By Mariela Olivares As regular readers of this blog and of César’s work know, the history of mass incarceration is one mired in political and societal efforts to criminalize drug-related offenses, to lengthen prison sentences and to increase the severity of punishment for relatively minor offenses. These general criminal justice system reform efforts, which gained greatest steam in the 1980’s, resulted in an incredible increase in the number of people incarcerated in the United States. As we also know, the concomitant effect on immigration detention was also unprecedented. Although [...]
Immigration imprisonment continues to be good for the bottom line, but bad for everything else
Immigration imprisonment is no stranger to the push and pull of vested interests. From private prison corporations that build lock-up facilities to food service vendors, the modern immigration imprisonment regime relies heavily on third parties to provide routine functions. As I write in Naturalizing Immigration Imprisonment (forthcoming in the California Law Review), “Having locked itself into the policy choice of using imprisonment to enforce immigration law, the federal government—perhaps inadvertently—created a body of third parties dependent on that policy choice.” Part of what [...]
CCA earns $36 million from family detention
The nation’s largest private prison contractor, Corrections Corporation of America, is heavily invested in all manner of detention at the state and federal level. Last year it added to its long running and extensive relationship with the federal government a sizeable contract to detain migrants traveling in family units. In a press release issued last week, CCA reported that this newest feature of its detention business is reaping substantial financial rewards. The company received $36.0 million in revenue from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas during the first quarter [...]
Vt. Superior Ct: Private prison corporation is subject to state open records law
In another of a string of successful challenges under state law, the Vermont Superior Court announced the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is subject to the state’s Access to Public Records Act. Prison Legal News v. Corrections Corporation of America, No. 332-5-13 Wncv, slip op. (Vt. Sup. Ct. Jan. 21, 2015). This case arose from an attempt by Prison Legal News, an indefatigable news outlet, to obtain records about sexual assault claims brought by two inmates against prison officials. Specifically, PLN sought the settlement agreements that ended the sexual [...]
New family detention center set to open in December
The country’s newest and largest facility in which families, including children, will be detained is scheduled to begin receiving inmates in December, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) announced. CCA, the largest private prison company operating in the United States, holds the contract to build and operate the new facility, formally named the South Texas Family Residential Center, on behalf of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Though news about the Dilley facility was released several weeks ago, this is the first clear statement of an expected opening date that [...]
Naturalizing Immigration Imprisonment
Every day, roughly 33,000 people spend the night imprisoned while waiting to learn whether they will be allowed to remain in the United States. Thousands more are confined on charges of having committed an immigration crime. Others are behind bars because they were already convicted. The substantive law that applies to people in each of these categories differs: civil law governed by the Immigration and Naturalization Act for those in removal proceedings, and criminal law governed by the federal penal code (and, to a smaller degree, its state counterparts). That is largely where the [...]
Private prison companies continue thriving off immigration imprisonment
The nation’s two largest private prison companies released information last week indicating that they continue to do quite well by contracting with ICE and other federal government agencies responsible for detaining migrants. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, respectively the largest and second-largest private prison companies operating in the United States, have long been involved in immigration imprisonment. That trend does not appear to be abating, but they are diversifying their business operations. CCA is huge. During the quarter that ended June 30, 2104, it [...]
5 Cir: Sexually assaulted detainees have tough row to hoe to hold officials accountable
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied claims brought by women who were sexually assaulted while being transported from the notorious T. Don Hutto Residential Center, an immigration prison in central Texas. Doe v. Robertson, No. 13-50459, slip op. (5th Cir. May 6, 2014) (Stewart, Garza, and Southwick). Judge Garza wrote the panel’s opinion. This case involved complaints by several women who were detained at Hutto and sexually assaulted by Donald Dunn, an employee of the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), while being transported by Dunn from [...]