Austin Chronicle: Lipstick on a Doberman

The Austin Chronicle's Patricia Ruland offers some welcomed analysis of the Williamson County Commissioners' rationale for renewing the T. Don Hutto contract:

On Dec. 23, the Williamson County Com missioners Court reinvented the commissioners' motives for renewing the contract for the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Tay lor, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement incarcerates families, including children, awaiting deportation or related legal procedures. Before voting to renew a 2006 contract naming the county as administrator of the center (and Correc tions Corporation of America as operator), officials described the prison as if it were a home away from home where children laugh and play and are provided plenty of gym equipment and 22 computers.


"The international language, the smile, hasn't been removed from the children's faces," said Precinct 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison. "I talked to a little boy, and he liked it there," said Precinct 2 Commis sion er Cynthia Long. Then came a shout from the audience: "How would you like it if your child was in there?"


The court's newfound humanitarianism stood in stark contrast to its purely financial justification for signing the contract in 2005 and its panic in 2007 over possible county liability for an alleged sexual assault by a guard and employment of undocumented workers at the center. The new court perspective did little to appease the gathered protesters, who still remember when the first children were spotted in prison garb by Taylor residents and who have since sponsored vigils, walks, and forums that have fueled an international outrage over T. Don Hutto as a prison for children. Only Precinct 1 Com mis sion er Lisa Birkman broke with her past record, casting the lone dissenting vote Tuesday.

Ruland also covered Williamson County residents' responses...

During citizens' comments, area residents spoke passionately, and some broke into tears. "I was really shocked to hear about Hutto. I spread the word to any people I know," said Felix Peter Szafran. "Kids are in prison for no reason." Ann Brown noted that CCA's CEO made about $1.8 million last year "on the backs of children," adding, "This is on your conscience – this is on the conscience of everyone in William son County." Retired Methodist Bishop Joe Wilson said, "We have not honored the gracious gift of life."

Jaime Martinez, board member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), also spoke to the Chronicle about President-elect Obama's response to family detention. We covered it last summer, and encourage everyone to make it a priority for the new Obama administration. As Martinez states in the article, Congress has appropriated funds for nonpenal family custody and other models do exist.

Leaving aside the false choice of family separation vs. Hutto, the idea that detaining families is good for children is a flimsy delusion at best. As one WilCo resident asked,

How would you like it if your child was in there?

(Photo by Jana Birchum)

Taylor Daily Press: The T. Don Hutto Question

Philip Jankowski weighed different sides of the T. Don Hutto controversy--jobs, county revenue, and the morality of detaining potential citizens-- in the Taylor Daily Press on Monday:

Today county higher ups will make their most controversial annual decision: whether or not to continue the operation of T. Don Hutto Residential Facility.

The facility draws lines in this community between those who support the detention of those who enter the country illegally and those appalled that our government would keep children in a prison.

In its third year in Taylor, the former medium-security prison is now a lightning rod for the ACLU, who accuses the facility of violating immigrants’ civil rights, and LULAC, who seeks to defend the rights of a prison population whose vast majority is Hispanic or Latino.

It is not my place to pass judgement on the facility or the policies that brought it into existence. Each side’s argument holds merit.

America is a nation of immigrants. Our economy relies on the low-cost labor of illegal immigrants. How can we hold these people behind bars?

Yet with the challenges of a country that faces psychotic insurgents hell bent on causing destruction inside our borders, how can we not detain those who enter it illegally?

Locally, the question of revenue comes to mind. The facility brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue for the city and the school district. It provides well paid jobs for unskilled workers. Corrections Corporation of America has offered continued annual raises to Hutto employees at wages that are more than competitive with typical jobs that do not require a college degree.

But is the financial upside nothing more than selling our morals one tax dollar at a time?

No matter what you call it, T. Don Hutto is a prison. It has 12-foot fences strung with razor-sharp barbed wire. And it is designed for families. Not criminals. Not one immigrant currently housed there is guilty of any other crime than wanting to be an American.

To its credit, the facility has made improvements over its dubious beginnings. It has been redecorated to appear more kid friendly. Detainee turnaround has reduced greatly. Yet some of those improvements were the result of a law suit filed by the ACLU and The University of Texas Law School.

The current freedoms of the facility should have been in place at its opening. Government should not have been forced into treating these children ethically, it should have led the way.

And since then, the facility has continued to linger ominously. Immigrations Custom Enforcement continues to keep security as tight as a snare drum. Reporters are let in once annually.

