Author: mopress

Receipts Reported by Williamson County Sun Raise Question of Over-Crowding

“I think Williamson County should be ashamed of itself,” said Jane Van Praag of Bartlett, Texas speaking Tuesday before a meeting of the County Commissioners Court.

“You are sanctioning this injustice,” said Efrain Davila of Round Rock.

What they are talking about, of course, is the T. Don Hutto “Residential Center” in nearby Taylor.
“There’s nothing residential about it,” warned Van Praag.

Davila and Van Praag are quoted in the Sunday Sun of Georgetown, Texas, a publication that is not available online.

“Critics say that if it looks like a prison and talks like a prison, then it must be a prison,” writes reporter Ben Trollinger in his front-page story. “It is unjust, they argue, for children to be in such an environment.”

In response to public unrest, several members of the court have pledged to tour the jail.

“The county’s involvement is integral,” writes Trollinger, “because ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] cannot directly contract with a private corporation such as CCA [Corrections Corporation of America]. Without the county’s consent, ICE would be forced to look elsewhere.”

Trollinger says that the county’s contract with ICE would allow commissioners to give the agency 120 days notice to cease operations.

As Efrain Davila suggested, commissioners are complicit in the operation, not only for approving the contract in April, but also for collecting a fee of “about” one dollar per head per day based on the Hutto jail population.

Trollinger reports that the county has been collecting $15,000 to $20,000 per month from ICE–amounts that at “exactly” one dollar per head per day would suggest populations of up to 645 people in a jail that, according to the CCA website, has 512 beds.

Funding for CCA also flows through the county, reports Trollinger. CCA presents its expenses for running the jail to the county, whch then passes the charges to ICE. Writes Trollinger, ICE pays CCA about $95 per day to jail the people at Hutto, or about $2.8 million per month.

Note: Thanks to Jay Johnson-Castro who encouraged us to pick up a copy of the newspaper, which we did right outside the newspaper offices.–gm

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro (Dec. 23)

Mornin’ amigos…

Christmas Eve Vigil for the children imprisoned with their mothers at the Hutto prison camp in Taylor , Texas .

Time: Just one hour…between 5pm-6pm. Music and candles.

Location: 1400 Welch St. , Taylor , TX .

Regarding this vigil, I received this caution from someone who knows more about the inside of the Hutto prison camp than most of us.

I would be careful though, because I heard that as a result of the last vigil, the detainees were kind of in lock-down most of the day. They didn’t get to go outside that day. So I would be careful, because you wouldn’t want ICE to get upset and take it out on the detainees. Just a heads-up.

I feel the tearing expressed above. For me…it is very simple. It’s a must to go. We want the children and their moms to know that someone in America cares.

What do we have to do? Wait for them to start tattooing numbers on their wrists? This has to be exposed. We will shame these entities. We will free these people. Freedom doesn’t come easy…or cheap.

Chertoff & Company rule by fear. Yet…if YOU were inside…which would YOU rather experience? A lock down because Americans were outside protesting your conditions? Or spend Christmas with your kids for 22 hours on Christmas day…in your cell anyway…knowing that NO ONE was out there?

While attorneys cannot inspect the inside of this facility…nor can the media…did you know who can. Any significant investor in privatized prisons can tour the facilities. As a country, are we now moving from a military-industrial complex to an ICE/immigration-privatization complex? Who really rules America when these conditions are secret from the public and the media…but open to those with the capitol? Chertoff & Company…and their financial backers?

Did you know that ICE has offices in Hutto…with some 50 ICE personnel…or so an official told Fox News on video.

Did you know that the helpless in the prison camps have no way of communicating with the outside…unless the buy the CCA phone cards? $20 for 20 minutes. Can someone explain to me how a terrorized mother and her children who have been striped of all human dignity and has no money gets justice in our country?

That’s my take on this issue…and that of Teye and Belen. We want the moms and kids to know that we are there. That some one cares. That we care. And Chertoff & Company need to know too! Some folks will be attending. Some media too. The message is spilling all over the world. Just Google “hutto detention families children”. In just one week, the message is now global.

Our presence will bring hope…something that fascism does not want these people to experience or enjoy. Some individuals and media have indicated that they’ll be there. Where we are few or not…makes no difference. The moms and especially the children will know the “We the people of the United States of America” have not forgotten them…and will not forget them. We demand their freedom.

What is almost as good is that Chertoff & Company will know too! It is our belief that what is being committed here behind the razor wires of the Hutto prison camp is not only immoral but criminal. We are demanding democracy and due process. A congressional investigation…and a UN investigation. This is beyond war crimes. This is a crime on humanity…to imprison mothers and children who come to this country seeking asylum.

Over this issue… America has a chance to wake up! Really wake up!!!

Silent night. Holy night. All is calm. All is bright. Tomorrow night!!!

Jay

Our favorite link-back today is from Latina Lista. Go there, hang out, add your comment. Say the Texas Civil Rights Review sent you.

Latina Lista on Hutto Jail Hats off to bloggers who manage comments. Spammers ran me out of that business.

Here’s a clip from Latina Lista correspondent Aztec:

As one reader tells Latina Lista today:

After reading your blog on the facility that holds families accused of being illegal under those terrible conditions, I decided to call Homeland Security to express my outrage through their “Citizen’s comment line.” What happened next is laughable though expected. I was transferred by the operator at Homeland Security to the comment line and received this automated message:

“I’m sorry, you cannot leave a message because the box is full.”

When I got the operator back, I was transferred several times to be told by one person: “Call back in a few minutes, an office assistant is ‘cleaning it out.’”

I replied, “What does that mean? Are you guys just deleting the comments to make more room!?”

Whereupon she hesitantly replied, “No, but we’re deleting the ones…well, you know….”

I said, “I do? So am I to understand that an office aide is assigned the task of deeming messages ” insignificant” versus “worthy? By the way, exactly who in the office listens to the screened messages?” ”

She replied, “Um, I’m not sure…”

It sounded by the tone of her voice, that the messages left are given little weight, if at all. Perhaps you should find out the answers to the questions I listed above before people try to call only to end up with their messages getting deleted for their trouble. I’m sure that would make interesting fodder for a blog.

good luck.
Aztec

To follow CCA’s lead and call the Hutto jail a “residential center” is newspeak we won’t support. Even “detention” seems less overt than it should be. We don’t object to Jay Johnson-Castro’s “prison camp,” but jail is so much easier to type over and over again.

At any rate, look what happens when search engines get to talking to each other. Google keyword, T. Don Hutto:

Hutto, Texas Guide to Local Hotels, Lodging, Restaurants, Real …
The T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a private detention facility in Taylor, Texas, is emblematic of new federal policy that detains all unauthorized …
huttotx.usl.myareaguide.com/ – 76k – Cached – Similar pages
On the subject of America as a Corrections Corporation, where half of the people can be hired to keep the other half locked up, here’s a summer recollection:

Down in Pinal County: The Pun’s on US As the company presents it: here is a March 2006 pitch in pdf format to a Lehman Brothers Conference.