1.

ACTIVISTS HOLD VIGIL ON TIDEFLATS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
By John Larson

Tacoma Weekly
July 19, 2007

http://www.tacomaweekly.com/article/902

[PHOTO CAPTION: AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. Shankar Narayan, policy director of Hate Free Zone, speaks during a vigil July 13 at Northwest Detention Center.]

Tim Smith has been perhaps the loudest critic of the Northwest Detention Center, a facility on the Tideflats that detains immigrants on behalf of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It is operated by GEO Group Inc.

Smith is chair of the Tacoma chapter of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Standing before the detention center at the start of a 24-hour vigil July 13, he claimed the company requires inmates to purchase calling cards to use the telephone. "That is one way GEO keeps its costs down," he stated. "You start to see where their profit margins are."

According to Smith, the armed guards who patrol the front entrance during protests are a violation of the state constitution, which forbids businesses from operating private armed forces. "It is a corporate militia. I don't know what else you can call it," he claimed, waving towards the guards. "If I was on my front lawn with a grenade launcher, I think Tacoma Police Department would do something about it."

Rosalinda Guillen, executive director of Community to Community Development, said the situation at the detention facility is "one of the consequences of the failure of our leadership," in reference to immigration policy reform at the federal level. The vigil was meant "to convey the seriousness of this to our community."

"We believe in human rights, regardless of immigration status," commented Shankar Narayan, policy director of Hate Free Zone. He said ICE has increased its number of agents in the Northwest, leading to separated families and "widespread fear in immigrant communities around the state.

"These raids must stop until there is action on immigration reform at the federal level," Narayan added.

"Detention without due process is the result of a broken immigration system," said Michael Ramos, director of social justice ministries for the Church Council of Greater Seattle. He criticized a prison system he feels is turning into an industry for the profit of the private sector.

"This house of sand cannot stand," Ramos declared. "Take a public, moral stand for immigrant rights."

Smith has presented concerns about environmental issues on the site and detainee rights to local officials for years. "The city of Tacoma didn't care. Pierce County didn't care," he said. "For the last five years, we have had human beings sitting on a tar pit of benzene."

Vans from Seattle television news crews were parked nearby, not to cover the rally but rather one of the detainees, a man suspected of killing Zina Linnik, a Tacoma girl whose body was discovered the previous day. The suspect has a prior conviction for a sex crime. Smith said federal authorities should have focused on deporting individuals such as that, rather than rounding up immigrants in workplace raids.

Sue Stauffer, a member of Washington Community Action Network, said her organization is keeping a close eye on ICE. "They are making a tidy profit off our broken immigration system," she remarked.

Those with concerns and questions about ICE raids can call a hotline at (866) 439-6631.

2.

Our view

PRISON MESS DEMANDS BETTER OVERSIGHT BY IDAHO OFFICIALS

Idaho Mountain Express (Sun Valley, Idaho)
July 20, 2007

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005116192

With the dawn of the politically inspired law-and-order, tough-on-crime era, prisons became the fastest growing industry in the 50 state governments, accounting also for one of the fastest growing budgets.

Prisons also have become the source of scandal -- unbearable overcrowding, inhumane treatment, breeding grounds for gangs, and incubators for improving criminal skills.

Not coincidentally, a lot of the problems associated with prison management grew out of the explosive growth of for-profit privately-operated prisons, whose founders lobbied states on the idea of outsourcing incarceration that could be done cheaper.

But cheap is not always better.

It's no surprise then that an Idaho inmate held in a private prison in Spur, Tex., committed suicide because of insufferable living conditions, which were probably resulting from the operator, Florida-based Geo Group, cutting costs on services as cited in the inmate's final letter to family.

"(Death) sure beats having water on the floor 24/7, a smelly pillow case, sheets with blood stains on them, and a stinky towel that hasn't been changed since they caught me."

This is a black eye for Idaho. If this same inmate treatment had occurred in one of the state's own prisons, the likelihood is that a federal judge might have taken control and demanded Idaho clean up the 18th-century conditions.

Just because Idaho needs to outsource prisoners to private prisons because of a shortage of cells doesn't mean its obligations to civilized treatment end when inmates are in the hands of a for-profit institution.

In fact, the obligation for oversight of private prisons will become more intense, as Idaho's cell capacity falls farther behind the increased number of prisoners being sentenced, and legislators continue to avoid building new prisons.

Idaho's Department of Corrections has 1,000 more inmates than cell space. That's why 500 have been sent to county jails at the state's cost, while the other 500 are in private prisons such as the Spur, Tex., facility.

The ultimate solution is for the federal government to produce a uniform code for housing and treatment of inmates in private prisons and enforcing them with federal laws.

However, like so many other domestic programs being deferred because of costs of the Iraq war, that must wait.

Idaho officials will be required to be more attentive to what private prison operators are up to with Idaho inmates and with Idaho tax funds.

Sending a handful of Idaho corrections officials to inspect conditions in jails and prisons where Idaho inmates are housed would be sensible, inexpensive, and a warranty against abuses.