Even when rarely blessed with positive press, the facility remained closed. In one instance I had a heated back and forth to get in and take a bland and benign photo of a former employee who painted cartoon caricatures on the cinder block walls. In the end, a staff member of the prison ended up taking that photo. It was pretty bad.

Maybe it’s the reporter in me, but the more I’m kept out of a place, the more I feel like something is going on inside that ICE does not want people to see.

Regardless, I do not envy the decision commissioners make today. I expect scores of protesters and people to curse the commissioners’ decision, whatever it is.

Media Coverage of Dec. 20 Toy Delivery

December 24, 2008: The Williamson County Sun* gave extensive front page coverage of Saturday's Toy Drive, including interviews with former detainees who have received asylum and now live in the United States. As you can see from the pictures, hundreds of toys were delivered. But as Denia Borjas points out, received donated toys pales in comparison to receiving gifts from family in the comfort and safety of a home.

The article also notes some of CCA's intimidation tactics--driving past protestors at high speeds, filming the protest, and the inspection of toys prior to delivery. According to the article, there is still some doubt about whether the detainees would receive the toys. If you have information regarding toy delivery, please share it with us...

Thank you to each and all who donated. Please continue to support the closing of Hutto in our "100 events in the first hundred days" campaign! (Check this blog for more information on that in the coming weeks, and contact us if you would like to schedule a film screening, vigil, forum, letter writing, or other event.)

*There is no online version of this article available... please click on the image to view and download a scanned version of the article.

December 22, 2008: New America Media's Roberto Lavalo gives us some "Hope for the Holidays" that begins with the Hutto toy delivery and vigil last Saturday, recounts the Chicago Republic Window factory occupation, and ends with workers' protests for backpay at a San Francisco poultry processings plant. Interviewing Grassroots Leadership's Luissana Santibañez, he writes...

One of the many measures of the hardness of our times can be found in South Texas, where even the simple act of bringing Christmas cheer to children can sometimes require more than just a spirit of charity. In some cases, it often requires the kind of stonecutter's determination one finds in a (Charles) Dickens tale, the determination of someone like Luissana Santinbañez.

"The fact that we're able to bring these toys to children is a huge victory. It took an incredible amount of struggle" says Santibañez, a 25 year-old San Antonio resident who is one of the organizers of a toy drive for children detained along with their immigrant parents behind the concrete walls and barbed wire fences of the T. Don Hutto Detention Center.


"We only got to deliver these toys as a result of lots of litigation and many protests" she says adding "We got to do this because of the community outcry about what's going on behind the walls of those privately-run immigrant detention centers: children and families living in horrific conditions –the lack of medical treatment, the bathrooms without soap, the food with cockroaches, the people dying in detention, the suicides. We can't let them be so cruel to kids; We can't let them hide this."


The "we" Santibañez mentions includes a very broad and diverse group of people of numerous religious, racial, ethnic and class backgrounds, many of whom had never been involved in immigrant rights or any other activism.


The determination exemplified by Santibañez, who got involved in immigrant detention issues after her mother, a former permanent resident detained and eventually deported for allegedly transporting undocumented immigrants, is spreading across the entire country; It mirrors how the plight of immigrants in the United States has given rise to a different kind of hope, a hope rising out of the darkly fertile soil of very hard times.


"I'm committed to this because of people like my mother," she says, her throat trembling with conviction as she also describes how she and her four siblings must rely on one another now that they are "left without a mother." In a country facing colossal challenges – poverty and economic divisions not seen since the Great Depression, fabulous political and corporate corruption surpassing anything seen during the Gilded Age, panic and fear of epic proportions – immigrant stories in the United States are inspiring people around the world.

Williamson Co. Residents Take Action Against Family Detention

On December 9, 2008, Sherry Dana and Mary Ellen Kirsch let the County Commissioners know how they feel about T. Don Hutto.

A group of citizens opposing the renewal of the T Don Hutto contract will address that elected body, again on Dec. 16, during the "Citizen Comments" section of the agenda at the start of the meeting.

Local opposition is growing and becoming more vocal in their determination to end WCCC's involvement in this corrupt contract. Last week saw a number of new faces and heard some forceful new voices opposing the renewal of the county's participation in this tragic abuse of power. The WCCC is in the process of considering the terms of the up-dated proposal and it is essential for them to hear our arguments before the item appears on the agenda for formal approval.

