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| Suicides at CCA-run ICE Detention Center Spark Investigation |
| By prisonlegalnews.org - Derek Gilna |
| Published: 10/01/2013 |
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Human rights organizations monitoring complaints regarding conditions of confinement for prisoners held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities were likely not surprised when they received news that two detainees had committed suicide at the Eloy Detention Center outside Phoenix, Arizona. The April 2013 deaths of Jorge Garcia-Mejia, 40, and Elsa Guadalupe-Gonzalez, 24, both Guatemalan nationals, three days apart at the Corrections Corporation of America-operated facility, focused attention on for-profit companies housing immigration detainees. According to Alessandra Soler, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, "Suicides are a red flag. They usually signify a much larger problem. Sometimes it's because of ineffective mental health treatment, but often times it's caused by poor staffing issues." Prison Legal News has reported extensively on human rights abuses in private immigration detention facilities, as well as the fact that private prison firms lobby on immigration-related issues and have been implicated in Arizona's enactment of a harsh anti-immigrant law, SB 1070. [See, e.g., PLN, July 2013, p.1; Nov. 2010, p.1]. Around half of the approximately 34,000 immigration detainees held in ICE custody at any given time are housed in privately-operated prisons. Unfortunately, the rapid expansion of the immigration detainee population, including asylum-seekers and other detainees who are not criminally charged, has not been accompanied by a commensurate increase in the number of mental health professionals or resources available at detention facilities. Garcia-Mejia hung himself at the Eloy Detention Center on April 30, 2013, while Guadalupe-Gonzalez committed suicide on April 28, also by hanging. Silky Shah with Detention Watch Network, which has often criticized the federal government's use of for-profit prison contractors like CCA, stated, "Clearly, these two individuals, sadly, weren't getting the care they needed." The problem is not confined to the 1,596-bed Eloy prison and also extends to medical care in addition to mental health services. According to the federal government, 131 prisoners died in federal immigration custody from October 2003 to December 2012 as a result of strokes, cardiac arrest and asphyxia, including ten who died at Eloy. One of those deaths was that of another Guatemalan detainee who died after undergoing treatment for diabetes complications caused by untreated hyperglycemia. Many detainees have complained of substandard medical care at ICE facilities. Read More. |
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