Non-violent immigrant prisoners at Reeves Detention Center in Texas took resistive action on two separate occasions this year. Inmates tired of the inhuman treatment and being denied due process, broke cell windows, ripped sinks off the walls, and took two-prison guards hostage. Inmates were upset with every aspect of the prison including the lack of medical attention, inedible food, legal resources, the use of solitary confinement to punish people who complained about their medical treatment, and overcrowdings. Reeves Detention center is a privately run prison outside of Pacos Texas housing some 1,200 inmates.
The final straw was the death of a 32-year old inmate named Galindo, who suffered from seizures and asked for medication and medical treatment on several occasions. He later died due to complications and lack of treatment. Galindo wrote home explaining to his family that he would die there because he was not receiving the attention for his medical condition. The cause of the death was ruled as an epileptiform seizure disorder. The death of Galindo outraged the inmates who then started the revolt. After it was all over one million dollars worth of damage was done to the detention center.
Title: The Pecos Insurrection: How A Private Prison Pushed Immigrant Inmates To The Brink.
Source: The Texas Observer, October 2, 2009
URL: http://www.texasobserver.org/features/the-pecos-insurrection
Author: Forrest Wilder
Student Researcher: Jameka Rothschild-Ballard
Faculty Evaluator: Tyron Woods Ph.D.
Sonoma State University: Sociology of Media, Fall 2009
Instructor: Peter Phillips, #22
Surprising this is such a highly rated article without any comments. Private Prisons!? That is just wrong. This is one of many examples why private organizations cannot be put in charge of civil services. It isn’t profitable to serve everyone equally, they must cut corners. They treat people as commodities. I’m surprised they aren’t putting these people to work sort of like Convict Leasing back at the end of slavery. That is probably the next step.
“Convict leasing” now known as mandatory prison work, often for the U.S. military at in-prison factories, exists at many U.S. prisons.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. Ironically, this might be used to disallow work in prisons for immigrants where people aren’t technically convicted of crimes yet? What do people think?
Lastly, this is a nonprofit trying that glosses over mandatory, inhumane work conditions, but still informative listing of work programs:
http://www.justicefellowship.org/key-issues/issues-in-criminal-justice-reform/prison-work-programs