[The facility has a history of human rights violations that
compromise the safety, health, and rights of detained people ]
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ICE PRISON IN SOUTH GEORGIA SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN, NOT EXPANDED  
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Meredyth L. Yoon and Azadeh Shahshahani
August 10, 2022
PRISM
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_ The facility has a history of human rights violations that
compromise the safety, health, and rights of detained people _

Several immigration rights organizations have come together in the
recent months to protest Geo Group’s Folkston ICE Processing Center
here in Folkston.,

 

Neal, a Jamaican citizen who owned and operated a yacht servicing
company for 25 years in South Florida, spent 17 months in a prison
that’s been converted into a detention center for immigrants in
Georgia. Speaking to us of his experience at the Folkston ICE
Processing Center, Neal described a prison that lacks basic safety and
care for the people detained there and overall conditions that reveal
a jarring lack of regard for human life.

“That place is not for safety or for human beings—it is just for
money,” said Neal, who wishes to be identified by his first name
only. “I thought this government was going to close down all of
those private ICE prisons. Politicians say anything when they want
votes.”

On June 30, a government investigation of Folkston identified numerous
violations that “compromised the health, safety, and rights”
[[link removed]] of
detained immigrants. The detention center has a history of
mistreating
[[link removed]] detained
people in violation of ICE’s own standards
[[link removed]]. In April 2020,
Folkston was the subject of a lawsuit
[[link removed]] filed
by medically vulnerable individuals detained at the prison, and ICE
prisons run by the GEO Group have been exposed for having deplorable
conditions
[[link removed]] and
a history of egregious human rights violations
[[link removed]].

Neal, who is over 60 years old and has diabetes and high blood
pressure, survived numerous health and safety hazards at Folkston both
before and during the pandemic, including abusive guards, severe
understaffing, medical neglect, squalid and dangerous living
conditions, and spoiled food that gave him food poisoning. Adherence
to COVID-19 protocols was inconsistent at best and nonexistent at
worst, resulting in a high number of cases within the prison. Neal
witnessed numerous instances in which immigrants detained at Folkston
who were having a life-threatening medical or mental health emergency
were denied necessary care. In one instance, a diabetic man went so
long without receiving food that he fell into a diabetic coma. In
another, guards ignored numerous reports that a detained immigrant was
suicidal. When the man later attempted suicide, he was placed in
solitary confinement.

Solitary confinement, which fits the United Nations’ definition of
torture [[link removed]], is
used liberally at Folkston as a one-size-fits-all response to
everything from physical or mental illness to speaking out about foul
conditions or abuse. While Neal was never sent to solitary confinement
himself, he saw other detained people being sent to “lockdown”
approximately two-to-three times a week. The long-term physical and
mental toll incurred by survivors of solitary confinement are well
documented, and, as advocates for people in solitary confinement, we
have witnessed its devastating effects. As Neal recounted, detained
immigrants who were placed in solitary at Folkston emerged emaciated,
sick, and psychologically damaged.

While at Folkston, Neal was prevented from having confidential
meetings with his lawyer and was charged extortionary prices for basic
essentials, such as hygiene products. Deprived of these necessary
goods and sufficient edible meals, detained immigrants were forced to
work for as little as $2.50 a day
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dangerous, unsanitary conditions in order to sustain themselves.
Black, Asian, and Latinx immigrants were treated especially poorly
because of language barriers and racism.

“The racism happens there every day, every day,” Neal said.
“Nothing is going to change there, nothing. The only way it will
change is if it closes down.”

Neal’s account is consistent with what we have known for years as
legal advocates for individuals detained at Folkston. In addition to
the instances Neal described, we know of multiple people who became
severely ill or suffered permanent, debilitating injuries at Folkston
because of unsafe living conditions or delays in emergency medical
treatment. Rather than aberrations, lengthy delays in receiving needed
medical and mental health services at Folkston are the norm, and the
services that are provided are generally sub-par. The Department of
Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General concluded in
a June 30 report
[[link removed]] that
Folkston facilities were “unsanitary and dilapidated” and that the
facility “did not meet standards for facility conditions, medical
care, grievances, segregation, staff [communication with detained
people], and handling of [detained people’s] property.”

