Florida Jail Denies INS Detainees Are Abused

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By Associated Press

Published: 07/15/2002

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said recently that it plans to look into complaints that federal immigration detainees are being abused at the Clay County Jail.
A spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office said that the inquiry will find that all inmates at the jail, including 122 on federal holds, are humanely treated.
The Hispanic Organization of North Florida asked the independent civil rights commission, which lacks enforcement powers, to check into allegations that people held for the Immigration and Naturalization Service are being pepper-sprayed for little cause and are being denied medical treatment.
Bobby Doctor, regional director for the commission, said he plans to meet with INS and Clay County officials about the allegations. He said the commission will research the situation and then pursue a resolution.
Rodney Germaine, a spokesman for the INS in Florida, said recently there are about 1,900 INS detainees in 10 to 12 county jails in Florida and at the Krome Detention Center in Miami.
Germaine said he was not aware of any problems in the Clay County Jail, which he said is visited frequently by INS officials from Orlando.
The county receives $56 a day for each detainee, and was paid about $2.1 million for INS holds from December 2000 to April 2002, she said. Since the INS does not have enough cells to hold all the detainees in its custody, it contracts for cells with city, county and state jails and prisons.
Officials at the jail claim that the INS detainees, most of them Cuban, are treated the same as the other inmates. The jail has 24-hour-a-day medical care, including a doctor who is always on call for medical problems. Inmates can also be transported to a nearby hospital. Dental care also is provided in the jail.

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