Support Immigrant Detainees' Rights & Demands
Urgent Action Request – Call & Fax to Support Detainees' Rights & Demands
Detainees Take Action Protesting Inhumane Conditions in Pecos, Texas Immigrant Detention Center
Immigrants awaiting deportation who are being held in a private jail run by the GEO Group began a protest last Saturday, January 31. The protest began after a group of immigrant prisoners attempted to meet with the detention facility’s authorities, demanding that a gravely ill detainee be released from solitary confinement and be taken immediately to a hospital. The prison authorities refused to listen and did not take action. The detainees responded by protesting after being ignored. Read more on the immigrant prisoners protest below, after action request.
DEMANDS (see talking points below)
* Humane Conditions and Treatment
* Independent Access
* Emergency Medical Care and Accountability
- The media, legal observers or lawyers and family members are not being allowed to see what has happened.
- Demand accountability from the GEO Group and the Reeves County Sheriff; they must be pressured to dramatically improve the conditions, provide medical care and attention to all inmates and be held accountable for the deplorable conditions and treatment they have given immigrant prisoners.
ACTION
Call and fax -- Demand accountability and safe treatment for the inmates. (see talking points below)
* The Reeves County Detention Center:
TEL: (432) 447-2926
FAX: (432) 447-9224
* Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties – U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Toll Free: (866) 644-8360
TEL: (202) 401-1474
FAX: (202) 357-8298
Email: timothy.keefer@dhs.gov, civil.liberties@dhs.gov
* Office of Inspector General, DHS:
Fax (202) 254-4285
* Office of Professional Responsibility, DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement:
TEL: (877) 246-8253
FAX: (202) 344-3390
* ICE Office of Investigations Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Offices
TEL: (703) 285-6709
FAX: (703) 285-6700
* Office of the Inspector General
Email: oig.hotline@usdoj.gov
* Federal Bureau of Prisons:
Gerardo Maldonado, Jr.
South Central Regional Office
Federal Bureau of Prisons
4211 Cedar Springs Rd
Dallas, TX 75219
TEL: 214-224-3389
Email: SCRO/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV
* Reeves County Sheriff
Arnulfo Gomez
P. O. Box 910
Pecos Texas 79772
TEL: (432)445-4901
FAX: (432) 445-9403
Email: sheriffgomez22@hotmail.com
* Congress-member Ciro Rodriguez, 23rd district, TX
Email: ciro.rodriguez@mail.house.gov
and
Head Staffer Cesar Blanco at: cesar.blanco@mail.house.gov
FAX to San Antonio Office: (210) 923-8447
AFTER YOU TAKE ACTION
* Please forward to your partners, allies & co-workers, too!
* After you have made a call or sent an email of fax, please inform Laura Rivas or Arnoldo Garcia at NNIRR. Please share a copy of your communications and any response you may receive:
Email: lrivas@nnirr.org or agarcia@nnirr.org
TEL: (510) 465-1984 ext. 304 or ext. 305
FAX: (510) 465-1885
TALKING POINTS
1. Investigate immigrant prisoner deaths and other brutal treatment being committed by guards and other local authorities at the Reeves County Detention Complex reported by detainees and their families.
Immigrant prison eyewitnesses have reported that in the last five months at least five prisoners have died in their cells and have been removed.
Independent media, legal observers and immigrant and human rights organizations must be allowed to meet and interview detainees and others to determine the changes needed to uphold the immigrant detainees’ rights.
The Office of Inspector General and other responsible authorities must investigate the abuses and bring those responsible for the brutal treatment to justice.
2. Inmates are demanding medical care for all detainees, especially for those who need special treatment, such as diabetes and others who are in dire need due to negligence and/or no treatment.
Demand that the GEO group guards and warden stop punishing immigrants needing medical attention. Prisoners report that when prisoners ask for medical attention they are punished and put in solitary confinement.
Prisoners are demanding immediate transfer out of this facility because the prison is overcrowded and uninhabitable due to these deplorable conditions.
3. No retaliation against prisoners who report or complain about the conditions. When inmates complain they are immediately punished by sticking them in the “hole” – solitary confinement.
Prisoners are punished for complaining about the poor food provided and the lack of sanitary conditions (rat and cockroach/insect infestation) in the cafeteria, hallways and cells.
4. Provide adequate and healthy food; provide heating and adequate clothing, bedding and other amenities immediately.
Prisoners are being forced to eat rotten food; the prisoners that prepare the food complain that the kitchen is infested with cockroaches and they have to cook the food under these unsanitary conditions.
SAMPLE LETTER
February 4, 2009
Glenn A. Fine
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of the Inspector General
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 4706
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Dear Glenn A. Fine:
It has come to our attention that hundreds of detainees at the Reeves County Detention Complex in Pecos, Texas, have been forced to sleep outdoors without access to adequate sanitation facilities, running or drinkable water, and are only getting one meal per day since Saturday, January 31st when a fire broke out at the facility. Detainees have reported various attempts to bring their grievances and concerns about maltreatment and negligence from medical staff against detainees with special health needs, who are routinely punished if they request medical attention and forced into solitary confinement without any food or water.
Now, four days after the fire and alleged Śriots, over 2,000 detainees are told they will be forced to squeeze into a facility meant to house up to 1,000 people while repairs are done on the units damaged by the fire, which could take up to 8 or 9 months.
We request a full investigation into the following conditions reported by detainees currently housed at the Reeves County Detention Complex:
* At least five immigrant detainees have died at the Reeves County Detention facility in the past three months; many as a direct result of medical negligence and abuse by guards and other detention staff.
* Detainees are routinely denied medical attention or care, and are punished and/or ridiculed for complaining or requesting medical attention for delicate and life-threatening conditions.
