United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement has preemptively denounced a 42-page report revealing details of conditions in a private immigration prison on the Tacoma Tideflats as a "work of fiction," the Associated Press reported Tuesday.[1] -- Lorie Dankers of ICE alleged "numerous inaccuracies and vague references that could not be corroborated or independently verified" in the report on the Northwest Detention Center, but cited no particulars. -- GEO (which not only "runs the facility," as Manuel Valdes reported, but also owns it) "declined comment Monday." -- Pramila Jayapal, the executive director of a group involved in writing the study, decried the fact that "there's no accountability around conditions and standards" at the jail. -- A separate but identically titled AP story appeared Tuesday on the web site of an Omaha TV station and noted that "The report is based largely on detainee interviews. One of them claims U.S. marshals refused to let detainees use airplane restrooms during a seven-hour flight last year. The report says some of them soiled themselves in their seats."[2] -- OneAmerica announced on its web site that "The findings of Voices from Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) will be released Tuesday, July 15, [2008,] 10:00 a.m. at Seattle University School of Law’s in the 1st Floor Lobby on the Southeast corner of Sullivan Hall at 12th and Columbia in Seattle.[3] -- BACKGROUND: The Northwest Detention Center, an immigration jail operated by a private corporation, was built in 2003-2004 by Correctional Services Corporation and is now owned by the GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut). -- The prison has been controversial from the beginning, as corporate and civic leaders connived with the support of local media to evade or quiet regulatory, environmental, safety, and human rights concerns voiced by local activists and explored in depth in many articles on the UFPPC web site....

SEATTLE -- From excessive strip searches and overcrowding to a lack of due process, an immigrant advocacy group alleges detainees are being mistreated at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, which houses illegal aliens in the process of deportation.

In a study released by Seattle-based OneAmerica and the International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University's law school, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's operation at the Tacoma detention center is harshly criticized. The report contains anecdotes in which detainees describe what they call degrading treatment by guards and subpar conditions at the jail.

Detentions nationally increased from 95,000 in 2001 to more than 300,000 last year, according to OneAmerica. Immigration spokeswoman Lorie Dankers in Seattle said she could not confirm those figures.

"Probably the most striking, stark fact is that there's no accountability around conditions and standards, which is only made even more stark when you think of detention as being the fastest-growing form of incarceration in the United States," Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, said Monday.

Immigration officials denied the report's contentions, saying the detention facility complies with industry standards. The Geo Group, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based private contractor that runs the facility, declined comment Monday.

"The report authored by Seattle University and OneAmerica is considered a work of fiction by ICE," Dankers said. "The information contained in the report has numerous inaccuracies and vague references that could not be corroborated or independently verified."

Most of the accounts come from 46 interviews conducted by Seattle U. students between 2007 and 2008. Detainees were interviewed, as were family members and immigration lawyers. In some cases, researchers did not disclose names or dates in the accounts.

One account in the 42-page report alleges that U.S. marshals denied some detainees access to restrooms for seven hours during flights from Seattle in 2007, leading some of the immigrants to defecate in their seats.

Melissa Middlesworth, a federal Justice Department spokeswoman based in Washington, D.C., said she could immediately comment on that allegation without closer examination of the report.

Another woman cited in the report said she was strip searched several times after visits with her lawyer.

Dankers said thorough strip searches are uncommon and only done when officers think there's probable cause to conclude that inappropriate contact took place between a detainee and a visitor.

In another section, the report alleged that a man under treatment for a cancerous brain tumor was deported, even though doctors had warned that his condition would worsen.

Dankers said ICE deported a man with cancer in January 2008, and had followed doctors' recommendations. Also, ICE policy calls for deportees with health issues to be given a week's worth of medication after deportation, she said. [NOTE: In May, the Washington Post published a shocking in-depth examination of the treatment being accorded to those caught up in its post-9/11 immigrant detention system, of which the Northwest Detention Center is a part. —H.B.]

The report also alleged that many immigrants were pressured to sign documents they did not fully understand and faced verbal abuse from guards if they delayed. Also, a lack of meeting rooms for detainees and lawyers led to hurried meetings lacking privacy.

The detention center opened in 2004 and has been expanded twice. Earlier this month, city of Tacoma officials confirmed that the Geo Group plans to expand the facility by 50 percent, to a capacity of 1,500 detainees. Dankers said the center typically runs near capacity, which is about 1,000 detainees. It houses detainees mainly from Alaska, Oregon and Washington.

One detainee has died while in custody. Dankers said the Pierce County medical examiner's office reported he died of heart disease.

"We really want to call attention and educate the general public to what's happening in our own backyard," Jayapal said.

OneAmerica included recommendations in its report for better treatment, including better attorney access, improved officer training, increased privacy, and improved medical care.

The report came a few days after ICE announced (http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7715/) an increase of nearly 40 percent in deportations out of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska over the first nine months of the fiscal year. More than 7,300 people have been deported from the region in that period, immigration officials said.

SEATTLE -- The U.S. immigration system is under fire today in a report that alleges harsh treatment of detainees.

The report is being released by the advocacy group OneAmerica in conjunction with the International Human Rights Clinic at Seattle University's law school.

They looked at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma and how it handles people who are in the process of being deported. Their study documents complaints ranging from strip searches and overcrowding to lack of due process.

The report is based largely on detainee interviews. One of them claims U.S. marshals refused to let detainees use airplane restrooms during a seven-hour flight last year. The report says some of them soiled themselves in their seats.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement denies the allegations and says its facilities comply with industry standards.

But the director of OneAmerica says he's [sic -- Pramila Jayapal, the executive director, is an Indian-born, Western educated woman, banker turned community activist] bothered by the lack of accountability at a time when he says immigrants have become the fastest growing segment of incarcerated people in the country.

CONDITIONS REPORT ON NW DETENTION CENTER -- ONEAMERICA & SEATTLE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW -- JULY 15
By Jackie O'Ryan, Communications Director, OneAmerica

SEATTLE -- The findings of Voices from Detention: A Report on Human Rights Violations at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) will be released Tuesday, July 15, 10:00 a.m. at Seattle University School of Law’s in the 1st Floor Lobby on the Southeast corner of Sullivan Hall at 12th and Columbia in Seattle.

This report, the first in-depth study of conditions at the NWDC in Tacoma, is a collaboration of the Seattle University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic and OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone). Findings of the report include the following and more:

· Inadequate treatment of the mentally ill, including refugees who had been persecuted in their homelands

A recent [May 7, 2008] New York Times article listed 66 detainees who died in immigration detention across the country. One of those detainees died at the age of 42 from "coronary artery disease" at the NWDC. The full circumstances of Jesus Cervantes-Corona’s death in 2006 have not been disclosed.