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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, 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.”
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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