Immigration and Immigrant Detention

Kathleen Pequeño spoke with Angela Arboleda, Associate Director for Criminal Justice Policy with the National Council of La Raza, about over-representation of Latinos in prison, jail, and immigrant detention thanks to “incarceration fever.” NCLR is the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, and Angela spoke with us by phone from Washington, DC.

"I've got several potato warehouses that would love to have a crew of 15 to 20 inmates to offset the labor shortages. We don't have enough inmates." That quote is from Lt. Jim Woolf whose job is to oversee prison labor in Idaho.

Private prison corporations are innovating and going after new markets which, in “corporate speak,” means they’re looking for more people to lock up. They’ve found profits and more profits in the form of undocumented immigrants that come with a profitable bonus: their children.

Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Guisto is proposing that Multnomah County move into the prisons-for-profit business, renting an existing jail to the Geo Group, one of the country’s largest private prison companies. But is that the future we want for Oregon and Multnomah County? Let’s ask and answer some questions about this proposal to move Oregon into the prison-for-profit business.

There are bright murals and playground equipment behind cyclone fences and razor wire in a new prison in Taylor, Texas, but the child-friendly accessories aren’t for the visiting area. They’re for the children who live in this prison with their families. The prison is one of two private prisons built and run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to incarcerate people waiting for deportation hearings and their families.