‘Horrific’: Report Reveals Abuse of Pregnant Women and Children at US ICE Facilities
A new report has found hundreds of reported cases of human rights abuses in US immigration detention centers. The alleged abuses uncovered include deaths in custody, physical and sexual abuse of detainees, mistreatment of pregnant women and children, inadequate medical care, overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions, inadequate food and water, exposure to extreme temperatures, denial of access to attorneys, and child separation.
Anti-Immigrant Agenda Means “Unprecedented Growth Opportunities” for GEO Group
On GEO Group’s second quarterly earnings call, the private prison company’s executive chairman, George Zoley, told participants that the company was pursuing “unprecedented growth opportunities” as President Donald Trump rapidly expands the U.S.’s detention and deportation apparatus. The Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation agenda has meant lucrative contracts for GEO Group. The company is under contract for approximately 20,000 beds at 21 facilities, “the highest level of ICE utilization in our company’s history,” Zoley said. The company’s contracts represent “more than one-third of the current ICE detention levels, which we estimate to be approximately 57,000 beds nationwide.”
U.S. Plans to Ease Human Rights Criticism of El Salvador, Israel, Russia
Leaked drafts of the State Department’s long-delayed annual human rights reports indicate that the Trump administration intends to dramatically scale back U.S. government criticism of certain foreign nations with extensive records of abuse. The draft human rights reports for El Salvador, Israel and Russia, copies of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, are significantly shorter than the ones prepared last year by the Biden administration. They strike all references to LGBTQ+ individuals or crimes against them, and the descriptions of government abuses that do remain have been softened.
Women in Prisons Have Been Left Behind in Criminal Justice Reform – Opinion
Although there are more men than women in prison, the growth rate of female imprisonment since 1980 has been twice that of men. Female incarceration in the U.S. has increased by more than 585 percent, and 62 percent of incarcerated women have a child under the age of 18. Mental health is one of the largest differences between incarcerated men and women. As of 2017, 66 percent of women in prison reported a diagnosed history of mental health problems compared to only 35 percent of men.