The detention of immigrants is viewed as a booming industry that counties can cash in on. With a state prison, death row facility, privately run contract immigration prison, ICE detention facility, and county jail, Florence, Arizona has become a modern-day penal colony. The county, undoubtedly realized it was missing out. In November 2005, local officials in Pinal County, Arizona, completed construction of a 1000-bed facility. The $42 million facility was constructed with the expectation of receiving $15 or $16 million dollars in annual revenue from a contract with ICE.Federal immigration contracts generated about $95.2 million, or 8 percent, of Correction Corp.'s $1.19 billion in revenue last year, and about $30.6 million, or 5 percent, of Geo's $612 million total income.
The current zeal for immigrant detention has roots in social, economic, and political forces which are driven by dynamics that run to the very core of our social system. The expansion of immigrant detention capacity comes on the heels of an astonishing upward shift in the overall U.S. incarceration rate which has swept this country into the uncharted territory of mass incarceration. The sharp increase in recent months raises fundamental issues about the nature of our governmental system and the prospects for remaining an open, democratic society.
The developments described above in locations as diverse as Bergen County, New Jersey
and Pinal County, Arizona illustrate how – once created – a national “market” for prison bed contracts has penetrated the public sector with notions that expanding capacity of local lockups will generate “profit” for the public purse. And, in rural areas hard-hit by decades of economic decline, the immigrant detention boom is now being heralded as economic development – “jobs for our community.”
The United States government should end the policy of mandatory detention
and should re-examine whether use of detention is necessary and proportional. As long as the laws provide for the mandatory detention of immigrants without the right bond or bail, the country will continue to see the massive expansion of jails, prisons, and private contract facilities, increasingly fueled by the profit-making motives of both the private and public sectors, as much as by anti-immigrant hysteria.
The developments described above in locations as diverse as Bergen County, New Jersey
and Pinal County, Arizona illustrate how – once created – a national “market” for prison bed contracts has penetrated the public sector with notions that expanding capacity of local lockups will generate “profit” for the public purse. And, in rural areas hard-hit by decades of economic decline, the immigrant detention boom is now being heralded as economic development – “jobs for our community.”
The United States government should end the policy of mandatory detention
and should re-examine whether use of detention is necessary and proportional. As long as the laws provide for the mandatory detention of immigrants without the right bond or bail, the country will continue to see the massive expansion of jails, prisons, and private contract facilities, increasingly fueled by the profit-making motives of both the private and public sectors, as much as by anti-immigrant hysteria.
0 comments:
Post a Comment