Click here for a speech called "Nativity and Immigration" delivered by retired United Methodist minister, Milton Jordon, on December 7.  He reminds us that Mary and Joseph were immigrants, too, and calls on us to maintain the spirit of hospitality by affirming the civil rights of everyone and welcoming diversity into our communities. 

From Sherry Dana,

As you are well aware, the detention of innocent children violates international law, federal law, and Congressional mandates.

You looked the other way when a detainee was raped by a CCA employee. You were unphased when U. S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks found it inexplicable that defendants spent untold amounts of time, effort, and taxpayer dollars to establish the Hutto family detention program, knowing that a federal ruling required immigration authorities to house children in the least restrictive conditions possible.

You ignored the testimony of the detained children and the results of investigations by reputable organizations such as Lutheran Social Services.

Your concern has not been that abuses were occurring but that the county could be held liable. Rather than showing concern for human rights abuses, you chose to add an indemnity clause requiring CCA to pay for an attorney to defend the county in a lawsuit resulting from these abuses.

A speaker at Sunday's vigil just returned from meeting with Sen. Kennedy's staff about T. Don Hutto, one met personally with Pres. elect Obama about T. Don Hutto. Several weren't with us because they were speaking in Washington D.C. and NYC about T. Don Hutto.

As of January 20th, George Bush, Dick Cheney and Michael Chertoff will no longer be in Washington to protect their friends in the private for-profit prison industry. We will have an administration that has vowed to uphold international law, that respects the judicial system, Congress, and the Constitution.

CCA's lawyers will work to protect CCA, not the county, from liability for our complicity in the inhumane treatment of these innocent women and children.

If you cannot find it in your heart to release these children, then look at your financial responsibilities to the county. Protect us from the financial repercussions that will surely come if you renew the Agreement between Williamson County and CCA to imprison women and children who ask for our help and instead are thrown in a private for profit prison.

From Mary Ellen Kersch:

Each Tuesday, this meeting opens with a pledge to our flag, appropriately declaring “liberty and justice for all, ” and that we are “one nation, under God.” That’s followed with a prayer, submitting to the will of God and the teachings of Christ. But when anything relating to T Don Hutto is on the agenda, this body seems to go into an amnesia state and ends up acting in contradiction to those standards of good government and brotherly love. The Golden Rule is regularly broken whenever the corrupt contract with ICE and CCA is under review.

T Don Hutto family prison does not exist for national security interests, or out of a sense of justice or patriotism; it’s driven by greed. Simple avarice. This contract personifies the corrupt business model of exploiting the very weakest among us to further enrich the most wealthy. At taxpayer expense.

Imprisoning innocent children of God, charged with no crime, is flat out un-American. It’s also un-Christian. (What WOULD Jesus do?)

I’ve previously told you a bit about my own son-in-law’s experience with ICE. That uncontrolled bureaucracy failed to follow their own rules, which they acknowledged, but then just decided to go ahead and punish the victim of their own sloth, anyway. ( I guess maybe the paperwork would have been too much trouble for them.) My family spent several terrified months as a result, during which ICE could have hauled him off, deported him, and/or imprisoned him in T Don Hutto. And it was THEIR error!

Maybe if he’d been a family member of someone on this dais, you’d be less complacent about this corruption for corporate profit. At taxpayer expense.

The fact is that there are humane, effective, and moral-- and far more “Republican”—i.e., “cost-effective,” alternatives to the T Don Hutto, for–profit- prison-for-non-criminal-immigrants. While you didn’t initiate this activity, your failure to require any of those alternatives makes you accomplices.

Well, here’s your chance for redemption: You can vote to remove us from this unholy union and notify the world that we do not put innocent people-- or children-- in prison in Williamson County, Texas.

Austin, Texas: Toy drive for families at Hutto

The University of Texas Immigration Law Clinic is collecting toys for children detained at Hutto, to be delivered close to the Christmas holiday.  Help make their Christmas merry and bright by donating toys made in the USA and  in their original packaging. Hutto could also use:

- books for kids of all ages as well as adults, especially those in Spanish, Arabic, Chaldean, Urdu, Portuguese, and Creole;

- CDs or DVDs (please, no movies rated above PG-13 or with sexual or violent scenes and no music with a parental advisory sticker);

- gently used coats, jackets, sweaters, and other warm clothes for kids or adults;

- phone cards.

Please bring any donations to the next Austin Immigrant Rights Council meeting (Dec. 18, 7-9 p.m. at Cristo Rey Church) OR contact Karla Vargas KMV229 at gmail dot com any time. 

