Please do not forget the families imprisoned in the for profit T Don Hutto prison in Taylor, TX

[rhett o rick]

What is T Don Hutto?
In May 2006, the Department of Homeland Security opened its first prison for immigrant families 30 miles north of Austin. It is the first family detention center in the country to be based on the penal model, though plans were quickly made to build more.

The T Don Hutto facility holds men, women (some pregnant), children, and infants, none of whom have a criminal past. Administered by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country's largest for-profit corrections company, Hutto lacks proper licensing and medical facilities, and has been proven to traumatize families.

http://tdonhutto.blogspot.com/

Please ask your Congress-critter if they agree that children should be imprisoned just because their family want to be Americans. Also, ask them what it is costing per person to house these non-criminals in this prison. One more thing, there may be American citizens being imprisoned there.

[w8liftinglady]

1. Holy Mother of God.

I see my next letter to the editor.My Congressman reads all of them.

[Uncle Joe]

2. For profit prisons should be illegal,

everything they stand for and will work for is cancerous to a society that supposedly believes in freedom.

I see absolutely no good, which can come from the concept of making a buck by imprisoning the people, whether they're American citizens or not.

Thanks for the thread rhett o rick.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Webb has stated he wanted to look into this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4730863&mesg_id=4730863

[Uncle Joe]

9. Good for Senator Webb, I hope the outlawing of for profit prisons

become a result of his work, if it doesn't, I believe whatever remedies do become part of prison reform will only be temporary, as the gradual eroding effect of lobbyists working for "for profit prisons" do their work on any future Congress.

Thanks for the link, ColbertWatcher, that was encouraging.:thumbsup:

[ColbertWatcher]

12. You're welcome. n/t

[justabob]

10. no kidding

For profit prisons are wrong on so many levels. There are some things that just shouldn't be for profit... imprisoning people is definitely one of them.

[gristy]

13. Me too

I see absolutely no good which can come from the concept of making a buck by imprisoning the people, whether they're American citizens or not.

[rhett o rick]

15. I believe I read where Cheney has 85 million dollars invested in prisons for profit. nm

[w8liftinglady]

16. a few morsels

http://www.ww4report.com/node/635
Cheney indicted in Texas prison scandal

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/19/Cheney_indicted_in_Texas_case/UPI-83721227096771/
Cheney indicted in Texas case

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/01/cheney-gonale-indictments-dismissed-texas-prison-case/
Cheney, Gonzalez Indictments Dismissed in Texas Prison Case

[Uncle Joe]

30. That wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Cheney has never exhibited a capacity to believe in the American People's right for self-determination or the concept of government of, by and for the people.

He believes in rule by royal decree, secret meetings with energy corporations, his claims of not being part of the executive branch, he's not accountable to anyone; the people or their representatives. He can literally shoot someone in the face and tell the sheriff's department to come back the next day.

On the other hand, the people have no rights of their own to privacy in his world. Illegal wiretapping of the American People, even the covert agents risking their lives serving the U.S. have no right to privacy.

I imagine, his investment in immoral, unethical, un-American for profit prisons would be his seed money in eventually bringing about that reality in total.

[rhett o rick]

31. He has to be the most evil man at least in the US. Although Karl Rove

might be as bad.

[OneBlueSky]

17. from for profit prisons to mercenaries acting as U.S. soldiers . . .

this whole trend of outsourcing critical government functions to private corporations has to stop . . . now some states are leasing highways and bridges to private industry as a way of "managing" the increasingly red ink in their budgets . . . what's next, hiring H&R Block to collect our taxes? . . .

[8 track mind]

3. I can't tell you what i do for a living,

But i was just recently in there doing contractor work. It's a fucking creepy place. It's clean outside and in, but playground equipment goes unused, and everyone looks scared. The CCA employees that work there could give a rats ass less about anyone or anything. Its just a job to them. It's a prison pure and simple. One that could house some truly violent offenders but nothing like that exists on the inside. It freaked me the hell out and i refused to go back in the place after that.

(edited for clarity)

[truedelphi]

4. Even as someone who is opposed to our open borders, I am ill when reading about this.

This is all about Big Bucks to the Prison Guard industry and the Prison Contracters.

What ever happened to the bus ride back to the border??

And no matter the style of prison its costs are exorbitant. So that people can vegetate for their crime of trying to better their lives? There is no sense to this at all, other than greed for the Prison Industry and the politicians who get kickbacks via the campagin finance funds.

[8 track mind]

6. they do have that

they drive non-stop from Taylor to the border. I saw it myself. They do have bathroom facilities on the bus from what i was told

[DJ13]

11. Im against open borders as well, but prisons are beyond the pale

Just deport them, dont imprison them.

[lonestarnot]

5. This is so outrageously fucking disgusting! It must be stopped!

[rhett o rick]

18. First it needs to be exposed. nm

[madfloridian]

8. More about Hutto and other facilities. Adding thousands of beds a year.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1286

"Sun Apr 15th 2007, 11:42 PM
Over the past year, 7,500 detention beds have been added in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, New Mexico and Texas, and the average daily detainee population has risen to about 28,000 from 18,000 last July, Torres told Congress."

One of the links in the post is dead, but I found the article elsewhere.

http://www.immigrationwatchcanada.org/index.php?PAGE_id=1558&PAGE_user_op=view_page&module=pagemaster

Here are some quotes from it.

"But some of those arrested say detention was a nightmare.

Before the government said conditions had been improved, children were forced to wear urine-stained prison garb, confined to cells with open toilets up to 12 hours a day, fed bad food that led to illness and weight loss, deprived of toys in their bunks and received only an hour of schooling each weekday, according to court papers. Crying bouts were common. Guards threatened family separation if children continued crying or misbehaved.

"I think it is not fair to run away from torture to come to be tortured. Not physically, but mentally, psychologically and emotionally," plaintiff Raouitee Pamela Puran said in court documents. She and her 4-year-old daughter are from Guyana and seeking asylum.

The harshest critics have likened the facility to an "internment camp."

Though criticized last month by a federal judge who called the conditions "a little bit deplorable," federal immigration officials say the facility provides a humane remedy for "one of the greatest impediments to border control" -- the catch and release of non-Mexican immigrants, which ended last summer."

[lonestarnot]

19. Internment camp for profit and slave labor, did Japaneze internment camps incorporate these

utilities?

[Lilith Velkor]

14. kicky wicky

[rhett o rick]

20. I am curious about how long the "processing" takes. nm

[fed_up_mother]

21. This is so sick my breakfast is stuck in my throat reading that.

[alarimer]

22. Democracy Now did a show on this a while back.

They interviewed some family who had been imprisoned there awaiting deportation after having been captured by the Gestapo, er, DHS.

[rhett o rick]

23. Thanks, I didn't hear about that. nm

[lonestarnot]

24. Kick!

:kick:

[w8liftinglady]

25. do you know the length of the average detainment?

[rhett o rick]

26. No, I have been trying to get that information, but it is hard to get any information.

My Congress-critters all ignore my requests for information. And the are Democrats.

[w8liftinglady]

27. according to this,average LOS is 52 days

http://eyeonwilliamson.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/hutto1.pdf

[rhett o rick]

28. Families with children are detained 52 days in prison awaiting processing. That is horrible.

Of course the longer they stay the more money the contractor makes.
Thanks for the link

[redqueen]

29. Not enough money to build more low-cost housing for the poor...

but this? This we can do.

[w8liftinglady]

32. this has even more info,including updated financial info

http://lkeber.googlepages.com/LockingUpFamilyValues.pdf

[rhett o rick]

33. Thank you very much for the link. nm