* Detainees are routinely punished with solitary confinement if they complain about a medical condition or the deplorable living conditions, including unsanitary conditions due to overcrowding and under-maintenance, and rotten food cooked in insect and rodent-infested kitchens.
* During the disturbance prison guards threw tear gas at detainees' faces and shot rubber bullets at them, injuring at least three who had to be rushed to a hospital. Prison guards then locked detainees in the units that were burning, and left them there to die. A group of detainees broke out of their cells and helped other detainees escape the smoke-filled cells and building contaminated with hazardous levels of carbon monoxide.
* Since January 31st, detainees have been forced to sleep, eat, and relieve themselves outdoors without any access to running water or sanitary facilities, or blankets.
We urge you to take immediate action to:
1. Investigate immigrant detainee deaths and other brutal treatment committed by guards and other authorities at the Reeves County Detention Complex reported by detainees and their families.
2. Secure medical care and the necessary attention to all detainees, especially those with special medical conditions requiring medication and constant care.
3. Protect prisoners who report or file grievances about the conditions at the facility. Stop practice of punishing detainees in solitary confinement merely for speaking out, exercising their first amendment right.
4. Provide adequate and healthy food, heating and adequate clothing, bedding and other amenities immediately.
It is imperative that you ensure the safety, uphold the physical and mental integrity of each detainee held at Reeves County Detention Complex III.
We expect a response from your office within two business weeks. Please look forward to hearing from us soon.
Thank you,
Your Name
Organization
Contact Info
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BACKGROUND REPORTS
Report by NNIRR
Immigrants awaiting deportation who are being held in a private jail run by the GEO Group began a protest last Saturday, January 31. The protest began after a group of immigrant prisoners attempted to meet with the detention facility’s authorities, demanding that a gravely ill detainee be released from solitary confinement and be taken immediately to a hospital. The prison authorities refused to listen and did not take action. The detainees responded by protesting after being ignored.
After the inmates continued to raise their complaints to the guards and the warden about the treatment and deplorable conditions they were being subjected to in the “Reeves County Detention Facility” in Pecos, Texas, the detainees began a spontaneous protest. The prison authorities literally laughed at the immigrant detainees’ demands and told the prisoners that they had complete power over them and could do whatever they pleased.
After the detainees began a spontaneous protest, a melee ensued. A fire broke out during the protest and guards immediately left the premises, locking in the prisoners behind. Some prisoners broke windows to get to other detainees who were choking and fainting, overcome by the smoke.
Then the guards got into SWAT vehicles (or some type of armored vehicle described as a “tortuga,” a turtle, by an inmate) and began firing teargas and rubber bullets at the prisoners who had been abandoned in the facility that was on fire.
Afterwards, the prison guards forced the immigrant inmates to stay outdoors in the prison facility yard on Saturday night. Since then, they have only been fed once a day; they have little or no water and have only three restroom facilities for almost 3,000 prisoners.
Last night the prison authorities said they would let the inmates back into the facilities. But the prisoners are being forced back into a smoke-damaged building contaminated with carbon monoxide from the fire. The facility now has little or no ventilation since windows have been boarded up.
The Geo Group already has more than 2,800 prisoners in a facility meant to hold 2,400.
Now, GEO guards are trying to force them to be held in the hallways and in around the cells.
To see more on the Reeves County Facility:
http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/node/2064
Reeves County Detention Complex
98 West County Road 204
Pecos, TX 79772
TEL: (432) 447-2926
Fax: (432) 447-9224
Facility Operator: GEO Group (This is a Private facility)
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Frontera NorteSur
February 2, 2009
Immigration News
Immigrant Prisoners Stage Uprising
Details are still sketchy of an inmate uprising at a privately-operated federal detention facility in West Texas last Saturday. Reports in the US and Mexican press suggest the revolt, involving hundreds prisoners at the Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, Texas, erupted after complaints of poor medical treatment went unheeded.
Initial accounts report the uprising spanned two days, with inmates setting fires and possibly even seizing guards' radio communication equipment. An unidentified Reeves County official earlier told El Diario de El Paso the situation was "dangerous" inside the facility managed by the Geo Group.
The uprising is now declared over, and as many as 700 former Pecos prisoners are reportedly confined at another detention center in Sierra Blanca, Texas, because sleeping areas were destroyed during Saturday's rebellion. Many of the inmates at the Pecos prison were held on immigration law violations.
The January 31 uprising was the second time inmates have staged violent protests at the prison in a period of less than two months. Although a complete assessment of injuries and property damages was not officially disclosed, at least three inmates could have been injured and hospitalized in the latest incident.
Managed by the Florida-based Geo Group, the Pecos facility is among many immigrant detention centers in the United States currently run by private companies. The jail has a capacity of 2,400 inmates, according to information posted on Geo Group's web site.
Formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, Geo Group calls itself a "world leader" in the privatized management of correctional institutions. According to the company's web site, "The North American market is growing rapidly, and we are focused on expanding Federal procurement opportunities."
Geo Group reported raking in $1.024 billion in revenues during 2007, with income totaling nearly $42 million. Besides the United States, the company manages prisons in several nations, including the United Kingdom, where it also provides immigrant detention services.
Sources: El Paso Times, February 2, 2009. Article by Stephanie Sanchez. Newspaper Tree/Associated Press, February 2, 2009. El Diario de El Paso, February 2, 2009. Article by Nancy Gonzalez. Lapolaka.com, February 2, 2009. Thegeogroupinc.com. Investing.businessweek.com
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
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For more information contact:
Arnoldo Garcia
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados
310 8th Street Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94607
Email: agarcia@nnirr.org
TEL: (510) 465-1984 ext. 305
FAX: (510) 465-1885
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