On this edition of Social Justice Television we travel down to the Northwest Detention Center at 1623 East J Strteet Tacoma, Washington to talk with family members of detainees who are being held at the this privately owned immigration prison. We also speak with activists who are trying to draw attention to their plight by holding vigils on the second Saturday of every month outside the prison.
In investigating this story we found out that not only is this facility owned and operated by one of the most notorious providers of corporate owned and operated privatized detention prisons but that the facility was built upon the highly toxic remains of a meat packing plant were benzene was discovered in the ground resulting in it being designated a U.S. Superfund cleanup site. We discovered a common pattern of people who end up in this facility is that they were found guilty of some petty transgression like overstaying a Visa or traffic violations which gave law enforecment a legal opening to enter their lives and incarcerate. Very few of the detainees are there because of commiting serious crimes worthy of this type of harsh treatment.
The private corporation GEO Group Inc,. http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/global.asp has a contract with the Department of Homeland Security and I.C.E ( Immigration Customs and Enforecment) to operate this detention facility on behalf of the U.S. Government. This is part of a new disturbing trend of what people are calling the new "Prison Industrial Complex", where private corporations are making profits from imprisoning citizens and non-citizens. The GEO Group has facilities world-wide including Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Here is alink to a list of their facilities http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/global.asp
The following article Home-Grown Gitmo By William Fisher at Truthout.org http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020907K.shtml
details the origins of this company and others like it and how they profit from the suffering of the detaineeds and exploit their labor to keep the cost of opoerations abnormally low resulting it profits for it's investors and shareholders. It also documnents the numerous allegations of torture, beatings, theft and sexual abuse of detainees by guards.
In the second part of today's show we go to the Port of Tacoma to witness the growing protest of the Stryker Brigades being loaded onto ships for deploymnent to Iraq as part of the Bush Administrations troop surge.