Your gifts are deeply appreciated!

Austin-America Statesman: Human Rights Group Investigates Hutto facility

Never far from the spotlight, Hutto returns again. In today's Austin-American Stateman, Juan Castillo reported that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a group within the Organization of American States (OAS), is in Texas investigating detention, border, and human rights issues. As Castillo reports, the human rights attorney, Denise Gilman, and the UT Immigration Law Clinic requested an investigation last year. For the story, click here.

To learn more about the OAS investigation of Hutto, read this report submitted to the OAS by Gilman and the UT Immigration Law Clinic. The report details family detention policy and the human rights problems documented there. A nice, short backgrounder on the subject...

Melissa Del Bosque, from the Texas Observer, blogged about the border wall investigation, as well.

ICE responds to anti-family detention op-ed

In response to Barbara Hines' op-ed published in the Dallas Morning New opposing new proposed family detention centers, ICE field director Marc J. Moore wrote the following comment:

"Hutto center picture incomplete"

Re: "There's a better way – ICE should not be accepting bids to build new family detention centers, says Barbara Hines," last Monday Viewpoints.

Since its inception, the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center has been a safe and humane alternative to separating the families who enter the country illegally.

Many positive changes have been made. Families have access to high-quality medical, mental health and dental care 24 hours a day. Children attend school seven hours a day with state-certified teachers who provide a curriculum based on state standards. There are many recreational and social activities for all residents and few restrictions on movement throughout the facility.

Many of the conditions mentioned in the column have not existed for some time. The razor-wire fence shown in the picture accompanying the column was removed more than a year ago. ICE has taken a proactive approach to enhancing the facility since it opened. Many of the improvements were in place, under way or planned before the lawsuit referred to in the column was filed.

--Marc J. Moore, field office director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, San Antonio

Now take action!

Please take the time today, if possible, to write a letter to the Dallas Morning News stressing the inappropriate nature of family detention and Hutto. Letters can be sent using the site's online form, and should be 50-200 words in length. Letters can include the following points:

1) Detention of immigrant children and their families is inappropriate, costly, and inhumane. The experience at Hutto, a converted medium security prison operated by a private prison corporation where children as young as infants have been held with their parents, demonstrates that detention of families is a tragic response to the immigration issue. In addition, at an estimated cost of more than $200 a day per detainee at Hutto, the financial cost of such detention is unreasonably high, especially when more humane and cost-effective alternatives exist.

2) Congress has called on ICE to fund alternatives to family detention, saying that detention of immigrant children and their families should be the last alternative, not the first. ICE should be listening to the wishes of Congress and implementing alternatives to detention rather than soliciting new family detention centers. These alternative to detention programs are effective at ensuring that immigrants return to their immigration hearings and are much less costly than detention.

Thank you for your continued efforts to end family detention and close the T. Don Hutto detention center.

Locked and Loaded: CCA, the private jailer and one of Nashville's richest companies, is facing heightened scrutiny after a year of particularly heinou

Read the full article at Nashville Scene. Below are only the excerpts pertaining to Hutto.

by Matt Pulle

Located in a bland, almost anonymous Green Hills office park of fake lakes and fountains is the headquarters of the nation's largest private prison company, which, at the moment, may be the most disparaged corporation in the country. Since its inception in 1983, CCA has encountered legions of angry detractors who believe that the business of punishing criminals should not be—well, a business. But if the company has become accustomed to criticism over the years—like a best-selling author whose novels garner predictably bad reviews—it is now mired in a series of scandals, embarrassments and public-relations catastrophes that may tar its reputation for years to come.

In the last 18 months alone, CCA has been the target of several stinging lawsuits supported by detailed affidavits and third-party reports alleging dangerous and inhumane practices that have put inmates' lives at risk. Whistle blowers, once in positions of trust at CCA, have emerged from the shadows to tell vivid tales of corporate misconduct. Federal authorities have castigated the publicly traded corporation for operating an immigration detention facility in Texas on the cheap. And at that CCA complex—which at one point forced children of immigrant detainees to dress in prison garb—dozens of incarcerated women and children have come forward with gut-wrenching tales of anguish and neglect.

