Immigrant Detainees in Louisiana on Hunger Strike

7:36 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Justice

4 Aug 2009

When your cuerpo is used as fodder to feed the prison industrial complex, how do you transform that body into a weapon of protest? For immigrants caught up in detention, using their bodies to protest the horrible and inhumane conditions inside is nothing new. What is new is the context that the current administration has made it clear that prison “reform” is not a priority, much less if the prisons we are talking about “reforming” are for those labeled alien/foreign/unwanted/brown.

Now, another group of immigrants inside a detention center are on hunger strike, their fifth one, in protest of the deplorable conditions at the South Louisiana Correctional Facility in Basile. This detention center is run by the private contractor LCS Corrections Services Inc. and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, more than 100 detainees acted as human rights monitors inside the jail throughout July. “Over the course of a month, detainee human rights monitors recorded complaints, attempted to lodge hundreds of grievances, and communicated with advocates about jail conditions,” said NOWCRJ, which released a report of their findings and the accounts of the several detainees.

The violations and abuses include lack of basic medical care, no contact with family, denial of access to legal counsel, and lack of basic needs such as toilet paper and soap.

“These unsanitary conditions affect our mental and physical health. I developed a rash on my groin because of the lack of soap. When one person gets sick – a fever or cough – it spreads very quickly. We are not the strong, healthy men we were when we arrived.”
–Edgar Bojorge Alcantara, detainee and hunger striker in Basile, La. immigration detention center

The ACLU has sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to investigate and shut down the detention center. And while there is a huge push for President Obama to shut down prisons like Guantanamo Bay because of human rights abuses, the detainees on hunger strike inside Basile are being put in solitary confinement.

Via / The Institute for Southern Studies

Tags: department of homeland security, immigrant detention, Janet Napolitano, Prison Industrial Complex, South Louisiana Correctional Facility in Basile

4 Responses to Immigrant Detainees in Louisiana on Hunger Strike

William

August 5th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

INCARCERATING PEOPLE “FOR PROFIT” IS IN A WORD….WRONG!
Even if one does not ask or pretends not to see the rope and the flashing red flag draped around the philosophical question standing solemnly at attention in the middle of the room, it remains apparent that the mere presence of a private “for profit” driven prison business in our country undermines the U.S Constitution and subsequently the credibility of the American criminal justice system. In fact, until all private prisons in America have been abolished and outlawed, “the promise” of fairness and justice at every level of this country’s judicial system will remain unattainable. We must restore the principles and the vacant promise of our judicial system. Our government cannot continue to “job-out” its obligation and neglect its duty to the individuals confined in the correctional and rehabilitation facilities throughout this nation, nor can it ignore the will of the people that it was designed to serve and protect. There is urgent need for the good people of this country to emerge from the shadows of indifference, apathy, cynicism, fear, and those other dark places that we migrate to when we are overwhelmed by frustration and the loss of hope.
My hope is that you will support the National Public Service Council to Abolish Private Prisons (NPSCTAPP) with a show of solidarity by signing “The Single Voice Petition”
http://www.petitiononline.com/gufree2/petition.html

Please visit our website for further information: http://www.npsctapp.blogspot.com

–Ahma Daeus
“Practicing Humanity Without A License”…

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Immigrant Detainees in Louisiana on Hunger Strike

4 Responses to Immigrant Detainees in Louisiana on Hunger Strike

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