Imprisoned Justice: Inside Two Georgia Immigrant Detention Centers

The United States has steadily expanded its use of immigrant detention from about 30 detained immigrants per day prior to 1980 to 41,000 in 2016. Now the world's largest immigrant detention system, it relies heavily on for-profit facilities, with 72 percent of immigration detention beds located in for-profit facilities in 2015 compared to only seven percent of imprisoned non-immigrants in 2014. Imprisoned Justice: Inside Two Georgia Immigrant Detention Centers utilizes data from immigration enforcement sources such as the Department of Homeland Security, as well as interviews with immigration lawyers and with immigrants detained at the Stewart and Irwin County Detention Centers in Georgia, to highlight the inhumane living conditions in these privately-run detention centers, which are among the largest in the country. The lengthy list of concerns includes sexual abuse, inadequate access to medical care and legal information, excessive use of solitary confinement, and a lack of clean drinking water and food. For instance, upon arrival at Irwin, some detained immigrants were placed in solitary confinement for up to a week or longer until space became available. To ensure respect for detained immigrants' basic human rights, the authors make numerous recommendations pertaining to due process, living conditions, medical care and detention center staff. The authors also recommend closing both Stewart and Irwin detention centers, terminating contracts with non-compliant facilities, and making greater use of the Alternatives to Detention Program for eligible immigrants. (Jasmina Popaja for The Immigrant Learning Center's Public Education Institute)

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