...In 2005, Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division (ICE), ended the practice of "catch-and-release"—which permitted undocumented immigrants like Elsa to remain free at-large while they awaited their day in court. Under catch-and-release, no-shows were common. So after 9/11, the specter of illegal immigrants from all over the world roaming the country became a security issue. Pilot programs sprung up that tracked immigrants with electronic bracelets, though Chertoff went with a draconian plan instead: Throw many of these men, women and children in Hutto, a former medium-security prison that was surrounded by a 15-foot fence topped with rings of barbed wire when it reopened in 2006 as a place for immigrant families.

...Just about every affidavit from a child or mother portrayed Hutto the same way—as a rough and cold place, where kids lie awake at night hungry and crying in the dark. And if they act up, like children often do, a guard would threaten to remove them from their families. To hear the stories from inside the walls, Hutto seems more like a medieval dungeon than a 21st century facility run by a wealthy company.

"The conditions were shocking," says Barbara Hines, a University of Texas law professor who spent many hours inside the facility representing detainees. "There were children in prison garb dressed like their parents; it was like an adult prison system. Seven times a day parents and their children were required to stay in their pods so they could be counted. Laser beams shined through the cells at night."

Just about everyone else who walked through the gates at Hutto, including federal authorities, saw it as a deeply troubling facility. In March 2007, ICE inspectors visited Hutto and, in their own distinct bureaucratic language, corroborated the anguished accounts of the detainees. The inspectors noted that their "overall review of the facility can be accurately rated as deficient" and determined that the staff wasn't following basic standards of detention.

"The Review Team's observation of CCA's overall attitude is of disinterest and complacency in their work performance," the agency noted in its report.

A month later, an interoffice memo from ICE said that at Hutto, CCA is "losing staff as quick as they can hire them." That's because the company was only paying its detention officers around $10 an hour, nearly $4 less than what they could make at the county jail.

"As long as CCA continues to hire employees at this rate per hour, they will continue to experience the problems they are currently experiencing on the floor," read the memo. "The current problems CCA is experiencing are a direct result of what 'they are paying their employees for.' Unfortunately, it is at ICE's expense."

Among other issues, the Scene asked CCA to address the portrayal of Hutto that emerges from both federal officials and the people who lived there. The company declined to comment on any and all matters in this story, instead emailing news clips and a U.S. magistrate's report of the facility. That report, which came three months after the ACLU filed its federal lawsuit, depicted a more humane place than other earlier accounts and noted, "there have been attempts to 'soften' the feel of the building." The magistrate observed that the staff removed door locks and hung murals on the walls, "although the building still retains a very institutional feel."

...By all accounts, Hutto is no longer as oppressive as it was when Elsa and her family first arrived from Honduras. But why didn't CCA get it right from the start? Or to put it more bluntly, why did a rich company—one with $388 million in revenues last quarter—have to be told by the ACLU to cease treating innocent children like criminals?

"The point I'd like to make is that none of these changes were done voluntarily," says Hines, the attorney. "When you look at CCA and ICE, the question is, how would this facility have been if no one found out about it?"

Chertoff challenged on question of Hutto and family detention

Michael Chertoff, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, defended the Bush administration's treatment of immigrants in workplace raids and in detention at a House meeting last week.

By EUNICE MOSCOSO
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Read the full article at the Palm Beach Post.

WASHINGTON — Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday defended the administration's treatment of legal and illegal immigrants during workplace raids and at detention facilities.

Chertoff faced pointed questions from Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., about the treatment of children at immigrant detention facilities at the T. Don Hutto residential facility in Taylor, Texas and and a smaller facility in Berks, Pa.

Sanchez said that children at the facilities had been put in cells alone for hours, awakened in the middle of the night with flashlights in their faces and threatened with being permanently separated from their parents.

Attorneys for several of the children confined at the Hutto facility contended in lawsuits that conditions there were inhumane and violated minimum standards for minors in custody. The case ended in a settlement that included new standards for the centers.

Chertoff said that he couldn't judge the conditions because he "wasn't there," but that "eventually, this was resolved to the satisfaction of the plaintiffs."

Click here to read more about the lawsuit against Chertoff on behalf of Hutto detainees, the ACLU's settlement with the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE's subsequently-published Standards for Family Detention.

New Yorker article on Hutto

The New Yorker feature A Reporter At Large this week has what may be one of the most comprehensive articles on the T Don Hutto facility and the national issue of family detention. Reporter Margaret Talbot's article "The Lost Children" includes discussions of immigrant detention, the role of corporations in lobbying for greater incarceration, the impact of detention on children, and some of the chronology of Hutto's evolution.

