., 300+ Seamstress Workers making backpacks were swept away to Texas Detention Centers. In Postville, IA, 500+ Meatpackers were swept off to Texas Detention Centers. In Laurel, MS, 600+ technical workers were swept off to a GEO Detention Center in Jena, LA. As I previously reported, GEO's Jena facility was newly opened in late 2007, projecting they would fill to capacity in 2008. The 2008 Laurel raid filled them to capacity.

How do these privately run prisons profit? They are paid per diem (per head/per day). Maximum profit is made if the centers are filled to capacity.

GEO Group has a long history of prisoner abuse. Records show these prisons have been cited for feces on walls, on sheets, on beds, vermin - rats, roaches, prisoners dying in custody due to no healthcare, prisoners sexually abused. The lawsuits detail the abuses. Contracts have been rescinded across the country due to the abuse. Last weekend, the second prison riot occurred within 2 months in the RCDC in Pecos Texas due to charges of inhumane treatment and death.

Ask yourself why GEO Group now focuses their lobbying to receive Detention Center contracts? Does anyone listen to the complaints of those in Detention Centers? Does anyone care about their abuse? Is the media reporting the conditions or the reason for rioting in the RCDC in Pecos, TX? Does anyone question why the GEO Detention Centers continue to be filled to capacity with detainees? The detainees should NOT be incarcerated for long periods of time, yet they are, many for months and years on end. Our nation is spending billions of dollars to detain hundreds of thousands of uncharged detainees. In some locations, entire families are incarcerated. Why? Per diem $$ paid per head/per day.

The Lobbyists:

The GEO Group spends millions of dollars lobbying and filling the pockets of Republican Texas State Congressmen and National Politicians, including their friends, George W. Bush and Tom Delay.

This article shows the following examples:

First, Ray Allen, the former Texas representative from Grand Prarie who chaired the House Committee on Corrections, and his former chief of staff, Scott Gilmore, are two of the biggest private prison lobbyists in the state. Gilmore and Allen took heat several years ago for working as lobbyists even while Allen was still a state representative. Allen was a major privatization advocate while a state representative and both he and Gilmore lobbied, while in office, for the National Correctional Industries Association - a group that advocates for prison labor and includes private prison corporations amongst its members.
Second, the troubled GEO Group spent the most on private prison lobbying in 2007 and actually upped its lobbying expenditures after scandals forced state hearings into private prison oversight. According to the report:
With its starring role in the scandal, Geo Group increased its Texas lobby spending tenfold, accounting for more than half of the lobby money that the industry spent in 2007.
(click here for details)

It is imperative that Janet Napolitano and her teams investigate the GEO Group, the abuse in their centers and report back why GEO continues to abuse detainees or any prisoners. Ask why detainees are held for such long periods of time. Determine if it is the best use of ICE Funds to incarcerate seamstresses, meatpackers and technical workers for such long periods of time. Ask why these raids and suppression sweeps are not used for felonious criminals, gangs and stopping guns from going back into Mexico.

Prison Riot Underway Due to Inhumane Treatment & Death! GEO Group Cited for Worst Prisons Ever!

A Prison Uprising is underway at the Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC). This is the second uprising in 2 months. The detainees say prison conditions are inhumane and they lack needed medical treatment. The trigger setting them off in December was a prisoner dying.

This center is located in Pecos, Tx, an extremely "out of the way" location. It houses approximately 2,400 minimum security inmates and immigration detainees. It is operated by the GEO group. GEO attempted to cover up the reason for the prisoner's death by saying the young prisoner died of natural causes. The detainees, risking their lives, protested.

As I have previously reported, the GEO Group, is an international corporation that operates prisons around the country and is frequently in the news for its abuse of prisoners in its care resulting in many preventable deaths. At least eight people died at the Geo Group-operated George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania, the state's only privately run jail. Several of those deaths resulted in lawsuits by family members who say the facility did not provide adequate medical care or proper supervision for inmates.

GEO, based in Florida, also has been under fire in Texas, where it operates more than a dozen correctional facilities. Last fall, the Texas Youth Commission abruptly canceled its $8 million contract with GEO after investigators found unsanitary living conditions at its juvenile facility. Several of the teens said they were sexually assaulted by a guard who was a convicted sex offender, according to lawsuits. GEO lost its contract at an adult facility in west Texas last year after an inspector reportedly characterized the prison as "the worst correctional facility I have ever visited." The inspection was sparked by an inmate's suicide.
Texas legislators have called for a review of all of GEO's contracts with state and local agencies.

Message to Janet Napolitano: Please investigate the conditions in Detention Centers operated by the GEO Group.

Background:

The Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC), built in 1998, is publicly owned by the Reeves County Detention Center Trust and is the largest employer in Reeves County.

The center is funded based on per diem (charge per inmate/per day) paid by the Board of Prisons (BOP).

In 2003, most of the beds were empty and the center was going bankrupt. The County was in trouble. Federal contracts with county facilities do not stipulate how many prisoners are to be housed at a facility, and the 1000 beds in the latest addition to the RCDC remained empty. The BOP stated the problem was the location (out in the middle of nowhere) and it was far too costly to transport prisoners there.

In the summer of 2003, when default seemed imminent, county Judge Jimmy Galindo wrote a letter to his friend, President Bush, asking him to intervene and save the local economy by providing BOP prisoners for the facility. In November, 2003, the GEO Group, a large RNC contributor, was brought in to operate/manage the prison.

References:

1. Dec. 12, 2008 Uprising: Texas: Detainees Protest Death, Seize Hostages, Inmates protesting medical care give up, release hostages

2. Jan. 31, 2009 Uprising: Recent Uprising, Officer: Inmates riot again at West Texas prison

3. GEO Group Abuses - Wikipedia

4. Public Bonds

5. Jail Overcrowding (Randy DeLay (brother of Tom DeLay) hired)