Article by Caylor Roling
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.
In a CCA prison in Taylor, Texas, the federal government is incarcerating whole families in a former medium-security prison. Children incarcerated in the T. Don Hutto Detention Facility were allowed only one hour of recreation a day behind cyclone fences and barbed wire, and twenty minute mealtimes, with no other nutrition offered during the day. Many were not allowed to go outside at all during December of last year.
Conditions are supposed to improve, thanks in part to a lawsuit filed in federal court in March. Earlier this year the razor wire encircling the prison was removed. In April, a federal judge ruled that the prison is likely in violation of standards previously set for the confinement of children in immigration cases.
A previous court case from 1997 established that children should be housed in non-secure settings such as with relatives or in foster homes, rather than in prison. Although the judge did not order the release of the close to 200 children held at T. Don Hutto, he did affirm that the immigrant families were “highly likely” to prevail in this case, and set an August 2007 trial date.
This can’t be good news for operators of this prison, since they may adversely affect the market for incarcerating immigrants, which has been on the rise since after September 11, 2001. But, for the children of people awaiting their immigration hearings, it may be a little good news in an otherwise bleak situation. However, these children will still be in prison for many more months, what might feel like a lifetime through the eyes of an eight-year old.