The complete article is available free on their website. In the meantime, some highlights from the abstract include:

Hutto is one of two immigrant-detention facilities in America that house families—the other is in Berks County, Pennsylvania—and is the only one owned and run by a private prison company. The detention of immigrants is the fastest-growing form of incarceration in this country, and, with the support of the Bush Administration, it is becoming a lucrative business. At the end of 2006, some fourteen thousand people were in government custody for immigration-law violations, in a patchwork of detention arrangements, including space rented out by hundreds of local and state jails, and seven freestanding facilities run by private contractors.

Last August, the A.C.L.U. settled its suit against the government. The agreement entails a number of changes at Hutto, including eliminating the head-count system, providing pajamas for children, letting kids keep a limited number of toys in their room during the day, making a priority of hiring people with experience in child welfare, and installing curtains around the toilets. In the months before the lawsuit was settled, Hutto had already started making changes: it got rid of the razor wire; expanded the length of educational instruction, first to four, then to seven hours a day; and began allowing detainees to wear their own clothes. Yet it seems unlikely that these changes would have been made without pressure from the A.C.L.U. lawsuit and from advocates like Barbara Hines and her students. The settlement also aimed to get people out of detention faster and stipulated that families at Hutto have their cases reviewed every thirty days, to determine if they could be released on parole or on bond.

It’s clear that Hutto is now a very different, and more humane, place than it was before the lawsuit. But, Gupta says, “it shouldn’t have taken the A.C.L.U. to make the government realize that holding innocent children in a converted medium-security adult prison is a bad idea.”

A separate internal memo, which was obtained by the A.C.L.U., expressed particular concern about the high turnover among employees at Hutto. The memo’s author, whose name is redacted, complains about how hard it was to get straight answers from C.C.A. about staffing. (“Approximately five requests were made.”) The memo goes on to report that, of the three hundred and thirty-eight employees who had been hired since Hutto opened, in May, 2006, two hundred and three had quit or been fired by March, 2007. That meant that “the average length of employment for the 170 critical positions of detention officer, program facilitator, correctional officer, and case manager is 3.01 months. C.C.A. is losing staff as quick as they can hire them.” The memo blames low pay—C.C.A. pays new employees $10.22 an hour, versus the county standard of $14.36. (In general, private prison companies pay considerably less than public prisons.) The memo continues, “Unfortunately, the caliber of some employees at the T. Don Hutto facility is not as high as it should be considering the nature of business that is required in managing a family residential detention facility.”

When we place families in a facility like Hutto, are we punishing them for coming to America? Or are we just keeping them somewhere safe, so that they don’t get separated or disappear while we figure out what to do with them? Or, rather, is our policy to try somehow to combine the practical and the punitive? After all, if the goal was simply to keep track of immigrants, in most cases an electronic monitoring bracelet would suffice. And if the goal was simply to keep families together, we could surely house them in something other than a former prison, in a place where employees are trained in child welfare and kids can get fresh air. The decision to house families in a former prison was, perhaps, not so arbitrary after all. At the meeting that day, Cynthia Long, one of the county commissioners, a woman in a businesslike red blazer and glasses, spoke about keeping families together. But she also said something that probably represented the gut feeling of a lot of people who are angry about illegal immigration. Long said, “The thing we forget is the adults who are being detained have broken the law.” Unfortunately, she went on, children sometimes “have to suffer with the sins of our parents”—“to suffer, if you can call it that, because of their parents’ choices.”

Click here to learn more about the history of T. Don Hutto.

Hutto, Texas

Hutto, Texas (78634) is in Williamson County. So is the T Don Hutto immigrant detention facility. This has been the source of some confusion.

According to Wikipedia, the population of Hutto, TX was 1,250 at the 2000 census but had swelled to 7,401 by the 2005 census estimate. A small town quickly becoming a sleeper community for people working in Austin.

Not to be confused with the T Don Hutto facility, a 512-bed facility designed to hold families. (Named for one of the original founders of the Corrections Corporation of America, the private company that operates the facility.)

And, as far as we can tell, it's thoroughly coincidental that the two happen to lie less than 10 miles apart.

Hutto an issue in Williamson Co Republican primary

Steve Laukhuf, an advertising executive in Round Rock, will be challenging incumbent Lisa Birkman in the Republican Precinct 1 primary for County Commissioner. In addition to to a platform centering on creating a fiscally conservative budget and government accessibility, Laukhuf has publicly opposed the T. Don Hutto facility.

From Melissa Mixon's Feb 14th article in the Austin-American Statesman:

Incumbent Lisa Birkman is being challenged by Round Rock advertising agency president Steve Laukhuf.