Originally opened as a state prison in 1998, Folkston was repurposed
as a detention center for immigrants in 2017 under an
intergovernmental service agreement between Charlton County and ICE.
The GEO Group, the private prison corporation that operates Folkston,
is engaged in preparations to increase the facility’s capacity by
1,800 beds. Adding to over 1,100 beds already in use, the expansion
would make Folkston the largest ICE detention center in the country.
On the heels of the Biden administration ending the ICE contract
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the Irwin County Detention Center, expanding a different Georgia
detention center to detain asylum-seekers and migrants in civil
immigration proceedings with a similar pattern of human rights abuses
defies basic standards of logic and decency.

Folkston has been far from the economic boon touted by local
officials. To the contrary, poverty levels in Charlton County
have increased slightly
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facility was repurposed as a detention center and began devastating
the lives of detained people and their families. Notwithstanding these
circumstances, county officials and business owners have expressed
concerns
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closing the detention center would harm the local economy.

Neal, who was a business owner himself, thinks these concerns are
misguided.

“I understand that the ICE prison is the biggest means of work for
the community, but I don’t think it should be that way within the
sense of having people in detention, punishment, not feeding them
properly, no proper medical facility. [The private prison corporation]
do[esn’t] have any interest in caring for [detained immigrants],
they have interest in putting money in their pocket. Our lives are in
danger, every day, all the time.”

The interconnection between prison economies, rural poverty, and
public health [[link removed]] is
exemplified by the situation in Charlton County, where a quarter of
the population lives in poverty. In 2013, the Charlton County
hospital closed due to “financial instability,” resulting in
both economic and health consequences for residents. Compounding the
effects of the absence of a local hospital, deplorable conditions at
Folkston likely contributed to high COVID-19 rates outside of the
prison; in July 2021, Charlton County had the highest rates of new
COVID-19 infection in the nation
[[link removed]].
Many community members, friends, and family of people we care about
lost their lives.

More than 20 years of private prison administration in the area have
not delivered the economic investment the local community critically
needs. Charlton County currently has the fourth lowest income rate in
Georgia
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the 11th lowest in the country. Instead of going toward a private
prison, the $22.8 million
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federal funds currently enriching the GEO Group should not be ICE’s
to distribute
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should go toward projects that actually serve the local community. The
Biden administration must cease the expansion of the predatory private
prison economy that exists to serve corporations’ bottom lines
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instead prioritize the lives
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immigrants and rural communities.

Expanding Folkston is part of a larger emerging pattern
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detention expansion. Rather than fulfilling campaign promises by fully
halting the incarceration of people in such prisons, the Biden
administration has simply converted those prisons into immigration
detention spaces. The Folkston expansion plans ignore reports of abuse
and inhumane conditions, contradicting DHS Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas’ policy statement
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health and safety standards. The Biden administration must correct
course; it must work quickly to combat the bloated and corrupt
detention system it has helped to expand.

President Joe Biden promised [[link removed]] on the
campaign trail to end the federal use of private prisons and further
issued an executive order
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a federal policy of eliminating the use of privately operated prisons.
Instead, the administration is allowing the expansion of their use
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which has resulted in a drastic increase in the number of detained
people. Although Biden’s proposed reduction in the capacity of
immigration jails
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a step in the right direction, profit-based incentives to incarcerate
must be fully eliminated.

Prison companies are getting around the executive order by rerouting
business
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the detention industry, and they are using local governments
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corporate restructuring to do so.

If the Biden administration truly aims to end private profiteering,
the detention industry cannot continue expanding. We must not allow
the GEO Group, which is currently being investigated, to be rewarded
with a lucrative contract in defiance of federal policy and human
rights.

_Meredyth L. Yoon is Litigation Director at Asian Americans Advancing
Justice – Atlanta. _

_Azadeh Shahshahani is Legal & Advocacy Director at Project South and
a past president of the National Lawyers Guild; she tweets
@ashahshahani._

Prism is an independent and nonprofit news outlet led by journalists
of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of
injustice. Together, our journalists go where justice requires.

Activists, thought leaders, decision-makers, and all those who believe
in justice for all come to Prism for deep reporting and honest
insights on the most pressing injustices of our time—delivered
through the lens of those who are most impacted.

* private prisons
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* deportations
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* Immigrants
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* asylum seekers
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