'Akin to Torture': For-profit immigrant prison singles out
Black men for solitary confinement after peaceful protest
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Liz Vinson | Read the full piece here
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Friend,
Following a peaceful rally protesting the living conditions and
abusive treatment at a rural, privately operated immigrant prison in
southern Georgia, guards selected three Black men to punish, forcing
them to spend a month in isolation.
The men were ordered to spend 32 days in solitary confinement for 23
hours a day. One man - Garsumo Dorley, 34 - was sentenced
to an additional 22 days after asking to see his psychiatrist, leaving
him in segregation for a total of 54 days.
"It's like being an animal in a cage," said Dorley,
a native of Liberia. "That didn't sit right with me at
all. What did I do to deserve this? What can I do in a cage? I
don't know; I've been through a lot, but that's at
the top of it."
Locked up alone in a bright, concrete cell with a heavy metal door,
Dorley had nothing to do. Fluorescent lighting shined most of the day,
which made sleeping difficult.
While in segregation at Folkston ICE Processing Center -
operated by the for-profit prison corporation GEO Group - Dorley
said he was also assaulted by a guard. He filed a grievance, but
guards simply responded with threats like, "It's
on."
Another man, Michael Dufay, suffered an asthma attack and was denied
an inhaler, despite repeated pleas, when the men were locked out in
the sun after the protest. Dufay's name has been changed in this
story to protect his identity.
Maura Finn, lead attorney for the SPLC's Southeast Immigrant
Freedom Initiative
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, which provides free legal service for immigrants detained in
facilities controlled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), said the treatment was nothing short of abuse.
"These men - Black men - were dehumanized simply for
asking to be treated and spoken to with respect," Finn said.
"Dorley and Dufay were punished in a way akin to torture,
especially for those suffering from mental illness. ICE's
refusal to help Dufay or provide medical assistance was not only
egregious but dangerous. Sadly, this alarming abuse of individuals in
ICE custody is the rule rather than the exception."
In fact, another ICE facility in Georgia - Irwin County
Detention Center, also privately operated - was closed in May
2021 after human rights groups exposed medical abuse against migrant
women and other abuses as well. And earlier this month, the SPLC and
other human rights organizations filed an administrative complaint
against Stewart Detention Center, also in Georgia, alleging a pattern
of sexual assault by a male nurse and retaliation against women who
reported it.
Inhumane treatment
The protest at Folkston took place on April 1. Dorley and Dufay were
among 15 men who sat in the yard while a peaceful rally took place
outside the facility's fences.
Afterward, the men seated on the lawn considered returning inside.
Instead, they refused to leave after a guard with a reputation for
demeaning immigrants began to insult them. Then they were locked out
for nearly three hours in the hot sun and denied food and water.
On April 17, a five-person "extraction team" went to
Dorley's cell, even after he told the guards he would willingly
go to solitary confinement. Dorley said the team entered his room,
slammed the door and tackled him.
"I tried to tell them I would go with them, but they
wouldn't listen," Dorley said. "They twisted my
arms, cuffed my wrists and ankles. Afterward, I was bruised all over,
I couldn't open my jaw."
READ MORE
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