Laukhuf, who is chairman of the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce, said his campaign is centered on creating a fiscally conservative county budget, stopping wasteful spending and making government more open and accessible. He said he'd like to have Commissioners Court meetings aired on local television and posted online. He wants to eliminate a rule approved by Birkman and other commissioners in October that requires the public to abide by a dress code during their meetings.

He also said he's opposed to the county's involvement with the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a controversial immigrant detainment facility in Taylor.

Precinct 1 is in the southern central part of the county and includes most of Round Rock, along with parts of Austin, Georgetown and the Brushy Creek Municipal Utility District.

For more analysis, see Texas Prison Bid'ness.

Texas grassroots push to bring Hutto to Democratic caucuses

An opportunity has arisen to bring the issue of the families detained at the T. Don Hutto to the caucuses coming up on March 4th.

Here's how it works: On March 4th, after the polls close, people will gather at their respective precincts for caucuses. Anyone who attends the caucus can introduce resolutions and platform issues. It can help to speak to your County party beforehand if you would like to have all precincts in your area have the resolution in their packet. Once a resolution is submitted, those who attend will debate the proposed resolution as well as vote. If the item is approved, it will be passed on to the County platform committee, which will discuss incorporating the proposal at the County level. At the County level, if approved, it will be forwarded on up to the State level.

More on the process is available at the blogs Grits for Breakfast and Burnt Orange Report. Anyone can introduce a resolution at the caucuses, but it helps tremendously for the resolutions to be submitted in many precincts around the state. It's a great way to get some grassroots publicity for the campaign to close Hutto. Click here for a draft resolution for the Democratic caucuses or view it at Texas Prison Bid'ness. It can can be easily adjusted for the Republican caucuses by changing the party name. If you are planning on submitting the resolution, please email boblibal[at]gmail.com so we can keep track of where the resolutions are being submitted.

Hutto film screening in Taylor

Hutto: America's Family Prison will have its official Taylor debut screening on Thursday, February 28th at The Howard Theatre. Also screening is Heather Courtney's film Los Trabajadores/The Workers. A discussion will follow the screenings, moderated by Taylor resident Jose Orta.

When: Thursday, Feb. 28th. 7pm
Where: The Howard Theatre is located at 308 Main St. Taylor, TX.
What: Screening of Hutto: America's Family prison (filmmaker will be in attendance) and Los Trabajadores/The Workers, plus a discussion on detention and immigration issues with local residents.

Download a flyer containing all the information on the screening.

Click here for MapQuest directions or call the Howard at (512) 352-2995.
Sponsored by the East Williamson County Democratic Club.

Benefit for former Hutto detainee in Houston

This Saturday in Houston there will be a benefit for a former Hutto detainee and her young family. There will be a film screening, discussion, and after party.
Click here to learn more, download a flyer, and hear PSAs on the event.

Saturday, Feb. 9th 7:00pm
Screening at MECA: Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts

1900 Kane Street Houston, TX 77007
Call (713) 802-9370 for directions.
$5-10 donation

Discussion on deportation, detention and our current immigration policy to follow

After-party to benefit MECA and a formerly detained family
($10 includes food and drink tickets)
For more information, contact:
Luissana at 512-968-8738

America's Family Prison to air on local PBS station

An abridged version of the short film "Hutto: America's Family Prison" be airing on TV tomorrow night in Austin. It'll be on the KLRU show Docubloggers at 7:30pm. That's PBS-KLRU, channel 18 or channel 9 if you have cable.

Great opportunity to have your own screening! Get some popcorn, invite some friends, and watch this revealing new short film together.

From the Austin Statesman interview with one of the filmmakers:

Filmmakers Lily Keber and Matt Gossage teamed up to make a documentary after hearing about the facility, and being frustrated by a lack of media attention on the facility, Keber said.

The two started work on the project over the summer, eventually interviewing community activists and families who lived at T. Don Hutto. Part of the film includes an interview with a woman who was pregnant while she was held in the facility. The woman describes how she tried to sneak blankets into her room because she and her children were cold.

Keber said she hopes the film will educate people on what’s happening at the facility as well as nationally with immigration policy.

“Immigrant detention is not something most people are aware of…,” she said. “But, it’s a very topical issue.”

New wing being considered for Hutto

Read the full posting at KLBJ.

This morning, the Williamson County Commissioners will consider a proposal to create a new wing of the T Don Hutto Residential Center. The former prison in Taylor is used by Immigration and Custom's Enforcement (ICE) to detain immigrant families awaiting immigration or asylum hearings.

ICE is suggesting that about half of T Don Hutto be used to detain non-criminal females. Right now, about 250 men, women, and children are being held at the former prison, which has the capacity to hold 500 people.

and from the Houston Chronicle:

Commissioner Cynthia Long said she is comfortable adding more female detainees, saying new measures have been put in place to prevent future incidents. Some of those include more staff training and education on how to operate video and security equipment.

The contract change surprised some residents opposed to the facility.

"I'm so adamant that this is wrong, but I don't know how we can go about changing this mind-set," said Jose Orta, president of the Taylor chapter of League of United Latin American Citizens. "This is just adding more fuel to the fire for us."

Crime without Punishment: Sexual Assault at Hutto

In May of 2007, a guard had sex with a female detainee at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center.
Federal law criminalizes sex between detained inmates and guards, regardless of whether the relations are consensual. However, ICE falls within a loophole- only recently fixed through Congressional action- that prevented the prosecution of the guard.

Following an open records request filed by the Taylor Daily Press, ICE released 80 pages of the investigation (the original document contains over 400 pages, including names, ages, identifying information, a photo of the alleged victim and detailed testimony from both parties. The rest is redacted or blacked out.)

Please read Tessa Mole's whole article in the Taylor Daily Press. Below are highlights.

On Saturday, May 19, a guard was videotaped just before midnight crawling out of a detainee's room, “in an attempt to avoid the (security) camera.” ...Security officers monitoring the cameras saw him leaving the woman's room and contacted CCA supervisors.

According to the ICE reports, later viewings of security tapes show the guard entering the room on two occasions that night - once at 11:29 p.m. and leaving at 11:36, when he is shown “adjusting his pants around the belt area.” He reentered at 11:37 p.m. before crawling out about 10 minutes later.

The outcome of the investigation, which included testimony from both parties, semen samples found on the concrete floor of the room, fingerprints on the toilet seat and sink and surveillance tapes of the common area where the guard patrolled, was nothing.

Both state and federal prosecutors have since said they could not pursue the case.

The guard was immediately placed on administrative leave; he was officially fired the next day.

... the alleged victim's son was in the room during the sexual encounter, according to the ICE report. The son's age was not reported but the victim's room contained a crib.

Jana McCown, first assistant district attorney, said the incident and possible charges of official oppression did not fall under Texas law because T. Don Hutto is a federal detention facility.

NNIRR Conference in Houston

This week in Houston, the National Network on Immigrant and Refugee Rights will be holding its National Conference for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
The conference will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday, January 18, 2008 and will go through Sunday, January 20 at 1 p.m.

Workshops will include:

• Lifting Immigrant Voices in the 2008 Elections
• Racism and Immigration: Bridging Communities in the Post-Katrina Era
• Organizing and Communications Skills Development
• Border and Interior Immigration Law Enforcement
• Globalization and Migration: Addressing "Root Causes"
• Promoting the Human Rights of Im/Migrants
• Immigration, Labor and Workers Rights
• Immigration Policy and Legislation
• Popular Education for Transformative Community Organizing

On Wednesday, January the 16th at 8pm, 5 short films on struggles for human dignity and freedom of movement. Click here for more information including directions, descriptions of films, and flyers or here to hear KPFT's (Houston) interview with the filmmakers and a conference organizer.
Rice Cinema is located on Rice University Campus at Entrance #8, University and Stockton Ave

Government posts standards for family detention

As stipulated in the ACLU and UT Immigration settlement last fall, the government has published federal standards on family detention. Because this practice is so new, there have previously been no standardized guidelines for protocol and accountability. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

Read the Austin-American Statesmen's full report.

By Juan Castillo
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The first-ever federal standards for immigrant women and children held in confinement at facilities in Taylor and Pennsylvania are an improvement, but fall short of ensuring appropriate conditions for families who have committed no crimes, advocates for immigrants and refugees said Friday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Friday posted the 37 new standards on the agency's Web site. They address education, discipline, use of force, medical care, strip searches, sexual assault and prevention, detainee counts and other issues.

..."We commend the Department of Homeland Security for drafting standards that will improve these facilities," said Michelle Brané with the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in New York. "However, we continue to be concerned with many provisions of the standards, particularly that they allow children to be disciplined based on adult prison protocol, including the use of restraints, steel batons and strip searches."